Course or Book to Start Learning PLC Programming?

If you can make it drive something physical, it will be really fun, e.g Legos has sets (Lego Technic) with motors and gears and such, and there are also Meccano/Erector sets:

https://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?p=847150#post847150

https://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?p=847119#post847119

P.S. MicroLogix 1100, not 1000; the former has Ethernet in addition to serial; the latter has serial only. Although learning how trivial serial can be sometimes be will also give them a leg up; see my homemade serial line below.

PXL_20230403_151501012.jpg
 
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drbitboy said:
If you can make it drive something physical, it will be really fun, e.g Legos has sets (Lego Technic) with motors and gears and such, and there are also Meccano/Erector sets:

https://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?p=847150#post847150

https://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?p=847119#post847119

P.S. MicroLogix 1100, not 1000; the former has Ethernet in addition to serial; the latter has serial only. Although learning how trivial serial can be sometimes be will also give them a leg up; see my homemade serial line below.
Click to expand...

Looks like my floor at home except I've attached some hokey male high density D-sub pins into the two pins for the Modbus comms on the 1100 for testing.



Know what an excellent home project is for a PLC and home automation.... An ammunition reloading rig with a few sensors, and cylinder for activating the arm with part sensing and brass annealing motors!
 
dummy_bit said:
Depending on the age of your son, check your local junior college for industrial controls courses. You tend to learn more hands on than just reading a book. Buy a PLC and let them tinker. (24VDC version would be much safer)
Click to expand...

BINGO. That's how I got my start, its been decades since. ISA taught a 10 night course at a community college. I still have the class material.
 
Since it hasn't been mentioned yet, I would throw my hat in the ring for something that you might already have. A Raspberry Pi running CodeSys would be great for this situation. Add in the Book of CODESYS, and he can be off and running in practically no time. I am admittedly stuck in Rockwell land here at work, but at home, I have been working on very small projects with my 5 year old son teaching him boolean logic, and getting him prepared for bigger and better things. I don't remember off hand which runtime I purchased, but I know I have HMI access as well.
 
MikeyN said:
Since it hasn't been mentioned yet, I would throw my hat in the ring for something that you might already have. A Raspberry Pi running CodeSys would be great for this situation. Add in the Book of CODESYS, and he can be off and running in practically no time. I am admittedly stuck in Rockwell land here at work, but at home, I have been working on very small projects with my 5 year old son teaching him boolean logic, and getting him prepared for bigger and better things. I don't remember off hand which runtime I purchased, but I know I have HMI access as well.
Click to expand...

+1
If you're set on or ready to buy hardware for an aspiring young future programmer and they've proven that they are interested and enjoy coding enough (through actions, not just their words), then yes, the Raspberry Pi would be my choice too, since one can both learn and do way more on that platform than what they can do and learn on a dedicated PLC (one-trick pony). It's why I'm such a proponent of free coding software first for these aspiring programmers - prove to me with those first that you're interested enough before I invest in hardware. With that said, building a trainer with real hardware has been on my to-do list for a few years now, but my project list keeps getting longer and longer, so can't ever seem to find the time.

I get young co-ops that come through our department every quarter or college semester. When they arrive as a fresh co-op, I'm one of the first persons they get sent to for mentoring, work, projects, etc. It doesn't matter their college major, they get sent to me somewhere in the beginning of their co-op time. These young adults are fresh out of high school and most haven't even started their first college courses yet, 17-18 year olds. When they first come and see me and after the formalities, I right away start them off with the PLC coding "lab assignment" that I described in my previous post. It doesn't matter to me what their major is, they all get the coding assignment first. One young girl says to me - "But my major is M.E.!" I'm like, "Yeah, I know....:ROFLMAO:". I've seen some come through and enjoy coding more than they thought or knew, while others it is just the opposite - really ambitious and ready to jump right in thinking it's something they always wanted to do or learn, and then after the 'lab assignment' they find out it's not. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to convince any M.E. co-ops to switch majors to E.E. or software developer....yet. 🤞🏻
 
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Another option to look into would be Udemy as there are decent training courses there as well.

A big recommendation I can give is to snag up the bundle deal on this website. Grab the beginner, intermediate, lab, and electronics books and start diving in!
 
arpus4KM said:
Now take those and do basic IO, Basic latch circuit, Basic timers, Basic sequencing and progress into communication where maybe you use the Click, which can do modbus. and you get a 10 dollar Modbus relay board from amazon and learn how to wire it up and send message instructions via Modbus RTU. Once you get to that point, you are ahead of a lot of people who have been around PLCs for a decade but have never had the courage to try something they are uncomfortable with.
Click to expand...


Although I wasn't the one asking the question I saw this reply. This is a great way to learn Modbus and I don't have any experience with it yet, but I may have a project coming up at work where I will need it. Thanks for the idea of a cheap modbus relay board, I found it on Amazon and bought it.
 

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