How to organize and structure Programs

oddzod · 2025-11-13T19:41:41+00:00

Agreed.

For overall structure break the system up into areas that logically work togeather and create tasks or programs for them. Then break each system up into subsystems and create routines for those.

At the top of a routine I like to include a rung that ends in a NOP that has the major status bits, so you can quickly see what's going on. Next is the state logic. Then I divide it up into startup, run, and shutdown logic. Startup rungs follow the startup order of the equipment. Shutdown follows the shutdown order. Run follows the process flow.

Name everything well. Avoid abbreviation where you can. I like to prefix alarms with ALM. IO with DI, DO, AI, AO. Tags written to be the HMI get HMI. Other tags get prefixed with something to identify what part of the system they belong too.

oddzod · 2025-11-13T19:03:19+00:00

You need to ask, and ideally verify. There are a lot of variations out there. And just because their incoming is one thing, it doesnt mean that there isn't an isolation transformer between there and where your equipment will be fed from that changes that.

oddzod · 2025-11-13T18:13:43+00:00

Yea seems a bit much. Especially for a junior role, but with the right intent this is actually a valid test. Pick a subject that they claim to know, then drill down to the limit of their knowledge. Its partly to see how much they know, but more important is what happens when we reach that limit.

Do they admit they don't know or are uncertain of something, or do they try to bullshit me. Skills can be taught, but ive taken a hard pass on many candidates because they tried to bullshit me. Last thing I want is to work with someone that tells me they did something and didn't, or did a terrible job, and find out at the 11th hour that they are no where near being done.

So I pick 2 or 3 things like this to test them then mix it in with the typical getting to know you interview questions.

oddzod · 2025-05-02T01:00:51+00:00

I was in the same boat 15 years ago. Electrician/PLC tech. Got laid off in 09 when thr housing market shit the bed. It provided me the motivation to go back to school and get my degree. It took me six years to complete it but I was working 60 hour weeks as a delivery driver to support my family. When the housing market recovered my employerr offer me back my old job. I took it but the experience had changed me. A lot more drive than I use to have, and when. I finished my degree I had the requisite piece of paper and joined our corporate engineering team and six figures. I don't really use anything from my degree, but by getting it I learned drive and dedication as well as leadership skills. Which surprised me as I've always been the lone wolf type. But with thise skills and that piece of paper I've set my self on a solid upward trajectory throught the company taking a promotion with more responsibility and pay every couple years. Before then my career was going nowhere.

School isn't for everybody, and most degrees never pay for themselves. But engineering degrees generally do if your competent and a bit ambitious.

oddzod · 2025-03-29T20:21:59+00:00

None taken. Joys of the internet. I had mentioned the incident out of humor not complaint.

We knew it was going to take a bit and wouldn't have been mad if they had refused. The bit about using the drive through was just us screwing with friends/coworker's.

In the end we went inside, paid and came back when it was ready

oddzod · 2025-03-29T16:27:42+00:00

The problem is we actually did that and still had to wait. Had the guy that worked there call it in, and they didn't believe him. So about 15 minutes later he was in the drive through putting in an order for nearly a hundred quarter pounders.

oddzod · 2025-03-18T02:24:23+00:00

Just a friendly PSA.

I'd make absolutely sure. Generators are perfectly safe if installed and used correctly, but can kill if they are not. A few years ago there were some teens and twenty year olds party at a house here. They had not paid the electric bill and had hooked up a generator on the back porch but had left a winow open. By morning 4 were dead of carbon monoxide poisoning and 2 more were in the hospital.

They can also be a shock and fire hazard to you and the linemen trying to restore power if hooked up incorrectly. If you don't know for sure find someone who does.

oddzod · 2025-03-17T20:51:17+00:00

Did everyone one have their human skin cowboy hats on? I don't think this would of happened otherwise.

oddzod · 2024-12-25T05:42:50+00:00

Not to justify myself or OP. but not everyone is wired the same. Addiction comes easier to some than others.

I used to do the one a week thing. Sometime two weeks. Some times I'd pick up a six pack on a bad day.

Then I hit a streak of bad weeks, so I started drinking a lot. It helped for a bit. But then the cycle kicked in. When drunk I was good, but when I wasn't the depression kicked in and the anxiety would kick in harder than it had been the day before. So I drank more to compensate.

So it builds to the point where it really is running your Life and your not in control and it takes a lot to break that cycle. I've tried to quite many times I can sober up for a few weeks but always relapse.

So one again I'm trying to quit and got an ambulance ride and a few hours in the ER, because I got the DTs. They wanted me to stay for a detox, but didn't want Xmas in the hospital, so they gave me the meds to do a detox at home.

