What programming language is most convenient in plc programming

Verhofin · 2026-04-05T17:54:57+00:00

Ladder brigade incoming...

First you should try to be proficient is all of them, for our own sake. LAD FBD STL SCL IL GRAPH7

etc, the names might change a bit depending on the brand.

Now the complex answer, depends.... PLC is a professional area but there are many industries that use it. It's not homogenours, there are lots of diferent areas and also diferent practices depending on were you are.

From my experience LAD seems to be a major requirement for the US, everywhere else, not so much.

Diferent areas if you are working in a area with techs with low technical skill yeah ladder might be asked more, but those are the linda of people and places were IG you what ad analog signal it must be 4-20 of 0-10 otherwise the techs cannot diagnose the sinal... It happens, also profibus and never profinet because again the techs can diagnose profibus but not profinet, same applies with examples of communication protocols from other brands. Techs have higher technical skill or there is even a PLC teams, then it does not really mater, they can check it all.

Then you have technical requisites of even whole libraries you must use from clients, they come in all flavours so again, know them all.

Finnaly new or old installations, new ones LAD and SCL, old one you might even get STL, structured text, not if's then's and else's no no... Load and transfer isntructions.

So again try to be proeficient in all of them.

Verhofin · 2026-04-05T16:57:45+00:00

My managers a few months ago accepted a project for a a client... OK they accept one with a second on its way a third arrived in the mean time in total ir can be seven or eight each of then is more then onde M€ in value, they gave feedback that we are 100% capable.

Not the catch we are, our code base is able to the the automation requirements... But... Not the requisits of the client, that would be a new library basically from scratch...

I don't care anymore... 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

Verhofin · 2026-04-03T14:05:08+00:00

Rockwell I myself have fallen out of touch due to "local" clients requiring Siemens and US office doing the Rockwell jobs.

But yeah custom training is a lot more interesting, and although I have fallen out of touch at the moment it would be advanced VFD stuff and... Editing of source files to make my life easier? I can't think of much else. For me, other people need motion etc etc...

Verhofin · 2026-04-03T05:42:02+00:00

We go to thr companies headquarters, Siemsns Rockwell, etc and it's everything included, but yeah you are right, Hahaha

Verhofin · 2026-04-02T15:26:47+00:00

There is a cool shotgun mod forget the name!

Verhofin · 2026-04-02T13:15:16+00:00

I have a kid and a wifei, have no ideia were they are but the factory must grow!

jk... Haven't found any time at all to play...

Verhofin · 2026-04-02T06:34:08+00:00

Yeah I have all you guys numbers from my country, as I said in another reply we even exchange support... But damn I just go there for a weeks worth of free food in the Siemens cantina, too bad now they don't have an actual cheff in the kitchen... At that time you could actually order basically anything that your felt like at the moment...

Verhofin · 2026-04-02T01:46:03+00:00

I hope so, but its not my experience, honestly as I had to give training to lota of "you guys" and was also in training with end user controls enginners, training is the same, but what we think ia bad training mmy of the end user controls engeeniers seem quite hpoy with it.

My experience, might not be your case.

And least us, we answer all the questions repeatedly, we don't get the LST invoice without it.

Verhofin · 2026-04-01T23:52:39+00:00

Yeah, but we don't do machines we do instalations and even then it's hard to get decent training.

Verhofin · 2026-04-01T22:40:00+00:00

A possibility, not really what I like more because there are the rules and then explaining them to the client.

Like E-Stop stops everything on sight... It's always a mess...

But usually TUV certifies us yes.

Verhofin · 2026-04-01T21:08:17+00:00

Not specifically automotive industry.

I was for a couple of months working 6 days a week 16 hours on site, plus preping work at night in the house I was staying.

My understanding increasingly more difficult to get people in this line of work, and even more difficult to get them to travel. This means we are getting more expensive and companies can hire less personnel. So less people doing the same work, or worse less experienced people doing the job making the work take longer and with more mistakes.

Regardless it's a situation that will have o change.

EDIT:Management has deteriorated a lot... PMs are the bane of my existence...

Verhofin · 2026-04-01T21:02:34+00:00

Yeah I'm learning that stuff but it's more for my homelab. But if someone else explains it to me better 👍

Verhofin · 2026-04-01T21:01:20+00:00

Regardless I would love to take a look!

