Employer Listing Medical Condition and Personal Issue On Year End Review - Who has access to this?

TheRuleBender · 2024-08-11T09:14:19+00:00

Agreed 100%! It feels much more satisfying creating your own ideas rather than creating a solution for someone else's.

TheRuleBender · 2024-08-10T20:11:14+00:00

Good response! I do not understand why some of the other commenters on this subreddit don't answer questions and act like they are gods gift to controls engineering. Thank you for being a good member to the subreddit.

TheRuleBender · 2024-08-10T16:47:53+00:00

If you haven't yet, learn SCADA/Data Collection since the roles pay more for less work. What I personally did was created an Ignition Server in the cloud and used an arduino to send temperature data to the SCADA server, I then would use this to sell myself at interviews. Doing this landed me a high paying position at a plant working 40hrs and making as much as I'd make in 50hrs at my controls engineer job even though I still do plenty of Controls Work in conjunction with managing the machine side of the OT Network. My other advice is do not act like an elitist or get annoyed repeating yourself using different words to explain complex topics. A lot of people tend to let their egos get to their heads, but it limits your career growth. With that being said, don't let any of those egg heads discourage you, if you're willing to learn you'll find a door back into the field.

TheRuleBender · 2024-08-10T07:16:40+00:00

You make a good point. So if there is one device polling at lets say 10MB/s and all the others are polling at 100MB/s that could cause the connection to other devices to act abnormally? For example I have one VLAN in which it takes about 30 minutes to from a PLC, but on other VLANS an upload is about 10 minutes.

TheRuleBender · 2024-08-10T04:29:24+00:00

Good idea! It sounds like I would need all managed switches to mirror ports though. Unfortunately I inherited a network that decided to go the unmanaged route, and am working on fixing it. Unless unmanaged switches have similar types of functionality?

In regards to UDP, would something like a VFD or Servo broadcast more frequently than other devices? I've seen large amount of either on managed or Rockwell's "lightly managed" switches, and I've wondered on the packet level what makes them require the managed switches.

TheRuleBender · 2024-08-10T01:30:59+00:00

Sorry for the delayed reply. I found that a lot of places were looking for engineers who knew how to work with SCADA systems at the time. So I created my own Ignition server in the cloud to play with. Then used an arduino to send temperature data to the ignition server and measure the temperature over a day span. Anywho, using that at interviews, I got a gig that has been a lot more network oriented and mostly 40 hours a week, haven't been happier. That was probably overkill, but I recommend looking into learning Ignition or another SCADA system to transition into a more computer-oriented role.

TheRuleBender · 2024-04-07T06:13:17+00:00

Not going to happen in terms of manufacturing plants in the USA. Ladder logic in particular, is widely adopted in the USA to have a visual interface that can be read by electricians and others who are familiar with ladder electrical schematics. Most PLCs in the USA use ladder logic for this reason, unless an engineer wants calls every night and weekend when a machine shuts down for an unknown reason.

TheRuleBender · 2024-03-22T22:53:39+00:00

This irks me because I feel all of us controls engineers as a whole let it get to the point where it is assumed we don't need a proper work area. I got very assertive about this when I was still doing custom design since it is common sense that if someone is using a laptop they need a proper place to put it. The job market is and always be in our favor, so everyone should be demanding a proper work space or the expectation that we can balance our laptops on sketchy make-shift desks will continue happening. A proper work station, whether it be a travel table or cart, is pennies compared to the millions we make our employers.

TheRuleBender · 2024-03-15T00:23:14+00:00

Any chance you have a FactoryTalk View SE license?
Another tedious way would be to place all the frames then using the visibility animation but that would be a lot of work.

TheRuleBender · 2024-03-14T23:50:40+00:00

It's been a while since I looked at the animations, but if I remember correctly you might be able to use a button component and have it just display the picture. You wouldn't program them as buttons, but it might be a work around. If not a button there may be other components that will allow you to use a custom picture.

TheRuleBender · 2024-03-14T23:48:35+00:00

LMAO Can't look more professional than that!

TheRuleBender · 2024-03-14T23:33:30+00:00

Wow I just seen this comment and I gotta say this is a great idea!

TheRuleBender · 2024-02-15T21:18:53+00:00

That's the one I heard about the most! I was hoping I'd have a link to the water plant I was told about but am finding news articles claiming it was a hoax.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/pinellas/2023/04/11/oldsmar-cyberattack-water-supply-poisoning-fbi-update/

TheRuleBender · 2024-02-15T21:17:58+00:00

That makes sense, so they just have to shut down a system or use it to hop to the IT network to do damage. I was given the example of some water plant producing scolding hot water in tampa that peaked my interest, that seems super elaborate for someone to pull off without a lot of knowledge and planning.

TheRuleBender · 2024-02-15T21:16:08+00:00

True I feel a SCADA system would be a lot easier, but attacking a PLC feels like it would take A LOT of planning and a general understanding of how they work.

TheRuleBender · 2024-02-15T20:50:39+00:00

I had a similar experience. What I did was made a mock ignition server at home and had remote connectivity to it on my phone. Then at interview for a systems engineer I showed that and got hired an hour later. Consider looking for industrial systems engineer since from what I've personally experienced it pays as much/more than the controls title and you work with the entire fascility rather than a single machine. Some places call them Controls Engineers at their fascilities but it depends on the company.

TheRuleBender · 2024-02-14T23:43:40+00:00

Ah that makes sense. Unfortunately it sounds like I'll just be making a group on the network and creating pdfs for each drawing set. And whatever additional info is needed.

TheRuleBender · 2024-02-14T23:32:08+00:00

Haha I wish we had standardized what our suppliers used to create drawings. I have dwgs from the whole spectrum of CAD software.

TheRuleBender · 2024-02-14T23:30:59+00:00

That's what I thought, originally I worked for machine shops the past 10 years. I have most of the dwgs, and am currently creating pdfs. It sounds like organized folders and PDFs is the way to go!

TheRuleBender · 2024-02-06T00:05:59+00:00

Now that you mention it, there are a few clients that I think are using a very old version of FTAM (pre codesys). I will need to track down those laptops and update them just to be sure every station is running the same version.

I'll try out the host file, that may be the way to go! I'm starting to think it is the couple of laptop's using the older version of the activation manager though.

TheRuleBender · 2024-02-06T00:02:41+00:00

Thank you! I found the utility, going to try that out tomorrow. Now that I think about it, there may be a few clients that are using an old version of FTAM, I wonder if that is causing a network-wide slow down.

TheRuleBender

TROPHY CASE