G Brooks-Zak, P.E.

so... he's making a point that we are currently using as an elephant in the room. I know damn well we are not ripping out plcs that aren't completely obsolete. I know the reality of the plants in the US. At what point however are we going to let go of what got us here? I have been MEAN to IT for lots of reasons and I have rejected any mention of industry 4.0. I have tried to be OT advocate and scoff at digital tranformation. Thomas isn't specifically talking about Industry 5.0 even. But I'm starting to feel a shift in manpower. I am not an Economist but it appears the jobs are going into industry 5.0 which means all the industry 4.0 jobs with the machine learning and artifical intelligence combined. Industry 4.0 was about connecting ERP and CRM and MES and SCADA and PLC and HMI and WMS and the cloud together. Industry 5.0 is feeding that to Machine machine learning and AI. I am finally admitting I was wrong about digital transformation... this wasn't easy and I know it won't be a popular call.

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When you inherit a PLC program that looks like a plate of spaghetti... 🍝 vs. When you open a well-structured, commented PLC program. 😌 We've all been there, right, automation engineers? Untangling someone else's convoluted code can be a nightmare. Spaghetti code, with its lack of organization and comments, can lead to hours of frustration, costly downtime, and even safety hazards. ⚠️ On the other hand, a clean, well-documented program is a thing of beauty. It's easy to understand, modify, and troubleshoot, saving time and money in the long run. ✨ Remember, good PLC programming practices are essential for efficient and safe automation. Let's strive for clarity and organization in our code! 👍 #PLC #Programming #Automation #SpaghettiCode #CleanCode #Engineering #AutomationEngineer

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I'm doing all this because nobody did it for me: Behold a "PLC" or Programmable Logic Controller. As the name implies it is programmable. Humans made this up so we could automate things we were already doing. We started with really basic control of discrete signals and then figured out PID Controls with analog signals. Traditional PLCs pre Digital Revolution didnt consider Cybersecurity whatsoever and all the network switches in control cabinets were unmanaged. You will find PLCs normally in metal cabinets next to machinery, in the machinery itself or in MCCs motor control centers. They all have several small indicator lights especially a "run" light indicating the plc is running a program continuously. PLCs replaced relay and pneumatic control. Post Digital Revolution PLCs are designed with Cybersecurity in mind as and there are now safety rated PLCs for processes and machines that have been deemed extra risky. We have started replacing some traditional PLCs with IPCs or industrial PCs. There is no limit to what types of machines PLCs can control but for a long time people where afraid of reliabitly of pc based control for machinery. The original plc programming language was ladder logic but today you can program most PLCs in more than one way including combining languages. Structured text, funtion blocks and other languages are now available in development platforms for various plcs. Traditionally the software to program PLCs was not open so you had to buy it from the manufacturer of the hardware. Thats starting to change. PLCs are little brains that make decisions based on instructions that we write. If I want to interlock a fill valve with a tank level for example I could program into a PLC to close a valve when the level of the tank is X. This would prevent further filling of the tank. When the level reached some lower safe level I could instruct the plc to open the fill valve again. If you like this content please follow Process & Controls Engineering, LLC Automation Ladies

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A question for the community... Why do you think, in 2024, it is so difficult to walk into a manufacturing facility and observe actual interoperability -- both horizontally (across a layer of the stack like PLC/HMI) and vertically (up and down the stack, like SCADA to MES)? I'll reserve my comments for the comment section -- but I want to know what your thoughts and experiences are. To spark the conversation... here are just a small sample of 'standards for interoperability' we have in industry. PLC/HMI - IEC 61131 - IEC 61508 - ISO 13849 - OPC UA SCADA -IEC 61850 -IEC 60870-5 -IEEE 802.3 -ISA-99, 95, 88 MES -ISA-95 -IEC 62264 -MESA B2MML ERP -UBL -B2MML -ISO 19510 -ISO 9001 Cloud -ISO 27017 -ISO 27018 -ISO 17788 -IEEE 2302-2021 -NIST SP 500-291 General -OPC UA -CIP How many of you consult any of these standards when you are solving a problem on the plant floor? How many of you are fluent in any of these standards? How much work would it require to stay fluent in more than 3 of these standards, including updates and extensions? Fire away -- your responses are important. #digitaltransformation #iiot #industry4 ProveIt! Conference Matthew Parris Rick Bullotta Aron Semle

