BIN95

Free Online PLC Source and Sink Training Course

12 posts in this topic

Here is a free PLC Source and Sink Course that will make for a good refresher should a visitor want one. It has 4 interactives (like games), a video, a Powerpoint with more details, via instructor notes included, and a free online quiz. No login required, no contact info, no strings. Only hoping if you like, you share with others. More free online PLC training at http://bin95.com/University/

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some of the free free plc simulators are available..logixpro,trilog..logixpro is a simulator for allen bradley 15days trial version is available for free download..with this we can easily learn plc programming.. Free PLC Programming Softwrae

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Thanks for sharing the great resources Sugina. Those viewing the free PLC simulators (or limited trials) should always be aware, with free, you get what you paid for. While free PLC training, or experimenting and playing around with PLC simulators is great to get you started, or fill in gaps, it does not qualify one to work with PLCs on million dollar equipment with possible damage to machine or man. To actually start working with PLCs, employers should require employees receive PLC training by an independent company who specializes in PLC training. Learning through experimentation with simulators for example, does not insure one is using best practices, safety and reliability while working with dangerous expensive equipment. Just a bit of advice for those first starting out reading this. For more advice on what PLC training is needed, see http://bin95.blogspot.com/2012/02/path-to-plc-expertise.html

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Pratik, given my previous post above about free PLC training not being enough, you should recommend to your viewers of that new techie help forum you're promoting, that they review what extent of PLC training is actually required out in the real world, show them PLC Training Org. at http://plc-training.org

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Haha, this website is a scam, as far as I'm concerned. BIN95 creates a website with a nice ORG domain name, designs a fancy seal (not that it's really all that fancy), and outlines the "correct" method to train individuals on PLC programming. It looks as though it was put together by some independent group of individuals trying to establish a proper standard. Except it's not. It's put together by BIN95 (see the small print at the bottom), so that they can hold it up and say "See? Look? You need to pay us because we follow this international standard! Look! It even has a seal!" Lies. If it's all the same to you, I'll stick to following standards established by the IEC or IEEE and other established groups. Certainly not the PLO (PLC Training Organization... Do you even have legal rights to that name?) Cheers Edited by MrAutomation

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Hi "I Break Things". Something must have been lost in the translation. The site is to help people make better decisions in obtaining PLC training, so I have no idea why it would make you angry. It is about organizing the many topics associated with PLC training (not just education, but actual training), and not about wiring standandards, automation design standards, or any standards. It is about best practice training to work with PLC and related automation, just as it states clearly on the site. You are absolutely correct, everyone should be following standards established by the IEC or IEEE. The site is not about standards, it is about best practices. As clearly stated on PLC-training.org Standards do not neccessarly cover all the best practices in working with PLCs or even PLC programming. Just because most people do something a certain way, doesn't necessarily mean that is the best way either. The site is not about standards, it is about establishing the best approach to complete PLC training. Edited by BIN95

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Hi Everything you say is totally valid, except there is the issue of full disclosure on your site. It appears to be made by some independent third party. When you linked to it, you never mentioned anything about it being made by BIN95. I totally beleived is was made by a third party until I took a closer look. To get the respect of your clients, full disclosure is necessary. On top of that, it the law. I'm no lawyer, so I'm not going to say whether this is breaking any full disclosure laws or not, but I'd say you'd probably be best to have a nice big BIN95 logo at the top and say "This site is provided by BIN95 to provide best practices... etc". Then it would seem a lot more legitimate. Edited by MrAutomation

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Thanks for the advice "I Break Things". For 20+ years BIN (BIN95) has been doing things to give back to the industry that it serves. Including hosting websites for other companies and organizations (like AFE org chapter website) for free as long as they are directly related to the same industry. BIN has even gave thousands of dollars in free training away, host US veteran internet properties too, to support our vet. And like all other companies that host websites for others, they typically just place in small font at the bottom of the site designed by (or copyright) and then webdesigner/host name. That is common practice, because if the website hosting company plaster their own company logo all over the customers website they designed for them, visitors may get confused and think content being viewed is by/about website designer, not inity they designed it for. The plc-training.org will list/promote best practice content from any company/org/school as long as it is best practices, and you do not want visitors to think that content/product is provided by BIN, the respective owner of content would not appreciate that either. :) When it comes to PLC training, you will be hard pressed to figure out who really runs/owns many of the top website you find. Even on this site, it just list at bottom of each page "© 2015 MrPLC.com" and contact form reveils owner may be located in North Carolina, you do not know for sure if MrPLC is the actual company name, what name of president is, etc. But a greater example is a college from your own country "I Break Things", Canada. That would be GB college, many visitors to some of their many website, think they are a USA college, some of their sites, you would be hard pressed to figure out the website is actually GB college site, like plclogix.com. GB may be just hosting that site for one of their instructors and do not want visitors to think the product is theres, don't know and it should matter. As long as the content/product is what I am looking for. :) There are opposite examples too, like where one PLC vendor promotes their PLC training, but actually their PLC training is provided by a 3rd party. If you dig hard enough, you will learn that, but is not in your face, first page. :) But the bottom line is your advice is good, because just because everyone else just puts a little copyright at bottom of page, the standard practice, does not necessarily mean it is the best practice. The best way may be as you recommended, for the reason you recommended. That has to be considered by plc-training.org. Speaking of full disclosure, who do you work for "I Break Things" ? I work for BIN Thanks again.

