You're reading from PLCs for Beginners An introductory guide to building robust PLC programs with structured text

Product type Paperback

Published in May 2024

Publisher Packt

ISBN-13 9781803230931

Length 380 pages

Edition 1st Edition

Languages

PLC programming

Tools

PLC

Concepts

PLC Programming

Author (1):

M. T. White

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Table of Contents (25) Chapters

Preface

1. Part 1: Basics of Computer Science for PLC Programmers FREE CHAPTER

2. Chapter 1: Computer Science Versus Automation Programming

3. Chapter 2: PLC Components – Integrating PLCs with Other Modules

4. Chapter 3: The Basics of Programming

5. Chapter 4: Unleashing Computer Memory

6. Chapter 5: Designing Programs – Unleashing Pseudocode and Flowcharts

7. Chapter 6: Boolean Algebra

8. Part 2: Introduction to Structured Text Programming

9. Chapter 7: Unlocking the Power of ST

10. Chapter 8: Exploring Variables and Tags

11. Chapter 9: Performing Calculations in Structured Text

12. Chapter 10: Unleashing Built-In Function Blocks

13. Chapter 11: Unlocking the Power of Flow Control

14. Chapter 12: Unlocking Advanced Control Statements

15. Chapter 13: Implementing Tight Loops

16. Part 3: Algorithms, AI, Security, and More

17. Chapter 14: Sorting with Loops

18. Chapter 15: Secure PLC Programming – Stopping Cyberthreats

19. Chapter 16: Troubleshooting PLCs – Fixing Issues

20. Chapter 17: Leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI)

21. Chapter 18: The Final Project – Programming a Simulated Robot

22. Assessments

23. Index

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24. Other Books You May Enjoy

Final project

For the final project, let’s assume the following scenario.

You were recently contacted by a customer about a machine with broken software. The machine will boot up and run as expected for about 25 minutes, then unexpectedly shut down. The customer says the issues started about two days ago and is sure that the software broke unexpectedly.

With that, let’s look at how we can troubleshoot this.

Troubleshooting

First, since the machine has been running as expected for at least 25 minutes and the system has just started behaving this way, we can assume that the software is not broken. There could technically be an issue with the PLC’s operating software such as the operating system, or the user is doing something that the machine wasn’t intended for and programmed it to do something out of its bounds. However, that whole scenario is unlikely. Based on what we learned, this sounds like there is an issue with the PLC overheating or with...