I have been an electronics technician for about 40 years, and am finding myself in need of the education required to analyze PLC programs in order to repair assembly line equipment and peripherals. The jobs I am seeing don't require one to do the programming, just be able to interpret it. Any ideas about books, etc. would be helpful. There is a ton of stuff out there, but I'm looking for the most bang for my buck.

 

Look here: http://www.plcs.net/
and here: http://www.plcs.net/store.shtml

 

It shouldn't be much of a leap if it's ladder logic, that resembles the ordinary ladder diagrams you might see on an appliance. There is a free PLC book by Hugh Jack. http://engineeronadisk.com/book_plcs/ and much free material on the web. Many of the manufacturers offer free material as well.

Structured Text and Flow Chart would be easier if you have a little programming experience but generally, it's all fairly simple and not unlike tracing logic circuits. Logic is what it's all about for the most part, and analog is very much like linear circuits.

Regards
cww

 

Hi Rick,

I recommend this book for you to learn

http://www.cfdvs.iitb.ac.in/download/Docs/verification/course/plcbook.pdf

Regards
Ikhtiander

 

your best bet might be to acquire a plc of the type you most commonly work on and just try programming simple things. like making a light blink, or a series of lights blink in some predetermined sequence.

most manufacturers have at least some material available to help you.

 

Different brands of PLCs have completely different ways of programming. You need to look for specific help for your brand. Some are easy to find help manuals on, others are not.