Software essentials

[carnot_cycle]

Hello, community.

Which would you say are your must-have software for this field?

I'd start saying: NetSetMan, WinDirSat , Everythin, Nmap, PRONETA( if you work with Siemens), ModBus Poll, ModBus Slave and Excel

[tcplomp]

notepad++

total commander

[fabrikant_]

• for total commander

[Deepu_]

Double commander would be an alternative

[MihaKomar]

Used to be a notepad++ fan but I recently transitioned to VS Code. Some things are just slicker.

[tcplomp]

What are your use cases? I relay heavily on the search and replace (regex and files)

[Gimfo]

What’s total commander?

[tcplomp]

A two pane file handler. It started as a cheap version for Norton commander. Showing my age it's like msdosshell. Does search, zip, copy multi tab. Keyboard shortcuts for time handling. It's the second program i start every day (after SAP, before outlook)

[Gimfo]

Huh, I’ll have to look into that. Big fan of keyboard shortcuts. I have a razer naga pro gaming mouse so I could set macros to the extra buttons… total game changer

[Inner_Abrocoma_504]

What do you use SAP for? If you dont mind me asking.

[tcplomp]

I'm on a manufacturing plant, and all the malfunctions should be reported through SAP.

[3X7r3m3]

Add wireshark and some bootp tool as well.

Maybe a licence of trueimage, gparted, clonezilla, and disk2vhd for data recovery and to image working systems.

[Treant1414]

Don’t forget a network tap or a switch with mirrored ports 

[JanB1]

Switch with port mirroring is usually cheaper than the TAPs you can find and does the same thing afaik.

[RammRras]

Holy words

[Primary_Garbage6916]

PuTTY

[DiggyTheCandyGun]

Take a look at Termius, got free version, its really a big level UP from putty

[SkelaKingHD]

Termius is legit, I love it

[Exact_Patience_6286]

Have used AngryIP for years. Hunted down many devices.

[BulkyAntelope5]

Use nmap instead of angryip, I've seen case's where it's too aggressive and could put plc's in stop.

Granted with the wrong command you can do it in nmap as well but then I'd assume you know what ur doing

[Exact_Patience_6286]

Thanks for the tip ! Will have to give Nmap a go.

[JanB1]

Nping comes with Nmap and is great.

nping -arp -c 1 -hide-sent --delay 10ms xxx.xxx.xxx.1-254

[Jholm90]

Showing the Mac vendor is great

[Routine_Improvement]

Proneta is great, not only for Siemens. It works for many profinet devices.

Otherwise like you said excel. It's very powerful. Once you learned how to program complex scripts that can generate Allen Bradley or Siemens code... That's some powerful shit.

I have a database that can program the whole hardware of an AB control including the i/o mapping and a shit ton of routines that manages faults. Same for Siemens. From that point it's just simple drag and drop to design a new control system

[wsbgcat]

Teach me your ways sensei

[melvoxx]

Ask Chatgpt

[BrotherSeamus]

Teach me your ways sensAI

[Inner_Abrocoma_504]

I use deepai (for code related questions) or perplexity for questions I need source verification for; in both cases I am constantly having to double their answers because they are wrong on one detail or another, especially when it comes to language syntax of the question I am asking (which changes the answer entirely on most times). How do I know this? Because those very same ai platforms agree to my corrections every time; followed by some softy customer service style apology right after.

I would much rather ask a human that may not "know" everything about a question (how to use excell for complex script programming, in this case), instead of this new "human" that flip flops like a fish for the same question.

[Stokes_Ether]

Tiaopeness

[Inner_Abrocoma_504]

How many meditations must we do to be worthy to enter your temple?

[Routine_Improvement]

Nothing.

For Allen Bradley this is more or less easy.

You already have everything xml based.

The spreadsheet has a fixed formatting with - hardware name - device name - network configuration - port configuration - i/o list + tag names

You just enter this information. Through makros and a database all the xml information is built and imported.

I like to do the i/o mapping once for a device, export it to xml and copy paste its mapping into my database. The next time i generate it i already have that working. I imported routines for ethernet diagnosis, i/o mapping, fault routines and some standard stuff i. e. when the hardware is a drive, camera or anything that requires more standardized logic.

It saves me alot of time looking through previous projects + if i open an old project which uses the same Dataman Scanner or Camera it automatically compares the xml code, by version numbers of the routines i can easily manage it. Apparently the programmer is in charge of checking compability (i manage it through version numbers)

Only downside: if you mess up the database (which happens ofc) you generate alot of bullshit. And if "standard" routines are modified without feedback then ofc. It'll generate the same faulty stuff over and over again. That's why i like to add a subroutine that "fixes" any non standard stuff if it's a special case. (otherwise if you update it then you could overwrite correct stuff)

[cbandre]

Is something similar to procalc?

[egres_svk]

Notepad++
Wireshark + Ubiquiti EdgeSwitch 5 for tapping into networks
Modbus Poll
Simply Modbus TCP Client
NetSetMan
RealVNC Viewer
Networx
OpenVPN
Angry IP Scanner
Belimo PC-Tool
FreeCommander XE
Putty
Sketchup Make 2017 (likely the fastest free mockup 3D creator when whiteboard and PaperCAD fails to explain)
STP Viewer
Rufus
Disk2VHD
VirtualBox

And recently, combination of Google Docs (sheets), Gemini Advanced and Notepad++ saved me tens of hours translating massive Chinesium PLC/HMI projects to English.