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"I Break Things" is what I do. MrAutomation is my user name. I work for a company that owns several mills in the forest industry, performing project based work at several locations. Before that I worked as a consultant in the oil & gas industry. And even before that I was an electrician. So now you know. I have one last comment to make. If you host a site for someone else (ie. Veterans), that's great, and you certainly shouldn't put your company name on it. If you design an extra website of your own, and it directly has to deal with the product you are trying to sell, then full disclosure is necessary. That's two entirely different things. Edited by MrAutomation

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Cool MrAutomation, I can relate to your current job, as have trained many maintenance and engineering in the pulp/paper industry.In fact at a GP plant now, going on my last or 3 weeks to train all maintenance here in PLCs. I see where you are coming from, because the site is new, and BIN offers so much from so many vendors, it does look like it is just about BIN offerings, but it is not. If other product and service providers, content. etc fit within best -practices objective, they/it will be listed on that site too. When BIN95 finds a training product that meets our high standards, and suites our training objective, I will make deals with company author of those products to offer the best for less from BIN95.com. So while it appears most of the links recommended on PLC-training.org go to bin95.com, they are realy products from some of the most well know designers in our industry. So the link may go to bin95.com, but the products are from LogicPro, koldwater, Simutech etc. , etc. The best in the industry, but we negotiate with owners to try to keep the prices as low as possible. (some times that is still too high for the individual, but we do try to do our best to keep low, but can only do so much. On sites we host that are specifically to promote BIN, we do use BIN logo etc. Like our free download site at http://industrial-ebooks.com/You won't see much about BIN (logo and such) on http://www.downtimecentral.com/oee.shtml becuase that site is my own personal site I personaly had created a couple decades ago when I wrote my first book on The True Cost of Downtime. (I now have a 2nd edition of TDC book published with co-author and world renown RCM expert Mike sondalini.) But when I can afford it, I need to have downtimecentral re-designed as it is so 1997 and some broken areas :) Given you occupation, you might be interested in reading some of my published papers in magazine and journals. You should find them pretty unique (others not writing about what I did.) You will probably not have time today as you might be watching the Super Bowl, but check the papers below out next week, you should find something of interest. What OEMs Don't Tell End Users about PACs(Link) Control Design MagazineJanuary 15, 2015Article about additional considerations machine designers (OEM) should be giving to end users facing stark differences between the PLC and the PAC and to assisting in the awareness of disparities in the two systems. Machine manufacturers using a PAC for control should keep in mind during control programming and design that the end users may not be strong in PAC/computer architecture, computer...more Control Panel Design with Maintenance in Mind(Link) Control Design MagazineFebruary 15, 2014Some Considerations for Designers and Builders of Control Panels to Help Ensure the Panels' Maintainability, With the true cost of downtime being so high, maintenance-friendly control panel design is required to reduce that downtime. The lack of maintainability concerns in control system design can be attributed to oversight, initial-cost reduction and not understanding installation and usage...more TLC for PLC(Link) Industrial Engineering MagazineApril 1, 2012"The standard operation of companies involves managing risk, whether that risk comes from safety or financial factors. Despite this fact, most companies do little or nothing to manage the safety or financial risk related to their controller automation. This is quite surprising for manufacturing and production companies that depend primarily on equipment and process automation. Those involved in...more PLC Maintenance Management(Link) Chemical Engineering MagazineNovember 1, 2007An article that starts off asking the right questions… Do you know what a PLC is? How maintenance interacts with the PLCs in your facility? How many PLCs is your bottom line depending on? Then the article goes on to advise you on what you should know about each of those PLCs, how to manage them, and what training your people should have. The article also provides additional resources and tools to...more What is the True Downtime Cost(Link) Facilities Engineering JournalMarch 1, 2002"The key to realizing greater savings from more informed management decisions is to predetermine the "True" cost of downtime for each profit center category. TDC is a activity based costing methodology of analyzing all cost factors associated with downtime, and using this information for cost justification and day to day management decisions. Most likely, this data is already being collected in...more Have a great Super Bowl Sunday Mr. Automation.

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I was browsing through this post again MrAutomation and thought of another great example that you could relate to your screen name. :) Most who browse and used for years http://www.automation.com/may never realize it is realy own by the company International Society of Automation (ISA.org) (See http://www.automation.com/about-us) At least with http://plc-training.org/it is mentioned on the bottom of every page who owns it. So while full disclosure may not be 'in your face' like you want it to be MrAutomation, PLC-Training.org is more transparent than most other larger companies ['organizations']. Just thought I would give one more example, you could relate to, out of the thousands of examples out there.

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