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Stumbled across this article I wrote in 2019. While parts of it have aged like milk, 5 years later the adoption of OPC UA is certainly growing! In the energy market, we're seeing increased adoption in wind and solar farms as well as VPPs, and believe it or not, there's now a companion spec for IEC 61850 protocol. Leaders in cloud integration are now supporting OPC UA protocol for industrial and energy applications. Is OPC UA really going to become the one protocol to rule them all? There seem to be some signs. What do you think?

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*****this one will be spicy***** Why does knowing PLC and HMI not mean you know SCADA and why does knowing SCADA not mean you know PLC and HMI? They connect to eachother so what's the problem? The problem is job function and process or machine knowledge. I started really getting into PLCs as the programmer for machinery OEMs. PLC Programmers write instructions into controllers based on written descriptions of how the IO is supposed to work. Then they connect those PLC tags to HMI objects so we can visualize what the PLC can see (inputs) and what it's doing (outputs) You can just as easily start at the end user like a factory as an applications engineer maintaining scada that just connects to plcs that OEMs put there. These engineers are concerned with the data from the PLCs but not the process or machinery that the PLCs control. SCADA engineers spend their time updating historians, scada screens, alarms, call text and email notifications based on alarms and just about everything else you can do inside a virtualized server. This difference in skills is commonly thought to overlap and it's not fun when these differences come to light. Typically problems can't be fixed revealing missing skills sets. PLC Programmers BTW don't necessarily know how to design control panels. This comes to light during commissioning if troubleshooting is needed and the lead can't read wiring drawings to prove physical issues. Theres a lot to Good OT people. We have to know field devices and machinery, operators, maintenance personell, process engineers, PLC and HMI programming, control panel design, and SCADA, servers, Virtualization and industrial networking. The idea behind OT SCADA CON was to give a taste as to just how vast OT is and who the active experts are. There is no such thing as an "OT Expert" because we don't live to be 300 years old...

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There was issues with the power supply and some IO but there's 5 more of these left and we've fixed the issues. Kortni Pendon is making sure everyone receives the right parts. $1000. for a plc, hmi, power supply, solenoid, pilot light, ethernet hub, pushbutton, proximity switch and photoeye, din rail, and wire. https://lnkd.in/geeSUbiC

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****What do I know about OT data and how to use it to get ahead? **** I was once asked to help get a customer a custom heat exchanger skid to work with low pressure steam. So I designed a heat exchanger skid. I did the energy and material balances to size the pump, heat exchanger, steam control valve and all the instrumentation (mainly pressure and temperature.) I decided the size of the piping and all the flow rates it was going to maintain. I worked with vendors and application engineers to get the right HX, valve and pump, steam traps, hand valves, piping and fittings ordered in our company procurement system. I then brought all those process Instruments to intrinsically safe barriers and the pump motor to a hybrid motor starter. I designed the control panel and the motor power circuits as well. I then programmed all of that into a an allen bradley PLC and HMI. I made it so the HMI showed a picture of the pump curve so operators could still know the flow rate because I was measuring the pressure differential across the pump. I created Alarm messages to make sure operators could see exactly what faults were keeping them from running. I performed a Factory Acceptance Test with the operators and adjusted the HMI according to what made sense to them. The data can't stop here if it's going to be used for Predictive Maintenance. We can connect servers to PLCs and collect all the data from them to display in real time (on PC monitors) AND to bring it back to a database. This means that we can collect the history of the Skid while it was operating and we can watch what it's doing from a control room or even further today. An Manufacturing Execution System can take the vibration data and amperage data from the pump and tell you when it's time to check it out. Anyway I talk about automation because I do really know where it starts and where it COULD end if you're ready for Digital Transformation. The data behind that heating function and it's equipment above is move valuable than the product its helping produce... Industry 5.0 is feeding PLC, SCADA, MES, ERP, CRM, WMS data into AI and ML and getting spooky accurate data to put you ahead of people stuck on SCADA that's doesn't even talk to their ERP. Lets sit down and talk about how we could move what feels like an immovable object together? Its going to take buy in from all your people on every level. Process & Controls Engineering, LLC

