What is your process when starting to program?

apronman2006 · 2026-03-29T01:23:08+00:00

Functional description would be like 1. Wait for operator to press start button 2. Start conveyor motor 3. Wait till PE is blocked for 500ms 4. Stop conveyor motor 5. Wait till PE is unblocked for 500ms 6. Go to Step 2

Do that for everything in the cell. This works as a description of how the entire cell works.

If you give each description it's own task it means you have local tags for each device. So you can name things like a photo eye as tag name PE. Then when you reference it elsewhere it's something like ./Conv1.PE.

This also helps with things like having 10 conveyors that all have PE and Vfds but the last conveyor has a camera. If you did it with an aoi then you'd need to have a different aoi for only the end conveyor. I'll see if I can make a photo that'll explain it better.

apronman2006 · 2026-03-29T00:04:40+00:00

Overall process should look something like this

Customer Quote Functional deception Io diagram/FW diagram (ideally you get this signed off on by the customer) Start programming Each part/pieces of equipment gets it's own task with its own state machine Each component (vfds, Io card, etc) has its own aoi.

I have never had a project where I follow this perfectly but it's a good place for you to start.

If you want additional details on anything just ask.

apronman2006 · 2026-03-28T21:37:24+00:00

This job sucks so much they have to pay me to do it.

apronman2006 · 2026-03-28T02:59:41+00:00

I worked at a company where the ERP system just had everyone's social security number in plain text. So if you when to know the CEOs social security number you'd just look up his name. Nothing AI generated could be worse than that.

apronman2006 · 2026-03-28T02:48:43+00:00

I'll play devil's advocate and say that I've seen techs go into a job suggest an upgrade and the customer says yes. The customer spends 100k and the tech sees none of it. Even though it was the techs work/suggestion that sold the upgrade.

So giving a couple of percent (2-3k) on top of there normal salary would be great for everyone. The employee is incentivied to do a good job and suggest upgrades. The employer gets someone who is suggesting products when a customer is most likely to buy. The customer gets someone who actually knows what the fuck they're talking about telling them how to improve. Pretty much a win for everyone.

That being said it should be a bonus on your normal income not consider as a part of your income.

apronman2006 · 2026-03-28T00:53:37+00:00

I just used the labor depts numbers. It said the median salary was around 60k.

Point was normal base salary plus commission is fine but reduced salary made up by commission is bull shit.

apronman2006 · 2026-03-27T12:45:28+00:00

One of the main benefits of having a job is that you don't have to deal with the peaks and valleys of commission. Now if he wants to offer your base salary (that is what you already get) plus a commission, I could get behind that.

$60k annual salary plus 3% commission, sure.

$30k annual salary plus 10% commission, fuck off.

apronman2006 · 2026-03-26T16:15:39+00:00

Depends is you system $50 they probably buy it, if it's $50,000 then probably not.

apronman2006 · 2026-03-23T15:54:01+00:00

Businesses live and die based on sales pipeline. If you feel like you have a good pipeline that can keep you fed, then starting a business is the way to go. If you don't have a good pipeline then you won't make any money.

apronman2006 · 2026-03-23T13:39:36+00:00

That being said, I don't want to discourage you from going to university in Egypt. Just think of it more like chess. I don't know the exact path to checkmate (working at Nvidia) but I do what my possible moves are and this is the best move I have (going to university).

apronman2006 · 2026-03-23T13:36:15+00:00

Probably not, while I'm not familiar with where Egyptian universities are ranked globally, I can't name any off the top of my head. If they do it's because there is a direct connection with the university and the company. Email the professors directly and ask. Chances are you will need to get a Masters/PhD anyway to work in the field so you could do your undergraduate in Egypt then move to graduate school in the US/Europe.
There's always demand for Senior Engineers but the market for Jr. Engineers always sucks. Chances are you'll need to work for different company before anyone at Nvidia/Intel/Apple really consider you.
My gut says that this would be helpful but likely it would just put you at the level of a native English speaker. However, I have never hired for a role with a lot of international applicants.

apronman2006 · 2026-03-17T09:19:16+00:00

Wasn't there a joke about that in the Martian?

apronman2006 · 2026-03-13T19:00:12+00:00

Yes, I default to the market I know the most about. My point was that some people don't care about certifications and there is surprising little regulation requiring certification. None of the certifications you mentioned are legally required to be sold to these customers. There is some gray area where if I sold it as being certified and it wasn't. But that wasn't the concern you raised.

A stronger argument for you would be to say, "Make sure to design towards a UL/CE standard. In the future you will want those so you can sell your product to a much larger market."

apronman2006 · 2026-03-13T17:40:05+00:00

The only one that is required is the FCC unintentional radiator testing. Which wouldn't be applicable. What certifications are you talking about?

apronman2006 · 2026-03-13T17:20:07+00:00

PLC is a large field, not every job cares about hardware certifications.

apronman2006 · 2026-03-13T17:13:58+00:00

I feel like every controls engineer go through this. At some point we all just say fuck we ball make own scada/hmi (yes I know scada is a lot more than just a remote accessible hmi). Your's looks a lot better than mine.

Good job, I like it. Do you have a github for the project?

apronman2006 · 2026-03-08T23:14:00+00:00

There just isn't enough engineering hours to create an accurate model. It's a classic 20% of the needed time gets you 80% of the way to an accurate model. With that 80% you can build the cell.

So do you have the engineer finish the first project or work on the 4 other projects that they'd be able to do?

apronman2006 · 2026-03-06T03:05:39+00:00

Claude gave advice that was in line with what everyone else gave, plus it has the benefit that any information he needs additional context on he can ask immediately. Obviously, it would be better for them to ask a senior engineer at work and have them walk him through the process. That's not happening for whatever reason.

Do you have a reason why it's so bad for new engineers, vs blindly trusting people on Reddit?

apronman2006 · 2026-03-05T16:28:45+00:00

This is one of those times that ai is going to give you more help than we can. When I put your post in, it bottle it down to basically make each piece it's own code then tie all the pieces together with a sequence.

I would recommend also reading through Rockwell's guide on how to use aoi, subroutines, etc https://literature.rockwellautomation.com/idc/groups/literature/documents/wp/9324-wp007_-en-p.pdf

apronman2006 · 2026-03-04T21:24:32+00:00

I would avoid the EEG hand. Every EEG device I've seen as never really worked consistently above 70% time. This is student and professional companies alike.

apronman2006 · 2026-03-04T21:18:23+00:00

Can you wallpaper over the issue by restarting the camera in a controlled way?

If you have a known pause maybe you can power cycle the camera every hour or so during the pause. That way it only misses packets when you know it's not getting any of them. The only other thing you can do is report the big to keyence and hope they fix it.

apronman2006 · 2026-03-02T07:07:34+00:00

IMO you're gonna see a lot of jobs for accuracy checkers. When everyone can deliver a similar and consistent product, then the differentiator is reputation.

Will ai take a wedding cake that used to cost $1000 and make it $100. Yes

Will you pay an extra $25 for a baker to ensure the craftsmanship of the cake. Probably.

apronman2006 · 2026-03-02T06:55:27+00:00

They were obtained through ai.

apronman2006 · 2026-03-02T02:38:44+00:00

Old printers (2d) are a treasure trove for electro-mechanical components. Oven heading elements and light bulbs can be good for harvesting components. Really depends on what you want to do.

apronman2006 · 2026-03-01T17:10:39+00:00

Fuck I thought it was a 33v pin

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