Roarke

thanks for all the help... The first article TWControls suggested is really helpful. The learningpit looks interesting too.

birmingham, alabama

My dad's company does industrial controls service/installation and, since i'm just getting out of electrical engineering school, old dad laid it upon me to specify some new plc's for a client of his. The client is a local water utility and is set up in a 'scada' system with about 30 rtu's. Its a very simple sysem from a control standpoint--just turning pumps on/off and reading 4-20 pressure transmitters. I chose the AB Micrologix line and bought 3 1100's, along with rslogix 500, to start the changeover from the old pribusin controllers talking over leased phone lines. The 1100's will communicate via Radius radio modems. Eventually the base unit might become a Micrologix 1500 or something like it. And here is where the plot thickens...my learning curve on the rs logix 500 is much steeper than i had planned on. I've sort of gotten bogged down in learning the input/output addressing, communications configuration, etc.. I've done programming in C, Java, HTML, Assemply, Basic, scripting languages, etc and had previously written ladder logic for the AB Picocontrollers. So i feel like i have an adaquete background for this work but am fairly rushed to get this project going. So my questions to the forums are these: Whats the most efficient way to learn how to use these software tools? I've considered buying the RS Trainer course (http://www.itekinc.com/rslogix500.html' target="_blank">). Has anyone out there used that software and care to offer an evaluation? Are there other books, media, etc out there to assist in learning how to use these plc's?? Thanks in advance in newbie humblness, Roarke