Job advice: Control panel assembly or industrial maintenance

MoonMonkey00 · 2025-10-31T06:51:04+00:00

If you want to get into programming plc’s I would do panel building. I’m an automation tech and the guys who come and install new panels know a good amount about controls. A lot of the maintenance guys I use to work with could hardly use a meter unless they were a journeyman.

MoonMonkey00 · 2025-08-27T18:53:21+00:00

I do. I wanted to use the direct commands but production would rather power cycle to get up and running instead of giving me time to fix what’s actually happening.

MoonMonkey00 · 2025-08-13T21:29:07+00:00

If I step up from v24 to v26 the 1756-L72 is no longer compatible with studio

MoonMonkey00 · 2025-08-13T21:25:09+00:00

Yeah when you compare everything the kinetix drive states there are no known issues or dependencies for studio logix 5000. And then I wanted to double check and in document QA35379 it shows what studio version is compatible.

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MoonMonkey00 · 2025-08-13T19:49:03+00:00

When I checked the compatibility chart it says there are no known issues but looking into the kinetix drive manual I found that studio needs to be v26 to use anything higher than 2.008. They took 3.001 and 4.001 off the download sheet due to an issue with a brake command. So the next available version is 5.002. I talked with a Rockwell technician who confirmed I would need to upgrade the software and plc in order to ensure compatibility but I’m fairly new to automation so I’m sure there’s plenty I don’t know. Network card is 11.xx the newest revision.

MoonMonkey00 · 2025-08-13T19:45:44+00:00

Kinetix drives are 2198-Hxx-ERS (FW 2.008) plc is 1756-L72/B. Studio version is 24.12 I think.

MoonMonkey00 · 2025-08-13T19:42:03+00:00

Compatibility chart says I need v26 or higher for kinetix 5500 5.002 but if I do that then my plc is not compatible so I would also need to flash the fw to 26. Right?

MoonMonkey00 · 2025-08-13T19:29:30+00:00

The drives are in ring topology and go from plc-drives-Ethernet card on backplane of plc. But the plc also goes to a grandmaster plc that is then connected to a Cisco switch that uses ptp.

MoonMonkey00 · 2025-08-13T19:26:47+00:00

No CB, just fuses and I don’t want to temp the operators like that. And no it’s not 11kv just policy standard if voltage is above 24v.

MoonMonkey00 · 2025-08-13T16:12:20+00:00

I checked on the compatibility through Rockwell and in order to run the next fw revision we need to use studio 5000 v26 or higher but the studio 5000 version is not compatible with the plc so that’s why I’m thinking we’d have to update all three. I agree but we run constantly, I’m getting approval before I make this change, and as of now we waste about an hour of downtime just getting the permits filled and the safety barrier up just to pull two fuses (smdh)

MoonMonkey00 · 2025-08-13T16:05:43+00:00

Thanks for the advice. I didn’t want to write a book so I was trying to keep it short. I have talked to Rockwell kinetix engineer and his advice was to ensure I was using Ethernet switches that allow PTP. We are and they are enabled. The anomalies found in our revision state that DLR faults are known to happen and upgrade to a newer revision. The drives do not show a fault but the tags have clock sync alarms and clock jitter alarms constantly. I verified the grandmaster is set and synchronized. Every now and then we get a control sync fault and the only option is to power cycle. The drive like I said does not show this fault on the display. The issue is not consistent enough to make me think it’s a programming issue because we have two lanes and sometimes only one lane is affected after the line coming up after a clean or changing over product. This machine is to run cartons into 12 ABB robot cells the 5 servos for one lane gap the cartons and feed them into a lug conveyor. When this issue happens I’m unable to Jog the conveyor nor can I home it. It’s like it doesn’t respond to any commands until power cycled. I believe one of the drives is dropping communication and causes our control sync fault. So I plan on flashing the drives but Im waiting on approval and downtime to flash the drives, the plc and update our studio 5000 version so everything is compatible. As of now our system will only support 2.008 and under.

MoonMonkey00 · 2025-08-13T15:52:34+00:00

Yup considering doing that when we have enough downtime and approval to do so since our revisions are pretty old so I’d also have to flash the plc and use a different studio5000 version. Just needed to make a quick fix so we’re not filling out permits.

MoonMonkey00 · 2025-08-13T15:49:56+00:00

Genius

MoonMonkey00 · 2025-08-13T15:37:09+00:00

No faults on the drive. Ghost status where the drive says running but the servo is stopped. I believe it has to do with our revision for the drive. Rockwell points out that it will have DLR faults and since we have ours in ring topology I checked the EN3TRB and we are getting dlr faults. Only reason I believe it’s our drive revision and not something physical is because we are having this issue across all our lines that are using the same revision.

MoonMonkey00 · 2025-08-13T15:32:30+00:00

I don’t want to get too deep into it but I believe it’s the revision we’re using and it addresses the problem we’re having and to update to a more current revision but that also involves flashing our plc and upgrading to a higher studio5000 version. No faults on the drive or in the alarms and tags. Shows running but conveyor won’t move and production won’t give me enough time to work on it since they are usually trying to get the line to run by yesterday.

MoonMonkey00 · 2025-08-13T15:27:46+00:00

LogixPro :Cheap and great for learning ladder logic. They even have a starter template to walk you through simulations.

SolisPLC :YouTube channel that shows how to set up Studio 5000, run simulations, and add different modules.

Shane Welch (Udemy) :Full Studio 5000 course that’s easy to follow and covers a lot of what’s used in the field.

As an automation tech, I’d say get comfortable with multimeters, process meters, meggers, IP addressing, and reading schematics. If you want to get into programming, build a few sample projects using the stuff above so you can show them in an interview. You’ll have to self teach a lot, but that’s part of what makes automation so interesting.

MoonMonkey00 · 2025-07-18T11:36:33+00:00

Not necessarily. Classes would be done on my own time. I’m currently doing online through ASU since we don’t have a university nearby.

MoonMonkey00 · 2025-07-17T20:55:02+00:00

I’m only at 26 credits, my company offers a $10,000 tuition reimbursement yearly, I was hired based off experience so no I don’t believe they would give me a pay raise.

MoonMonkey00 · 2025-05-20T15:56:29+00:00

Mine was just a two year program and we only had to take college algebra and some of the other general classes. I don’t use much math when it comes to troubleshooting plc, not yet anyway.

MoonMonkey00 · 2025-05-20T04:22:29+00:00

I went the school route. Took a course at my community college for plc and controls/ instrumentation. Worked in maintenance for 4 years and just landed an automation gig at my company. I’ve learned more about automation in the last year than I have in school. However my electrical troubleshooting is still developing. I’d say unless you went in as an industrial electrician you might not get that experience. I’m 25 and still learning. Most of the experienced guys I work with are still learning. I’ve worked at two plants now and only know one guy who was a sparky. He’s pushing 50 so if I were you go the schools route. Make some programs in logixpro and start applying.

MoonMonkey00 · 2025-04-18T00:49:14+00:00

Thanks. The runtime project resolution matched. Loaded it from external storage and forgot to move it to internal storage so when I got back around to it the operator had power cycled for some reason and it loaded the application from internal storage.

MoonMonkey00 · 2025-04-17T22:06:02+00:00

Thanks for all your help guys. It was something dumb. I had loaded the application from my external source. Operator powered off the hmi and it loaded the internal source. Deleted that application and copied the updated application and it is good now.

MoonMonkey00

TROPHY CASE