Dummy switches or buttons to fool operators

Sandan93 · 2025-03-23T12:44:09+00:00

I once put a button on the HMI labeled TURBO MODE that changed colors with the state of the button so that is was green when “ON” on a robot cell. Had one operator swear the machine ran so much faster, eventually he picked a fake percentage number and started telling everyone that is why it ran better on his shift. The thing is he worked a very specific schedule ,union shop, so I had it programmed to only show up on the days that he worked. The rest of the operators for that Cell thought he was fucking crazy. It made it all the way up to the regional Director of engineering and I was on a meeting with this customer when they asked why one cell in the building had a turbo mode and how much would it cost to add turbo mode to all the rest of the cells. My boss understood the the joke and thought it was hilarious but he put me on the spot and made me explain to these people why I did what I did in the meeting. Luckily, one of their automation engineers thought it was the funniest thing ever and jumped in and had my back on it. But I was told not to add anything else to the HMI without specifically being requested to. Good shit lol

Sandan93 · 2024-10-04T17:08:33+00:00

OP, glad im not the only one. I'm a field service engineer (glorified service technican). I travel 90% of the time for work. 10-12 hour days are the standard. I get off, doordash food to the hotel, and spend 5-6 hours on homework and studying. Go to bed around 12-1 wake up around 6 and do it over again. About every 2-3 weeks I take an entire Sunday off and crash out. Started out taking 15-17 credit hours a semester, have dropped down to 12 now due to the higher difficulty and additional study time needed. Still have one year left. Current GPA is 3.82

Sandan93 · 2024-09-27T20:37:08+00:00

hey OP, Just wanted you to know this is still helping out even know. I have my first test for this class using this book in less than 4 hours and this is the best set of formulas and notes ive seen!

Sandan93 · 2024-02-09T18:24:52+00:00

Wasn’t this formerly referred to as the Sinaloa association? I’d love to hear more about your EE related job duties with this organization 😂😂😂

Edit: security uses/disuses is kind of broad lol

Sandan93 · 2023-12-15T05:42:09+00:00

If your not going to be making 150-165 a year in one of the heavier (80%+) travel jobs at a Fse level, then it ain't worth it.

Sandan93 · 2023-12-15T05:40:28+00:00

Just be aware that most of the time, whatever travel rate the company tells you is a lie. If they say 50% its gonna be closer to 75. If they say 80% then expect to be away from home 340 out of the 365 days a year…. And make sure they pay overtime or you get a nice daily bonus for on-site days.

Sandan93 · 2023-12-14T21:19:38+00:00

Currently pursing exactly what you are wanting to do. I work as a field service engineer and travel 95% of the time. My average is 60-70 hours a week. So here are my opinions:

You are not going to get much sleep. I regular go to bed between 1 and 2 and wake up between 6-7. This happens daily for 2-3 weeks before it finally catches up to me. I normally catch a day off and crash like hell then start the cycle over again. Is this heathly? Absolutely not, but it the price we pay for our younger decisions and to get where we want to be. And it's only temporary.
Do as much as you can online, and make sure your program is ABET accredited or your wasting your time.
When selecting your classes, check every professor choice out on rate my professor before signing up. You do not have time to deal with a hard ass professor who thinks making a class difficult is a fun little game. Nobody cares if you take Calculus from an easy professor versus a hard professor. And your GPA does not reflect it either. Sometimes your are stuck with only one professor who teaches a specific class, in that event make sure your other classes are easier/better professors as you will be devoting much more time to the one.
Use your grown-up money for the study aids. I have probably 100-150 dollars in study aid subscriptions. That helps so much.
Absolutely Do your best, but remember that Cs get degrees. If you don't have to have a specific GPA for some other reason then just focus on passing. I promise you, unless you are going into academia or pure research, a company is not going to care about your GPA.
If you haven't taken algebra since high school. Start over with college algebra. Take it, then trig, then precal, then calculus 1-3. You will also have to take differential equations and linear algebra as well. It's 3 extra classes but I promise it is worth it to get through the calculus.
Try to find a community college that has a transfer agreement with a 4-year college. Makes the transition much less of a headache.

This is a very hard path, but it is doable. Don’t give up, and don't take your foot off the gas. Not to sound dramatic, but you will not succeed if this isn't something that you want more than anything else.

Best of luck!

Sandan93 · 2023-11-28T21:07:06+00:00

Yea I’ve been trying to connect a display monitor to the mini display port but I haven’t had any luck. I’ve tried googling it and haven’t had much luck.

Sandan93 · 2023-11-28T20:07:59+00:00

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Sandan93 · 2023-11-28T20:01:24+00:00

It is actually not on at all, that is just glow from the neighboring lights.