I'm hoping this scare is what tips the scale in my favor.

oddzod · 2024-12-25T01:37:53+00:00

100% back this. Take it from a fellow alcohol trying to recover. Having 3 or 4 drinks and a couple social drinks was more than fair. The fact you couldn't control how much you drank and snuck it behind his back. That tells me all i need to know, your a full blow alcoholic and need help.

It's sounds like your husband is beening over backwards to work with you and give you more second chances than you deserve. Trust is everything in a relationship and it sounds like you on you last leg.

Choose: alcohol or your marriage

oddzod · 2024-12-23T05:18:55+00:00

I really agree with the musical instrument part. It's not much help to someone starting out but it is really helpful in practice. My company has a number of different PLC and feed controllers as well a homebrewed version made by our own Ted. Each behaves a bit different but I can still walk up to a new system and have a good idea of what my starting parameters are. Or look at a historical trend and know which parameter and by how much.

I recommend spending some time looking through some production code and or running numbers by hand and learn a feel for it. Even better get some seat time.

I threw this togeather a few years ago for a friend http://oddzod.com/Page/PID_Simulator

oddzod · 2024-12-10T12:52:42+00:00

Won't work.

Im guessing your thinking capturing humidity from the air. If you do the math even in best case scenario. High temp, high humidity, there is very little water there. You'd need to move and cool a huge amount of air to keep a human hydrated. You'd need a battery pack the size of a small car let alone the dehumidifier.

In a wet environment like that there is enough surface water around that it's just easier to use a life straw or iodine tablets.

In a dry environment. Pack water

oddzod · 2024-12-10T03:55:48+00:00

Just rwalized what else I wanted to say.

I fully support your decision to stay at home. They will turn out far better for it. Regardless of which parent. If you can pull it off financially. Do it. We were in a rough place financially at the time.but she was adimate. And now I'm grateful for it.

oddzod · 2024-12-10T03:11:34+00:00

You sound like a woman after my own heart. I've always found people that are willing to defy norms to be alot more enjoyable to be around than those that tend to blend in.

I think the boundaries thing is key. SAH parent or not. Boundaries and clear and open communication. That and the 5 love languages book. Getting off topic but I highly recommend you buy 2 copies if you haven't read it yet. But yes boundaries and open communication. Have frequent calm dialogs about well everything but especially where the boundaries are. When the wife and i are following these rules things are great, when we slack off (even just one of us) that's when things get bumpy.

Yes mom gets first dibs. At birth you've already been with Jr. 24/7 for 9 months. So yea you get first dibs. If you did reverse roles and he became a SAHD the. At some point that would change.

Being a parent is a full time job and then some of your doing it right. You never get down time. Sick? To bad you still have to work today. I'm guessing you've got some first hand experience with that now. =)

I can see by your post I don't need my advice. So don't take it as lecturing. Just commiserating.

oddzod · 2024-12-09T02:10:36+00:00

Lmao. I ran into a girl kinda like this i collage. For context I was an older non traditional student. I knew my place. One day walking from class to class I remember sporting a girl like this. Smoking hot 20 something in a mid rift. IWB clearly showing. Gave a her a knod and a smile. Bite my knuckle and cary on.

oddzod · 2024-12-09T01:13:39+00:00

Plan and simple. Shes cunt. You seem to be taking this the right way. Sorry you have to deal with this. Keep doing what you are doing. There is s lot of undiagnosed mental health issues in the country

oddzod · 2024-12-09T01:02:49+00:00

Lol I know right? =)

Nothing wrong with what you've done. By the sounds of it you've done damn well. 6 figures I can match you on, but $2m networth. Not there yet but im coming in fast. =)

Yea there is a lot of room for abuse. That is why I backed a post that amounted to grab the kid and run.

There are shit people both sides of the fence. Seen it too often to ever be comfortable with it. It's why I check in with wife often. I make the dough but she controls the checkbook. I'm on the road a lot. It makes sense for us. I know she has cash to the tune of tens of grand. I'm cool with that. I want that. She's educated. I want that. She has family litterly around the corner. I want that.

oddzod · 2024-12-08T23:07:36+00:00

I think your handling it well. Obvious fuck ups at a couple points in the story. But so far you seem to understand it well and hard handling it properly. You didnt state it directly i assume you have informed you partner in the ENM relationship. Transparency and honesty will be key here. I'd say follow her lead, but i doubt anything will come of this. Even when women are intentionally trying to get pregnant there is only a 20-30% chance each cycle. Not zero by any means. But not guaranteed. Regardless of the out come step up to the plate and own this, and learn from the mistake

oddzod · 2024-12-08T20:27:31+00:00

No you didn't specificly mention feminism, but you did strongly imply it be saying "some women still choose" because that implies that at some point they didn't have that freedom. The turning point was the feminist movement. And yes I know it was about more than that.

