Hello all. I work for a small company that is being dragged kicking and screaming into the automation industry. Are the AB training courses worth the money? We have a very small start up budget. The main thing that I am worried about is the actual communication to the plc. Once I get online I do fine, but I have already given my laptop the blue screen of death once for installing the incorrect driver on RSLinx. Any suggestions for literature that is in plain english would be most appreciated.

This should help:

The literature library on Rockwells web site has all the information one could ever need. The only thing is it sometimes takes a while to sift through everything you don't need, but the search functions narrow it down pretty good. If you get stuck you can always search previous posts or ask in here. I have found this site to be a great help, more so than any 2 or 3 day class that I have been too. Exposure to real world systems and equipment is the key. If you don't use it you loose it.

Make sure you take the portion out of that budget needed to get the annual support from AB for all of your products. Since AB revamped their support pricing (based on the # of engineers and not products making it very reasonable), phone support comes in very handy.

Pricing example: $650 ish for annual telephone support and updates for one engineer on the following products:

RSLogix 500
RSLogix 5000
RsNetworx (all)
Panelbuilder 1400e
Ultraware
GML
RSView ME (PV+)
a couple of others I don't offhand recall

-Jeff

To add to what jstolaruk was saying, being a small company you may feel that the support cost is not worth it but trust me it is especially when you are starting out.

If you have a question or a problem, don't fight it for hours trying to figure it out, call them and let them help you. That is what they are there for and having your project start up smoothly looks a lot better to the customer than them seeing you stare at a computer screen for hour after hour trying to get it running. It won't take but a few times of using it to pay for the support cost compared to the hours lost trying to work it out on your own.

And as far as the training, personally I do not feel it is worth it. I have never been to an Allen Bradley training seminar but I have been to other companies "training" seminars and they seem to push more product introduction and sales than technical training.

I have been to RSView and advanced PLC, from AB, they were good but the company I work for has money, I would look at there online classes and/or there CD versions.

I just like to keep trying until I have to post a topic on the web asking for help, saying things like “ I don’t know what happened this error just popped up, I didn’t even look at it, it just happened”

Thanks for the info guys. My main concern is being called out on a service call to troubleshoot a plc and not being to connect or worse yet crash a system. Just a little knowlegde and a lot a of practice is what I need.

On a side note. I noticed that the support and training for Modicon is a lot cheaper than AB. Considering checking them out for new installations. Any opinions?

I would suggest you become familiar with as many different products as possible. Many companies will not give you the choice of which Plc you use, they will specify which Plc you are to use. In these situation it helps to be familiar enough with the product that you can talk to the customer about it. Then you can rush back to your place and figure out the details

TWCONTROLS Sounds like you and I went to the same schools for electrical work. Know enough to sound convincing, then cram all the knowlege you can get your hands on into your head so you can do it. Hence the prediciment I am in now.

Well kind of. My boss at a previous company would go to a company alone and he knew absolutely nothing about controls, but he could sell gold plated dog poop. He would go on to promise them everything they wanted, a ton of extra things including star trek replicators, the beans that Jack used to grow his bean stalk, and a free trip with Peter Pan.

He would then come to me and tell me everything he promised them. When I would tell him we couldn't be do it, he would tell me that he had already told them we could do it and go figure out how. This did make me come up with some very innovative programs, but also cause a ton of headaches and sleepless nights.

After a while I figured out it would be much easier if I went to the customer with him, but he said I was too honest and if I wasn't sure if a particular control could do something or not I would tell them that instead of BS ing my way through it.

So I made sure I was familier with the controls that a company used before I went into the company. That way I could discuss the details with the customer and recommend alternatives if I didn't feel we could make it work. My boss didn't like me saying no a control couldn't do something but the customer seemed to appreciate it.