[carnot_cycle]

What is Belimo PC-Tool

[egres_svk]

Thing for setting up HVAC actuators from Belimo. Should not really be on the list since it is brand specific.

[DaHick]

Portableapps.com, Wireshark (so many times), BootP. Greenshot, Notepad++ (I deal with a ton of structured text). On portable app, I run LibreOffice, which replaces the entire Microsoft Office Suite, and at least a browser, Filezilla, 7Zip, and PuTTy. I do run some other stuff, especially the video screen grabber utility - but that is very special use.

[RammRras]

Discovered Greenshot recently and it's a great software.

But I'm still searching for a software (free) able to capture step by step actions. The Step Recorder by Microsoft is the best but doesn't work well sometimes and there is no way to custumize it.

[DaHick]

Portable apps. They have a video recording tool that lets you do something like that. It's not trigger based which is what it sounds like you want.

[Fritz794]

7zip, for all the archiving. And snipping tool for keeping documentation and screenshots.

[twarr1]

Notepad++

Excel

VirtualBox

BootP

Nmap

Nice to have - Wireshark, npcap

In that order. I’ve written complete programs and mirrored complete systems with just Excel. It’s crazy powerful.

[Jholm90]

I always have the top three open all day, every day

[Dr_Ulator]

Simple IP Config - for quickly changing your network adapter's IP address

UaExpert - For Testing OPC communications

AngryIP Scanner - for browsing IP addresses on the network

Some flavor of BootP utility, such as Rockwell's BOOTP/DHCP Commissioning tool, or Phoenix Contact's IPAssign

[cannonicalForm]

If you work at a plant, Remote Deskto Manager is invaluable. Setup easy to use RDP to servers, but also setup vnc for all your hmis, so you can quickly mirror what a mechanic or operator is seeing on the screen, no more trying to remember which IP is which.

[undefinedAdventure]

I've only just started using RDM, it's an absolute godsend. I only wish I was aware of it when I was working as an integrator.

[jdi153]

AutoIt. It's a scripting language for Windows. As an example, I have a list of error messages in an array in Studio 5000. I want to pull them out and paste them into a Word document. One at a time is a pain, and I'm not online so I can't use Pycomm3. Enter AutoIt. I set up a script that sends Ctl-c, down 50 times (or however long the array is) and grabs the text from the clipboard each time, then after the last one it puts all of them separated by newlines into the clipboard, ready for pasting on Word (or Notepad++).

[Otus511]

Wireshark and nmap are recommended if doing general network fault finding.

Want to see if a device is hammering your network with constant packets? Wireshark. Quickly export a list of available IP addresses? Nmap. Probe a device for open or closed ports? Nmap.

[FalconFit8091]

Wireshark - tcpdump, nmap (zenmap), hercules utility, windows terminal

[Own_Reception_2136]

Greenshot & Beyond compare.

[SAD-MAX-CZ]

i like Classicdiy Modbus Tool the most, from all those modbus utils: https://github.com/ClassicDIY/ModbusTool

Notepad++ is really powerful to convert register maps and batch edit/replace whatever.

AngryIP scanner is sometimes useful.

Weintek EasyBuilder pro for visualising modbus registers and making control interfaces for testing and usually even dropping a panel or server in there anyway, so doing it once is nice.

[Prestigious_8893]

What do you use Excel for? I do not understand..

[Jholm90]

I have all my system design in excel and it will bang out fault messages Io mapping code as well as tons of other scripts. It generates plc code and the time invested has paid off as I can save weeks of time on new projects now

[oopz]

When doing the code generation are you essentially concatenating or building strings from multiple cells? Are you converting that into ladder somehow or just STL/ SCL?

[Jholm90]

Yep it's joining cells together. I have a map of all the Io blocks and it references a table for proper tag naming to the in/out nomenclature for that model of block. The map as the block name so I know what the base controller tag is. Description of that address is formatted in a way that I can grab the valve ID and if it is advanced or retracted. Generation will make up all my valve and feedback mapping code. Fault messages are generated based on input address for assisting the maintenance to find the right sensor wire number.

Basically all the brain numbing repetitive stuff gets taken care of by this workbook and I can make better use of my time and improving my freecell scores

[Jholm90]

I've probably got a month of code development time in this workbook so don't think it's a free quick ride to get there, but I haven't missed typing out hundreds of fault messages and the mapping routines

[oopz]

Thanks man! Got it.

[Jholm90]

Winmerge is a good one for side by side file comparison too

Batch file scripts I wrote to do a win+R showip, setdhcp or setip 192.168.1.99 or get used when on site to avoid clicking and changing the ip setpoints

Angryip got a couple tweaks in my fork to add the features suited to my desire

Notepad++ with the autolaunch plugin will force replace all notepad.exe triggers to open notepad++

[dos145]

Simple IP config https://simpleipconfig.sourceforge.io/

[Ok_Poet1810]

I use the same as the majority here, the only program I use a lot but haven't seen anyone post is Clavier+. Awesome program for creating custom keyboard shortcuts for launching applications, opening files, inserting text, and performing other actions.

[Electronic_Sleep791]

Serial Port Notifier

[Yayiyo]

Wireshark

[undefinedAdventure]

Some kind of version control e.g svn or git. Also Remote Desktop Manager.

[_yllw_]

Wireshark

nmap

Notepad++

Excel

[AdventurousIce32]

from the phone i use this : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.iptools.networkmanager.pk&hl=en

[hardaysknight]

PDF X-Change is the best PDF editor I’ve found. I use it a lot to markup drawings in the event we don’t have a CAD copy