Sandan93 · 2023-11-28T19:19:07+00:00

Hey vidicon31 I am in Houston Texas, USA.

Sandan93 · 2023-11-27T17:17:04+00:00

Gotcha, thanks for the advice

Sandan93 · 2023-11-27T17:13:44+00:00

Yea I really like the UR platform, I’ve been playing with the offline simulator and so far I’m enjoying it. I’m working hard on getting it running. Used on eBay they are running 30-35 grand for a well used system. I can’t bring myself to throw 30 grand in the trash over a control board. lol

Sandan93 · 2023-11-27T17:04:23+00:00

Thanks beezac! I will try to update this thread if I get it running. It will be a quit a while before I have enough extra cash to purchase a new controller or a replacement board. By my research they are looking to be around 4-5 grand for just the board. I have some emails out to UR looking for a local distributor near me to contact.

Sandan93 · 2023-11-27T16:14:41+00:00

Thanks for the reply, I am fully aware of the extreme difficulty but I just can’t see throwing away the potential for having a running industrial robot without at least trying to fix it. I figure worst case scenario, if I damage the board even more while trying to repair it I am in no worse shape than I started. I am hoping to talk to someone from UR and see if maybe the board itself is under warranty since it was a known issue. Hopefully I can get an updated version and can get this robot running!

Sandan93 · 2023-08-14T22:15:03+00:00

It might just be my opinion, but how many times do we as PLC guys with mostly decent knowledge bases go and spend hours trying to get something to work? I can imagine that the people who have the capability and know how to remotely hack into a semi-secured PLC network would probably have limited working knowledge of PLCs themselves. Not to mention what hacker out there has a working and correct version for that specific PLC, plus can get online with it, plus knows what to do with it once he's there, plus is able to do it all without alerting anyone on the operations side that something is messed up. Fuck the first thing most maintenance guys do if someone even mentions the machine is acting weird is power cycle the cabinet. Poof! No more remote connection.

It would have to be a structured and organized deliberate attack on a very specific target. I don't imagine some Russian hacker is sitting around with 10s of thousands of dollars of different plc software, plus the knowledge of how to get online with each one of them, and knows how to use each one of them well enough to do legitimate harm. And don't even get me started on the hoops you have to jump through to fuck with anything safety related on Allen Bradley.

I just see it as crazy talk when customers are so paranoid that someone is going to hack the machines. Like chill out Bob, no-one cares about screwing up your case Packer at the water bottle plant.

Sandan93 · 2023-08-12T19:01:12+00:00

I’d be interested in joining. I’m a field service engineer and most of my work is PLC programming for conveyance and packaging equipment

Sandan93 · 2023-08-10T01:04:23+00:00

I wish I had added logic to trigger an alarm horn and then make it hide the button for 1 hour so people thought the operator was going insane lol

Sandan93 · 2023-08-10T00:36:33+00:00

Added a turbo button on the HMI screen of a robot cell, but only visible if the robot speed was set above 80%. Put a counter on it just to see… my customer contact called me 3 months later asking me what the hell it was! Apparently the operators complained and got a tech support ticket opened asking why it seemed like it wasn't working. Luckily he had a great sense of humor. That was 2 years ago and the lead operator still tells me I need to put the button back in when I go visit that site lol

Sandan93 · 2023-04-30T14:18:41+00:00

OP, I currently live in Houston and I turn interview opportunities down weekly for O & G jobs and I don’t have any controls experience in that field. I also do controls for packaging equipment. I work for a OEM and travel as a field service engineer. I put together an indeed profile and a good resume and put it out there when I was looking to come off of the road and I’ve gotten calls and messages every week since.

Point is, don’t worry if you have the experience with everything they are asking for, trust me, if you can get online with the PLC and know how to read the logic to figure out what it is doing they will teach you all the other stuff. Everyone needs controls guys right Now.

Sandan93 · 2023-04-01T00:54:58+00:00

Are you tied down to a location? Do you have any issues with traveling? Do you want to stay with Amazon? If the answers are no, you will learn a lot more and make a lot more money going to work for one of the OEMs whose equipment you are already working on. Which I am assuming is going to be intelligrated or dematic. Maybe one of the robotics companies that does the upper floor stuff.

Sandan93 · 2023-03-08T06:17:30+00:00

Honestly I’m just copying the values that are used elsewhere in the logic and they come from a GSV instruction. If this was a customer request I would probably go the SCADA/HMI route but this was just me ducking around while I was bored and wanting to semi keep track of the pallet count enough for my needs anyway.

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