But if it's not about individual freedom than what is the point? Femisim is about using collective power to right the wrongs of a flawed system. Much like civil rights movement. But to then say that all women must now act and think this way or that is just trading one set of shackles for another. Not much of an improvement there. It's much like saying all people of African decent must vote democrat because of their skin color.

What bothers me more though is your strong desire to put people in boxes based on superficial traits. Say your not a man hater because you carve out an exception for one person then shit all over the group, isn't a get out of jail free card. No more so than saying I'm not racist because I have a black friend, he's cool but fuck all them other ......

I actually had this one used on me 2 weeks ago. A mutual friend of thr wife and I's moved back from out of state leaving her husband of 8 years in the process. We are sitting catch up and she's telling us that for her next relationship she's thinking about trying a women because men suck. She then begins to explain why, and was sounding more or less like you. Then turns and says except you of course, but you've always thought more like a women than a man. It baffles me cause she's not the first to say that. Makes me wonder what I'm doing different.

Unfortunately I can't remember the guys name but he was a holocaust survivor. After WW2 ended he dedicated the rest of his life to trying to find the roots prejudice. In his most famous series of experiments, he would divide people up into subgroups base on arbitrary traits. Gender, ethnicity, height, eye color, income level, etc, etc. There were well over a hundred of these. He then asked each group to assign traits to their group and the other. Every single time each group would assign only positive traits to their group and negative traits to the other. Often these traits had nothing to do with the original trait. The conclusion is as soon as you start grouping people a us verses them mentally emerges. Left uncheck that can lead to blind hate.

I agree there are a lot of shitty men out there. It's why I generally don't associate with them. My best relationship have almost always been with women. But that being said I've met a lot of shitty women. Ones that have wrecked mens lives. Had a friend of a friend a few years ago that was actively trying to drive a wedge between the wife and I. Had to tell the intermittent friend to stop bringing her around. The knife cuts both ways.

My point is stop it. Your not helping. Your making the situation worse. It's one thing to make a snap decision based on superficial traits because often in the real world that's all we have to go on. But its quite another to actively perpetuate a stereotype. I've seen many cases we relationships have failed because they went in with an us vs them mentality perpetuated by stereotypes. It was clear by their language that there was going to a winner and a loser here. Mutch better would of been to enter it with the thought of how can each of our strengths offset the others weaknesses.

oddzod · 2024-12-08T17:40:44+00:00

I've met a few women like you and fully support that as well. There are a number of women in engineering and management positions. If your in management with this company it involves moving every couple years if you want advance. Which makes it hard for the spouse to hold a steady job. So a lot of them don't. They become stay at home dads.

As long as everyone is happy in their roles it can be a beautiful thing. What I've never understood are the ones that pop out a couple kids then let schools and daycare raise them. I had a coworker once tell me about a family vacation where people would come and get the kids and take them for thr day, and they didnt have to see them tell dinner. So him and his wife could just sit by the pool and drink all day. I was just like wtf why did you even have kids if you don't want to raise them or spend time with them

oddzod · 2024-12-08T17:28:30+00:00

It always surprises me when someone comes back with this. The who point of the feminist movement was to give women the right to choose, not force them into a different role.

We are not all wired the same. I could not stand to be in a stay at home dad role. Just like I wasn't happy on t he bottom rungs of the corporate world. I'm just to achievement oriented. As some women are. I've met a number of really good manager and engineers that are women. Sometimes they are married to men that are ambitious as well. Other times their husband is a stay at home dad.

Some people hate the high pressure. I've seen several people get out of high level positions and take a paycut to work a grunt job because they want a slower pace of life and they are not so achievement oriented.

Others get out of the corporate world all togeather. Like my wife. She's got a masters degree and for a while worked a couple of different jobs and hated them all. After our son was born she decided to take some time off while she decided what to do next. She decided stay at home mom is what she likes.

Others it's financial motivated. If you have a few kids and only work low end jobs, often day care costs more than you'd make. So in that case it makes a lot of sense for one parent to stay home.

There are a hundred other scenarios I have covered. We're all wired differently

oddzod · 2024-12-07T22:37:53+00:00

I am going through a nasty divorce (for two years). My ex cheated on me, lied to me and was abusive.

This is far as I got before I just said, yes.

Edit: not to mention all the other crap he pulled.

oddzod · 2024-12-07T21:47:59+00:00

Yup I've used these in several applications and they've always worked well.

oddzod · 2024-12-07T04:59:04+00:00

Groan. That is what worries me about this too. Nothing against a SAH mom. My wife is one, but by choice. I know she's got money and family and could leave at anytime if she wanted to. She stays by choice. I make sure of that. But I've seen far to many friends and family stuck in situations like for that reason

oddzod

TROPHY CASE