Programming Skills for the PLC-5 Using RSLogix5 – Discrete Signals

Note: This page is an example of a custom-designed workshop to demonstrate the amount of detail that can be included in one of these courses. Customers are invited to contact us to discuss their specific training requirements. We’ll be glad to work up a free detailed course specification and provide a no-obligation quote for your consideration. For maximum flexibility, our custom-designed workshops can be priced by the day or by the hour and can accommodate from one to six students in a class.

This ten-day, hands-on course for plant engineering personnel is custom-designed for the Acme Corporation to:

• cover the skills required to design and write ladder logic programs for Allen-Bradley PLC-5 controllers consistent with the layout and complexity of the existing LOWSIDE.RSP program currently in use at the Acme plant in Anytown, AS
• cover the fundamental skills required to link HMI/SCADA devices to the PLC for operator control and for basic data transfer

The following topics will be presented through hands-on exercises and demonstrations:

• Designing, organizing, and programming the PLC ladder logic project
• Main Control Programs, Selectable Timed Interrupts, Processor Input Interrupts, Subroutines, Jumps, etc. and their effects on the program scan
• Using indirect and indexed addressing
• Passing input and return parameters to and from subroutine ladder files
• Safety issues when using retentive vs. non-retentive programming techniques
• Using I/O forces during program commissioning and debugging; techniques and safety issues
• Program debugging and troubleshooting techniques using custom data monitors, histograms, trends, and the advanced diagnostics search feature
• Fundamentals of Emergency Cut-Off systems; wiring and programming for fail-safe operation
• Programming Block Transfer Reads and Writes to communicate with various I/O modules and with PanelView devices
• Using the Global Status Flags and the Message instruction to communicate between PLCs on the Data Highway Plus network
• Programming basic fault handlers
• Programming basic alarm handlers
• Documenting the PLC program with address comments, page titles, and rung comments
• Designing and implementing a basic HMI/SCADA project
• Concepts and practices of using the following specific instructions: MCR, FRD, AND, OR, XOR, LIM, CMP, CPT, FAL, MVM, DTR, BSR, BTD, RTO, TOF, FOR/NXT, FSC, and IIN as used in the customer’s existing programs, and other ladder logic instructions as required

This course will be conducted using the Problem/Solution method of instruction. There are absolutely no transparency projectors and no PowerPoint slide shows involved. Instead, all of the course material is presented through a series of hands-on exercises and programming projects which each student performs on an individual workstation.

Students successfully completing this course will be awarded 8.0 Continuing Education units.

In order to provide each student with an individual workstation and with adequate instructor attention, the class size is normally limited to two students. Please note that this ten-day course covers a large amount of material and that some students may consider the pace to be quite demanding. This is not an entry-level class. It is required that students have the PLC skills covered in our P1540 course or equivalent knowledge and experience.

IMPORTANT: In order to optimize the use of classroom time and to insure the effectiveness of this course, students are required to submit a “programming project” to the instructor a minimum of two weeks before the class meets. Subject to approval by both the instructor and the students’ immediate supervisor, the application specified by this project will serve as the primary focus of the students’ programming exercises. The application may consist of any reasonable type of machinery (real, imaginary, existing, or proposed) which incorporates the programming techniques and objectives of this course. Students may use text, pseudo-code, outlines, flowcharts, or any combination of these or other methods in detailing the specifications of the application. The project must include detailed sketches of the machinery layout to be used in the HMI/SCADA development phase of the class. A detailed I/O listing is also required. Students are invited to contact the instructor for guidance during this stage of the training.

For more information, or to register, just contact us at:

843-437-1883          - phone
843-225-0512          - fax
ronbeaufort@gmail.com - email

© Copyright - R.H.Beaufort - Charleston, SC – Updated: May 6, 2008

Printable copy of these sample course specifications as PDF file