If you search "how to program a PLC," you'll find a hundred videos that show you how to turn on an output. Knowing how to program a seal-in circuit is great, but it won’t make you a professional PLC programmer.
That’s where this series comes in.
In it, I’ll be showing you how to write production-ready PLC code and HMI applications. By the end of it, you will have built a project that an OEM would be happy to ship and an end-user would be happy to receive.
Now, let’s look at what we’ll be building.
In this series, we will be developing the code for the assembly machine shown here.
Bases come in on one conveyor, lids on another, a two-axis pick-and-place assembles them into a finished part, and the finished part is transported away.
This is not a very complicated machine, but by building out the controls for this machine we will get to see what it actually takes to develop production-ready PLC code and HMI applications.
We’ll be using a few different tools to build out the controls for this machine.
First, we’ll be using Application Code Manager to put the project together. If you haven’t heard of it, Application Code Manager is a tool that lets you define the structure of a machine and generate code for Studio 5000 Logix Designer from that definition.
Next, we’ll use Studio 5000 Logix Designer to extend Application Code Manager’s output with project-specific logic.
After finalizing the project-specific logic, I’ll be using an emulated Logix 5000 PLC running in FactoryTalk Logix Echo to test the project.
If you don’t have access to Logix Echo, you can also follow along here with a physical Logix 5000 PLC.
Finally, I’ll be connecting my emulated PLC to a Factory IO model to show how the PLC code and HMI application that we’re developing actual interacts with a physical machine.
The best PLC programmers I know are lazy. They never reinvent the wheel when an existing solution is available. That’s why we’ll use both Device Object Libraries and Machine Builder Libraries from Rockwell Automation in this series.
These are free libraries of PLC code and HMI objects that are developed, tested, and maintained by Rockwell Automation. By using them, a controls engineer can massively reduce the amount of time that it takes to engineer, commission, and troubleshoot a machine.
We’ll talk about the content of these libraries in more detail later on, but the basic split is this:
Device Object Libraries provide the PLC code and HMI objects to interact with Rockwell Automation hardware. For example, this library contains the objects that we can use to talk to a PowerFlex 525 drive.
Machine Builder Libraries provide an equipment control framework for machines. For example, this library contains the objects that we can use to implement a PackML state model for the overall machine.
We’ll be building the controls for this machine in an agile way. That means that we’ll do a small piece at a time and test each change to see if it works.
That’s not necessarily how an OEM develops the controls for a machine, but it will let me keep each tutorial in the series short and focused on a single topic.
Something you have probably picked up by now:
This isn't a beginner series. It is a series that’s designed to help people with PLC programming knowledge go from the beginner to intermediate or advanced level.
To follow along with the series, you will need to be comfortable in Studio 5000 and understand the basics of PLC programming.
Before we do anything else, we’ll need to download the required libraries that we’ll use in this series.
In the next video, we’ll walk through how to download those libraries and explore the structure of both the Device Object Libraries and Machine Builder Libraries.
If you want to learn how to build production-ready code for a machine, subscribe and build it with me.
If you’re planning to follow along, drop a comment below to let me know what your experience level is and what you’re hoping to get out of the series.
See you in the next one.
Get new content delivered straight to your inbox: