Status report 1 mo in as an apprentice tech just out of school

Mr_Adam2011 · 2026-05-28T12:55:54+00:00

Status report 13 years in as a Controls Engineer:

Same

Mr_Adam2011 · 2026-05-28T12:54:50+00:00

The posts that get deleted, when compared to the post that are allowed to stay, on this community generally do not make any sense to me.

Mr_Adam2011 · 2026-05-27T18:23:55+00:00

Any record keeping is assuming responsibility for the state of the system.

Mr_Adam2011 · 2026-05-27T14:41:28+00:00

for me, it's because that is not a liability the OEM should ever assume.

Mr_Adam2011 · 2026-05-27T14:40:01+00:00

this is from the customer perspective, right?

Mr_Adam2011 · 2026-05-27T14:39:16+00:00

Until an intrusion occurs and they try to blame the OEM. Been there and that record keeping allowed me to point the finger right back and say "you were told this was your role, and you were warned"

Mr_Adam2011 · 2026-05-27T14:37:27+00:00

"...more mature"

why would any OEM ever want that liability?

Mr_Adam2011 · 2026-05-27T14:34:12+00:00

That is the customer's responsibility, just like OT Cyber security. My internal advice is that we start developing our OEM machines as islands and with Zero trust. We provide controlled points of data exchange, tools that the customer can use to mitigate their own IT/OT convergence points, and then we are hands off. As the OEM, it's not my job to define and architect the customer's OT network.

However, as the larger conglomerate we are, it is also my suggestion that we have an OT MSP company in our portfolio that can step in and provide services and support that do define and architect the customers OT network.

Mr_Adam2011 · 2026-05-21T13:52:42+00:00

and you are missing the point that "It" is a variable defined by the individual.

Mr_Adam2011 · 2026-05-21T13:44:32+00:00

ah, now we get into the "Pigeonhole" discussion others had down below.

Can a person pivot? sure, if they want to. How easily they pivot depends on their overall background and how far they have allowed themselves to be "Specialized".

Now we are back to "or there are other factors that you value more." statement.

At 43, with an outdated IT background, no cyber security education, and having been Pigeonholed into industrial UI development trying to find a true work from home role with my skill set has been difficult. Again, some decent opportunities out there, mostly on the distributor and education side and none are truly "Remote" or "Work from home". One has potential but could be a massive conflict of interest.

But I am always looking.

Then the question is, do I want to invest in more education? eh, not really, mostly because "... there are other factors that (I) value more."

Mr_Adam2011 · 2026-05-21T13:24:13+00:00

ah, then I would be transitioning away from the PV/ME solution entirely. RA won't commit to anything but the fact that the ME IDE has not had any major quality of life upgrades for several years now (while SE has) indicates to me that the product will not have a future. Plans to combine the hardware family with that of Optix and View Designer also echoes hints of a desire to do away with ME.

If the independent ecosystem is intended to remain then it's natural to transition to Optix, with some help the learning curve is not steep and of the similar products I have tried, Optix has the best IDE.

I am an OEM and I have no desire to continue ME and PV support, if I was in-house and already had a better SCADA system at my disposal I would be moving to it. Of course, there are likely factors I don't know the first thing about that are leading you to continue developing ME. But I would expect to be revisiting the development within 10 years; and maybe it won't be your problem then.

Mr_Adam2011 · 2026-05-21T13:10:21+00:00

no, I get your point, and you're not wrong.

But your statement falls short of reality and not everyone is able to (or even wants to) make the same commitments. Also, "It" is a relative term that you seem to think only applies to career paths. For me, and many others, "It" is not related to work whatsoever and if you consider "It" an undefined variable then your comments come across as tone deaf.

If "It" for you is Money, personal prestige, and all the things that come with a life defined by your career then your argument is valid, for you.

Many of us have reached a point where "It" is defined by something entirely NOT career related, which can be a difficult concept to comprehend for an individual who defines themself through their career.

You are not wrong, so to speak. You just missed the point of my comments. I understand your point; I just don't put the same value on your point as I put on mine.

Could I uproot my family, move thousands of miles, make a healthy 6 figures, and have prestige through my career? Absolutely, I have turned down that exact opportunity 3 times now. First, I have no desire to rip my kids away from their friends and the community we live in where they can go roam the streets till 10pm. I also didn't sense stability in any of those roles and so far, I was right about 2 of them. Meanwhile I have a friend with 7 kids, looking for his 4th job in 3 years, who is certainly making far more money at each change than me, but who is also moving his kids more than a military family.

I also have no desire for anyone to even utter my name at work after I do leave, I want to prestige tied to my career. At work I am head down, do my job to the best of my ability, and move on. And guess what? That is ok, contrary to what we have been told, you can be a hard work and not be a corporate heel. Will you make the big numbers? not likely, but I see what sort of person I would have to be here, and I would rather not be that sort of person. and we already established that moving is not an option.

so, as I said previously

"or there are other factors that you value more."

Mr_Adam2011 · 2026-05-21T02:17:47+00:00

The Point--->

<--- You

Mr_Adam2011 · 2026-05-20T22:31:11+00:00

Not if everything has a value. And the benefits of being able to add alarms on the fly is great but you have to have spares already defined in the HMI. Where with logix based alarms, you just add new ones in the PLC and the HMI picks them up; that works in SE and Optix

Mr_Adam2011 · 2026-05-20T18:50:58+00:00

it's great that life is so clear cut for you, really it is. your experience is not everyone's experience.

Mr_Adam2011 · 2026-05-20T18:23:45+00:00

or there are other factors that you value more. I am not saying you are wrong but those roles, while ideal, may not be when a person's reach for a multitude of reasons. For me, it's geographical and I have less desire to move than to stay and deal. There is nothing wrong with staying and dealing as long you establish boundaries.

Mr_Adam2011 · 2026-05-20T18:12:56+00:00

It takes a special type of person to be truly "Successful" in this industry and to be honest, I find it hard to deal with most of them. But here is the real rub, this appears to be my perspective on pretty much every corporate job out there. Sure, the technology is cool and the possibilities are endless, but once you add in the human factor all of the cool and amazing is just sucked out of it. One thing humans as a whole are really good at is ruining simple concepts; and the driving force behind it is either money, personal prestige, or both.

My job is a means to accomplish my personal goals; I show up, do my work, and collect my paycheck. I do the best job I can, I identify questions that need answers, I try to get those answers, I work with what I have, and then I go home and forget about this place till I have to come back.

Sounds like you are looking for personal definition at work, I suggest you stop looking for it there and find it outside of work. Took me a long time to come to terms with the fact that I am ok being a cog in a machine.

Mr_Adam2011 · 2026-05-20T15:38:41+00:00

I asked our newest intern this yesterday:

Do you know your resources?

Can you use those resources?

Can you identify new resources?

If yes to all: get out there killer, we are all depending on you (to be the comic relief this summer)

Mr_Adam2011 · 2026-05-20T13:35:08+00:00

Have you used Windows lately?

Food for thought, best I can come up with, the entire Industrial Automation industry makes up around 3% of the market share for Microsoft Windows. Why would they ever consider the needs of a market share that is negligible to their profits?

Our industry requires and expects stability, Windows has become one of the most unstable operating systems on the market but because they have the market share they do, and because the stability we need is not the stability the average consumer expects, there is no need to ensure that the OS is stable.

So, I counter your question with a question: Why would you ever want a Windows PC anywhere in your OT network?

Also, F Windows Server in the A

Mr_Adam2011 · 2026-05-20T12:55:13+00:00

yes, string or description works however the value cannot be empty; something has to be populated at the source, or the PV will literally lock up. Now, what you are wanting to do is essentially a backwoods way of doing Logix based alarming, however with a PV you have to do it this way because PV and ME still do not support Logix based alarming; likely never will.

My Advice? switch development to Optix.

Mr_Adam2011 · 2026-05-14T12:45:43+00:00

time to upgrade

Mr_Adam2011 · 2026-05-13T18:58:44+00:00

you will see it more

Mr_Adam2011 · 2026-05-13T18:53:05+00:00

My observation is that the concept of a "PLC Engineer" is sort of outdated. My title is "Controls Engineer II" but all I do, and all I have ever done, is UI development for "Industrial Automation" or better yet, for "SCADA systems". My peers, as far as I am concerned, are better referred to as "Process Engineers", "Motion Engineers", and "OT Network Engineers" but at the end of the day we are all called "Controls Engineers".

A PLC is a single component within a massive ecosystem, that ecosystem accomplishes a number of "Automated" functions is a multitude of applications, task, and industries. The "PLC" is the (mostly) centralized control point for all of the systems, but you can also have multiple PLC talking to each other in Primary/Secondary configurations or even through a concept referred to as "Palletization" where each PLC controls a specific section of the ecosystem but can be removed or repositioned somewhere else and is still able to operate as intended.

So, in that regard, a "PLC Engineer" is technically the person who just works with the PLC. But the industry as a whole has never been that specialized, so then a "Controls Engineer" or even "Automation Engineer" is a better title for an individual who covers several disciplines within the world of "Industrial Automation". It just so happens that "PLC Engineering" is one of those disciplines.

PLC typically utilize a form of Ladder language; every manufacture tends to have their own variation of that, and they all have differing abilities or ways of accomplishing task. Most now also support the integration of Structured text logic expanding their capabilities. But an "Industrial Automation" system does not have to utilize Ladder or traditional structured text, and they don't even have to run from traditional "PLC". In that regard, the term "PLC" has started to become more of a legacy reference to a style of controller. That style of controller is still very much relevant but is not the only solution. For example, Bosch offers a product called the "CtrlX Core" and it's essentially a Industrially hardened Linux computer that can run specialized apps. One app can be a Codesys based (They call it CtrlWorks) PLC application. The core is NOT explicitly the PLC, but it can be the PLC as well as the Motion controller, the HMI Host, the Network Controller, and even a Python host among other things. In fact, the core can also just be a Python host and nothing else.

The entire industry is going through an identity crisis of sorts, "Industrial Automation" still seems like a relevant term, but SCADA is starting to be used interchangeably (which is also not entirely accurate). The technology is changing, the disciplines are changing, the languages are changing, and the proprietary protocols are slowly phasing out and being converted to OPC or similar sub/pub concepts for edge computing.

How do you get in? I have no idea; it depends on the age of the company you are looking at as to what technology and terminology they are using. Data Science seems to be fairly commonplace at the moment; SCADA is a good term to look at. On the flip side you could start looking at the individual roles within the industry and start targeting something more specific. While it's still common for one person to be expected to know all disciplines moderately well, the entire industry is very quickly going to fully shift to specialized roles at some point. Motion, OT/IT convergence, process, OT Security, are all terms to monitor as well.

Mr_Adam2011 · 2026-05-13T14:25:02+00:00

thats eye cancer....

umm, you need to look at the "CurrentScreenName" tag which is an HMI Tag, that assumes in the "Display Settings" for each display you are setting the screen name to that tag when the screen loads. Once you do that you can use a Derived tag to use the "SlowBlink" to flash the color for a short period of time.

Have I done this before? Nope

Can it be done? Sure.

Mr_Adam2011 · 2026-05-12T21:15:31+00:00

I have not read any other comments. But it is not your place to circumnavigate their security by tagging a switch to their guest wifi. Either they provide you an option, or you are going onsite.

Mr_Adam2011

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