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People Overcomplicate Learning PLCs . Listen if you are a beginner . Avoid 1) Stop diving into advanced programmes like STL or SFC 2) Trying to master every single brand (Siemens, Allen Bradley, etc.) simultaneously 3) Diving complex industrial applications concept 4) Not focusing on electrical and control system concepts. . Instead 1) Make sure you focus on one PLC platform  Siemens (TIA Portal) or Allen Bradley (RSLogix). 2) Focus on ladder logic programming its totally friendly 3) Master the basic of input/output modules 4) Learn how to connect sensors and actuators 5) Make sure you build a simple program like turning on/off a motors . Once you are confident ,then move to advanced topics like PID control, HMI integration, or communication protocols . #plc #linkedin

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What is a PLC? What does "Programmable Logic Controller?" actually mean? I like to break it down into software or the "PL" parts and then the hardware or "C"controller parts. Programmable Logic means we can customize it via programming. Just like a programmer can program a website to do things a PLC programmer can program custom Logic for a PLC to carry out anything we want it to. We call those Logic instructions. For example If I want a fill valve to close when my tank level is a certain height, I can program that into a PLC. I have to wire the tank level sensor and the valve solenoid to my PLC but I can thereafter control that function for as long as the PLC is running and properly connected to its inputs (tank level) and outputs (valve). Traditionally the manufacturer of the PLC hardware has always also sold the software needed to develop these programs of Logic institutions and corresponding IO configurations. An IO configuration defines in the software what hardware modules the PLC will be using as past of its control. There are combination cards but mostly we buy them as multiples of some base with a different module for each type of IO. The most common types are relay output, 24vdc outputs, discrete input cards, analog output cards and analog input cards, also thermocouple cards. In North America Allen Bradley PLC by Rockwell Automation is king.

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You gotta love these “intelligent” overload DEVICENET relays… We were troubleshooting a system this week that got hit by a surge, we found that half of an analog input card was fried, and also these nice Dnet overload things that were accidentally swapped between buckets 🪣 and, of course, were different sizes… But let’s leave this alone for a moment, and let’s focus on the functionality of these devices… As much as I love to automate stuff, I also preach “keep it simple”, where complexity is not needed, don’t put in there. In this particular case, we have dials on the front of the device, where people think is the OVL setup, but instead is your node number, and of course, if any condition changes, like a different motor size or equipment wearing out, if you don’t have a laptop with Rsworxs and know how to use it, you are screwed… When you have a NEMA starter kit, keep it the way it was designed initially. Who agrees with me on this? #devicenet #automation #simplified #controls #overload #troubleshooting

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When programming Logix PLCs - Why don’t I use Double Integers for everything anymore?   Back in the day, packing data into DINTs made sense for memory efficiency -especially if you weren’t using AOIs or UDTs. But since v20.19 (2017), BOOLs in structures like AOIs, UDTs, or Arrays no longer take up 32 bits each.   Using aptly named Boolean tags instead of bits isn’t just about memory - it’s about making troubleshooting easier. Clear, meaningful names save time by removing the need for "decoder rings" to figure out what’s going on in the code.   Plus, with named BOOLs, you can pack more into smaller, purpose-built structures. For example, mapping AOI tags into a UDT with a SINT and a handful of BOOLs keeps everything clean and can still compile down to 32 bits.   The best part? Smaller tags mean less data moving across your network to HMI, SCADA, IIoT platforms, and Historians. Those savings add up fast.   It’s not just about what’s efficient for the processor - it’s about what’s efficient for the whole solution. How do you structure your tags?   #PLCProgramming #IndustrialAutomation #ControlSystems    

