Effective February 17, 2010, we will no longer offer our custom-designed PLC Programming Courses.

Please note that this change in policy does NOT affect our popular 5-Day Boot Camp style classes – which are still being offered exactly as before. Although these are not intended to be programming classes, they make extremely effective “first step” courses for students who plan to become programmers. Our Boot Camp courses provide in-depth coverage of how the PLC handles field inputs and outputs, and a step-by-step analysis of the processor’s scan cycle. These are critical concepts required for effective programming.

The following free friendly advice is offered for anyone who is genuinely motivated to become a PLC programmer:

(1) Join one of the two public PLC forums that are mentioned on the "Links to PLC Resources" page of my website. (Note that I have no financial connection with any of the resources that are listed.) Membership in either forum is free and can be anonymous if you wish.

(2) Click here to read a pertinent forum thread – and pay particular attention to the "self help plan" that I outlined in Post #7.

Notice that this is a suggested course of action for anyone who wants to gain PLC programming skills – at ZERO cost. The main idea is that the forum members make up a very helpful community of PLC professionals (and students) and they are more than willing to help anyone who is genuinely motivated to learn the trade. Next click here and skim through a "follow up" thread to get an idea of the level of free help and advice that can be expected from the forum members. The scope of the project involved in that thread might be beyond what a beginner might expect to accomplish – but the generous amount of free help which was provided by the forum members is the main point that I'd like to make.

(3) Pick a suitable programming project – and then regularly post your "work in progress" and any questions that you might have on the forum. Ideally the project would be specific to the actual systems that you will eventually be programming. Starting and maintaining a single forum thread would be best. The forum members (myself included) will be more than happy to help with free advice and critiques as your project proceeds.

Besides being free of cost, the main advantage to the approach that I've just outlined is that it could be done completely over the internet and at your own pace. On the other hand, one significant disadvantage is that there will be no opportunity for any face-to-face interaction between the student and the instructors (the forum members.) Even so, if you're suitably motivated, the lack of in-person instruction can probably be overcome by devoting enough time and energy to the project. Only hindsight will tell whether any ultimate benefit from this type of training will be worth the amount of time and effort required.

Naturally the same "time vs. benefit" argument could also be made against any other type of online training. The only real differences would be in the (often significant) amount of money involved – and in how well the online instructor's choice of a programming assignment would match the real-world job requirements that you will eventually face. Any internet search will turn up innumerable online programming courses advertising final objectives such as: "The student will be able to recognize ..." – or - "The student will be able to discuss ..." and so on. The course objectives seldom (if ever) mention any concrete skills which would be useful in actually writing a PLC program – and it's extremely rare to find any type of guarantee that the course will actually satisfy the student's job requirements.

We hope that the advice offered above is helpful, and we wish you the greatest success in the future.

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: February 17, 2010