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This is an important concept to get down when learning to program modern Allen-Bradley/Rockwell PLCs (PACs). Check out this free PLC training video on tag aliasing!

Want to become a confident PLC programmer? Check out our PLC training course called "The Confident PLC Programmer Method".

All part of myPLCtraining Academy.

Enjoy this free PLC training resource on Studio 5000 Logix Designer tag-aliasing!

Take care,

Stephen Gates

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT BELOW

Hey, it's Stephen from myplctraining.com. I got a quick video for you on tag aliasing in Studio 5000 Logix Designer or RSLogix 5000.

Tag aliasing is very simple to learn, but can be confusing for some people when you're getting started, so we're going to talk about how to use aliasing to address physical inputs and outputs to tags in your Studio 5000 project.

Before we get into this, I've got to ask if you've gotten my free cheat sheet yet? It's called, The Three Things You Need To Know To Understand Any PLC System. You can find the...

Rockwell Automation's Connected Components Workbench software is the programming software for one of the newer PLC product lines called the Micro800 controllers.

This is free PLC programming software that you can download from Rockwell's website here.

Search for CCW, choose "Standard" edition, choose the latest version and then follow the prompts to download the software (NOTE: you'll need to setup a free account with Rockwell if you don't already have one).

Now let's jump into the training video!

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT BELOW

Hey there guys. It's Stephen Gates from myPLCtraining.com, with another video to help you become a confident plc programmer. In this video, I'm going to introduce you to one of Rockwell's newer plc programming platforms, and particularly the software involved with this platform. And that is called Connected Components Workbench, sometimes shortened with CCW. So, this is the software used to program Rockwell's micro 800 control systems. So they have micro 810, the...

I recently interviewed Mark R. who works for a marine company in the Chicago, IL area. Mark is not a student of myPLCtraining.com but I was really interested in his story because he has accomplished what many other motivated electricians have accomplished and what a lot of my audience is working toward…advancing his career as a an electrician with PLC programming and automation skills.

He now works as a controls technician and is making a really good salary.

This interview was actually just a very informal conversation we had through my website chat widget. He had some questions about my training courses and then we started talking about his career. Check out the interview below!

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Stephen: what's your role with the company?

Mark R: I was an electrician and have recently been promoted to a controls technician. I have some experience with Rs500 but little with 5000

Stephen: Wow congrats!

that's awesome. How did you land that promotion?

Mark R:

I believe hard...

This is a quick tutorial on how to set up a Logix Designer project. This lesson and many more on Studio 5000 Logix Designer (and RSLogix 5000) are available inside myPLCtraining Academy.

I hope this helps you get started with RSLogix 5000/Logix Designer. If you enjoyed this lesson, you can learn more from the Become a Confident PLC Programmer course inside myPLCtraining Academy:

Click here to find out more about myPLCtraining Academy.

What did you take away from this lesson? What's one thing you can implement right away? Let us know in the comments below.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT BELOW

Welcome to Module 2. In this module, we are going to be getting into the nitty-gritty programming stuff that you need to learn to become a confident PLC programmer. As you should know by now, the software we will be spending most of our time on will be Studio 5000, Logix Designer. This is the software you use to program Rockwell's primary PAC platforms, control logix and compact logix.

Here's what you'll...

If you're new to Allen-Bradley PLC programming, I'm going to give you some information that you can put to work...immediately! In this free Allen-Bradley PLC training tutorial I'll walk you through the basics of addressing discrete inputs, outputs, binary bits, timers and counters.

For this basic PLC training tutorial, you will need RSLogix 500 or Micro to be able to test the concepts of this post. If you don't already have RSLogix 500 or Micro yet, you can get it along with RSLinx and RSLogix Emulate 500 by watching the first video in my FREE Mini PLC Course .

Also, if you want an introduction to Ladder Logic before you start, check out this post. For everyone else, open up your RSLogix 500 (or 5 or Micro) and let's get to work.

NOTE: This is an original post, however it was inspired by a similar post at Engineer-and-Technician.com. You can see that post here.

Bits

A bit is computer-speak for a value or register that can only be a 1 or a 0; true or false. Discrete inputs...

Beginner’s Free PLC Training Series Outline

1. Introduction to PLCs
2. PLC Processors (CPU)
3. PLC Inputs and Outputs (I/O)
4. PLC Ladder Logic

When people ask me what I do, I usually say something like “I work as an engineer for an electrical company”. If they are curious enough to ask more, I usually tell them that I do some control system design and a LOT of programming. Most people picture the stereotypical programmer pounding out miles and miles of a text-based language like C++, Java or HTML (dare I say a nerdy?).

I usually try to explain that programming PLCs is different than typical computer programming and how PLCs are used to automate industrial equipment using a graphical-based programming language called Ladder Logic and how I create programs to automate electrical back-up generators and switchgear...then when their eyes begin to glaze over...I realize...I am a nerd after all. But PLC programmers are nerdy in a different way.

You may become nerdy...

Beginner’s Free PLC Training Series Outline

1. Introduction to PLCs
2. PLC Processors (CPU)
3. PLC Inputs and Outputs (I/O)
4. PLC Ladder Logic

Welcome to part 3 of the "Beginner's Free PLC Training" series! Before we get started, if you have not read Part 1 and Part 2 of the Beginner's Free PLC Training series, I recommend that you do that now before continuing this post.

Ok, moving on, in this post we are jumping into PLC inputs and outputs, often referred to simply as I/O. But before we do that, let's do a little review.

In part 1 I gave an introduction to PLCs. We talked about what PLCs are, their history, and how they work compared to a dishwasher.

In part 2 we looked deeper into what the PLC processor does, the relationship between the PLC processor and the human brain, and we looked at a few of Allen-Bradley's most popular PLC/PAC processors.

Now it's time to get a little more specific with what the PLC CPU controls: PLC I/O! In this post we will discuss...

Beginner’s Free PLC Training Series Outline

1. Introduction to PLCs
2. PLC Processors (CPU)
3. PLC Inputs and Outputs (I/O)
4. PLC Ladder Logic

In part 1 of the Beginner's Free PLC Training, I gave an introduction to PLCs. We talked about what PLCs are, their history, and how they work. If you haven't read it yet be sure to start there: Beginner's PLC Free PLC Training Part 1 of 4: Introduction to PLCs.

After you've read that, you're ready to begin this post where we will get a little deeper into the PLC 's Central Processing Unit (CPU) by using the human brain as an analogy and then we will briefly cover some examples of Allen-Bradley PLC/PAC processors.

NOTE: In the industrial automation realm it is common to use the terms processor, CPU or controller interchangeably. So don't get confused when I do that! :)

What is a PLC Processor?

You should remember from part 1 that most of the components of a PLC system can be categorized as one of the following:

• ...

If you've been wanting to get into industrial automation and been looking for basic PLC training, but you are not sure where to start, then this Beginner’s Free PLC Training blog series has been written for you!

After you’ve read this 4-part free PLC training series you should be able to identify the primary components of a PLC system and have a basic understanding of the purpose and function of PLCs (and PACs).

When you complete this series, you should be ready to begin learning PLC programming. If you have any questions about this content, please feel free to comment on the post. So, without further delay, let’s jump right into our introduction to PLCs!

Beginner’s Free PLC Training Series Outline

1. Introduction to PLCs
2. PLC Processors (CPU)
3. PLC Inputs and Outputs (I/O)
4. PLC Ladder Logic

Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) are small industrial computers with modular components designed to automate customized control processes. PLCs are often used in...