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Engineers, you won’t succeed. 🎯 Because you are treating SCADA systems as a massive blunder. ⚡ You think you need these things: 1️⃣ You don’t need enough cost to set it up. 2️⃣ You don’t require a degree to understand it. 3️⃣ You don’t need many people to set up those billion-dollar facilities. First of all, you don’t need to overcomplicate SCADA. 💡 You just need to simplify data visualization. 📊 If you simplify your data visualization, you won’t overcomplicate SCADA. 🔄 Efficiency, cost savings, and simple operations can be a game-changer for you. 🚀 Are you looking to simplify your SCADA strategy? 🤝 DM "SCADA" 📩 #SCADA #Engineer

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Ali G Electrical Control Panel Design Masterclass I made up a "masterclass". I always felt I was stronger on hardware than programming despite knowing both. If you buy early bird tickets to 2025 OT SCADA CON (Houston July) you will get a massive discount on this class and you can take it the 2 days leading up to OT SCADA CON. OVERVIEW OF TOPICS (1)How to develop IO Lists (2)Types of Devices and Signals -IO (3)Sizing PLC and IO modules types (4)Intro to Ladder Diagrams (how to read them) (5)Wire Colors According to NFPA79 (6)Conductor Sizing according to NEC/NFPA70 (7)Motor Control Design, VFDs, Soft starts and Contactors, hybrid motor starters and servos (8)Power Distribution & Branch Protection -Main Disconnects (9)Control Transformers and Power Supplies (10)IO Wiring & Interposing Relays (11)Wiring Specialty Controllers like Burner Safety Relays or Process controllers, limit controllers (12)Considerations for safety circuits, redundancy, Safety PLC, Programmable safety relays, Safety relays (13)Network Architecture drawings (14)Terminal Blocks and Accessories (15)Wireway, Din Rail and device mounting (16)Wire Ferrules and Types of wire Labels (17)Enclosure Lights, programming ports, power receptacles and tables for maintenance or programming personnel (18)Enclosure Sizing and temperature control (19)Control Panel Bill of Materials (20)Enclosure and Back Panel Layouts (21)Labels and Nameplates (22)How UL508a and Efile numbers work (23)UL698A considerations for control panels with circuit extentions to Hazardous Classified locations (24) How to order parts and build control panels, tools and ergonomics

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Ali G Electrical Control Panel Design Masterclass I made up a "masterclass". I always felt I was stronger on hardware than programming despite knowing both. If you buy early bird tickets to 2025 OT SCADA CON (Houston July) you will get a massive discount on this class and you can take it the 2 days leading up to OT SCADA CON. OVERVIEW OF TOPICS (1)How to develop IO Lists (2)Types of Devices and Signals -IO (3)Sizing PLC and IO modules types (4)Intro to Ladder Diagrams (how to read them) (5)Wire Colors According to NFPA79 (6)Conductor Sizing according to NEC/NFPA70 (7)Motor Control Design, VFDs, Soft starts and Contactors, hybrid motor starters and servos (8)Power Distribution & Branch Protection -Main Disconnects (9)Control Transformers and Power Supplies (10)IO Wiring & Interposing Relays (11)Wiring Specialty Controllers like Burner Safety Relays or Process controllers, limit controllers (12)Considerations for safety circuits, redundancy, Safety PLC, Programmable safety relays, Safety relays (13)Network Architecture drawings (14)Terminal Blocks and Accessories (15)Wireway, Din Rail and device mounting (16)Wire Ferrules and Types of wire Labels (17)Enclosure Lights, programming ports, power receptacles and tables for maintenance or programming personnel (18)Enclosure Sizing and temperature control (19)Control Panel Bill of Materials (20)Enclosure and Back Panel Layouts (21)Labels and Nameplates (22)How UL508a and Efile numbers work (23)UL698A considerations for control panels with circuit extentions to Hazardous Classified locations (24) How to order parts and build control panels, tools and ergonomics