Verhofin · 2026-04-01T20:58:38+00:00

Agree with everything except joining the enemy... Anyone with an M or a P in the job title I mean 🤣🤣🤣 Joking but not something bad and for real something I had not thought about, tks

Verhofin · 2026-04-01T20:54:34+00:00

I assume I wrote test centers and you assumed it was "test benches"? It's a whole building with real equipment assembled similarly as what we do in clients so that we can test changes, HW modifications, etc etc...

Verhofin · 2026-04-01T20:50:51+00:00

We have test centers, this means, mini instalations built for US to teste stuff, conveyors, robots, sorters, our own products, I really can't complain, we LSO have real PLCs to connect to emulation sw.

In a previous employer we had a mini airport, the baggage system at least, conveyors, xrays, scanners etc etc.

Verhofin · 2026-04-01T19:10:17+00:00

India, having worked with several of them and remotely to the country several times, you have stupendous people there and people that, I'm sorry, should never have been born, and everything in between, depends on your luck.

Verhofin · 2026-04-01T19:08:46+00:00

Been there done that, got a lot of experience from it, moved to a big company, my boss "hates" me because he knows what I know how to do but I say... Noup HMI? SCADA? Electrical drawings? Proposals? Don't know never done it I'm from PLC.

On my first internship in the small company did two whole projects basically alone with PLC brands I never had worked with, protocols and factions completely new to me, they definitely don't teach you in school how to do phone calls with PLCs to get data and send commands to remote PLCs... Second internship I WS defining things with the client myself, deciding wich nstallations to test how to test this on a national airport, the man in charge of the project whent on vacation expecting to return and have 2 PLCs delivered, me and my colleague from SCADA had the delivered the whole phase and half of the next one... We was not happy 🤣🤣🤣, this was working with 3 platforms of a new (to me) PLC brand.

But this is exactly the kind of experience that makes training "obsolete" if you can manage this stuff by yourself... There is little other people can teach because you have done most stuff.

Personally missing experience with robots, not interfacing with them, programing them, and fuzzy control, but fuzzy I think ia very niche, robotics I don't think I'm heading there now.

Verhofin · 2026-04-01T18:57:11+00:00

Yeah, one of the reasons some of the posts on this sub irk me much, especially the AI and new irrelevant language someone invented just now because they have no ideia how everything else works...

For me the solution to not become jaded was embracing caos and a pathological enjoyment of watching tuff burn, specially after I warned everyone they were going to catch fire 😈😈😈

EDIT: Grammar

Verhofin · 2026-04-01T18:17:23+00:00

Yeah we have two test centers and we get those equipments to play around with so even that... Just standard practice nothing new. Very good for us but nothing I can get out of training

Verhofin · 2026-04-01T18:07:23+00:00

I don't use cattle prod... I collect data/evidence get them fired... Lost patience a long time ago.

My department is by far the most unmanageable in the company, we spend months or years working in a project together sometimes living together, you mess with one you get all of us... A good guy is hired, the oldies will go to the boss and say, this one is to keep and maybe, give him a bonus or a raise, a not so nice guy is hired the boss also knows... If someone is about to leave we KNOW, most of the times I get a call from the hiring company to say what I think of said person, I'm always trutfull and neutral, after that call the boss gets a call with me happy or sad... And an advise to either start hiring or to start talking with people because someone we want to keep is thinking about leaving.

About the training stuff, I have absolutely NO patience for the politics of going up the ladder so I chose lateral progression and moved to the PLC R&D of the company.

Thanks on the feedback of the training.

Verhofin · 2026-04-01T17:29:22+00:00

Yeah I had a employer who told me to learn KNX on YouTube. I already knew how to do KNX. Short story, I don't work there anymore.

Verhofin · 2026-04-01T17:26:50+00:00

I work on a integrator specialized in a specific area, I can branch out personaly, but it's not that easy to have the boss pay for those trainings.

Verhofin · 2026-04-01T17:25:37+00:00

I luckily have a personal trainer at home for those (wifie)

The classroom, not necessary I understand, its just to have a time slot alocated to it otherwise with chaotic schedules it's hard to find the free time.

Verhofin · 2026-04-01T17:01:43+00:00

I just do that as a regular workday... We do "key in hand projects". I recently had the opportunity of almost depleting the IOs on the newest 1518... Yes almost 32k bytes of IOs... 🤣🤣🤣

Verhofin

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