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Ali G Electrical Control Panel Design Masterclass I made up a "masterclass". I always felt I was stronger on hardware than programming despite knowing both. If you buy early bird tickets to 2025 OT SCADA CON (Houston July) you will get a massive discount on this class and you can take it the 2 days leading up to OT SCADA CON. OVERVIEW OF TOPICS (1)How to develop IO Lists (2)Types of Devices and Signals -IO (3)Sizing PLC and IO modules types (4)Intro to Ladder Diagrams (how to read them) (5)Wire Colors According to NFPA79 (6)Conductor Sizing according to NEC/NFPA70 (7)Motor Control Design, VFDs, Soft starts and Contactors, hybrid motor starters and servos (8)Power Distribution & Branch Protection -Main Disconnects (9)Control Transformers and Power Supplies (10)IO Wiring & Interposing Relays (11)Wiring Specialty Controllers like Burner Safety Relays or Process controllers, limit controllers (12)Considerations for safety circuits, redundancy, Safety PLC, Programmable safety relays, Safety relays (13)Network Architecture drawings (14)Terminal Blocks and Accessories (15)Wireway, Din Rail and device mounting (16)Wire Ferrules and Types of wire Labels (17)Enclosure Lights, programming ports, power receptacles and tables for maintenance or programming personnel (18)Enclosure Sizing and temperature control (19)Control Panel Bill of Materials (20)Enclosure and Back Panel Layouts (21)Labels and Nameplates (22)How UL508a and Efile numbers work (23)UL698A considerations for control panels with circuit extentions to Hazardous Classified locations (24) How to order parts and build control panels, tools and ergonomics Process & Controls Engineering, LLC

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𝐔𝐩𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐯𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲: 𝐈𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬. Starting in early August, I have a couple of Ignition developers who are looking for their next project. We are a little ahead of the client and they need some time to catch up. Do you need some good developers? Who can sit down and start deploying with minimal ramp-up? 🔵 Inductive Automation Ignition SCADA 🔵 Perspective 🔵 System Upgrades 🔵 MES 🔵 OPC UA 🔵 MQTT or if you're looking for training and upskilling. Let me know and we'll do what we can to help. ********** Follow Dave Griffith and 🔔. Follow Manufacturing Hub Network for new episodes. #automation #manufacturing #SCADA #Ignition

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6 Tips to Optimize PLCs in Packaging Lines ➡️Optimize Scan Time – Configure PLCs for faster processing in high-speed lines. ➡️Integrate Fault Detection – Monitor real-time data to prevent costly breakdowns. ➡️Apply Modular Code – Use flexible programming for easy updates and scalability. ➡️SCADA Integration – Centralize real-time tracking and performance data. ➡️Use Predictive Maintenance – Leverage sensor data for proactive maintenance. ➡️Standardize Communication Protocols – Streamline data flow between machines. Maximize efficiency, minimize downtime, and keep your packaging line running smoothly.✅

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How You Should NOT Act on SCADA? 1) You are ignoring security updates 2) You are using outdated hardware 3) You are skipping training . How You Should Act on SCADA a) Make sure you are writing educational content around SCADA b) Make sure you are sharing common challenges to solve common challenges c) Make sure you are posting case studies related to how modern SCADA improves your performance d) Always remember brand differentiates you . If you post related to SCADA content: 1) People gonna trust you 2) People gonna engage with your product . #scada

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