tony8404

Well, i am not sure anymore... I look at Devry, I look at ITT Tech, I look at the school I am attending...I have even looked at the community college i once attended back in 96 (i was going for mis but at that time it did not make sense ) .... I look at the annoyance I have caused in this forum due to not knowing what i am talking about, not to mention jumping at anything that looks good but yet would just create a destruction unimaginable... All i know now is that i have at least changed my current program to the ECM program, from now till feb 2nd i am going to read my buttocks off from a book i bought called basic electricity, not to mention even going over the books i got from this school which can speak probably more then for half the teachers at the freaking place. Then when I start back up again maybe i can have that upper hand and fly through it. After that i do not know what to do, even though i know for sure schooling maybe be out of the question......... You can not trust them as you would have before within the last 30 years...... There is no way in heck i could ever attend a 4 year university.... Alll i know is that i wish if anyone has children that reads this, and is still pretty young that they can make a difference with there life before its too late in the case of me to for the love of god, please let your children know how important it is to go to school........... I wish my father would have done that.... But how can i blame him if all he was trying to do was make things better.... All i know is i have never been so disappointed in this country .... These so called trade schools should really be condemmed and should be illegal, all they are is money hungry. I would like to see obama do something about this because i believe it is happening more then people think.... Just go ahead and type ITT Tech is it worth it In google search All i have to say choose the red or blue pill please!!!!

Well, tonight i had finally gotten in touch with someone at the school about switching my classes and i did. I also was doing some looking around at different schools such as ITT Tech and Devry. I was seeing about there Engineer B.S. degree they have at ITT Tech and does not look bad but when i did some searching on the net it was a different story every time i click a different link provided by the search and they were not good stories... I am not sure if it is a good idea anymore. I was excited at first due to seeing they have the same schedule i am on now, which is 4.5 hours, 3 days a week. Also, found out that travel time same amount of time but will have to get a beater car for myself but oh well if this is a good thing i can by a better one later lol. But alot of the stuff i read was not good but yet it was not where i would be attending a campus at. So right now i am about to look around with a more indepth search with the campuses around my area. By chance anyone been to ITT Tech or looked into it or just knows if it is worth it or not? I would love to get that B.S. in there Engineering degree. Not to mention there is math classes along with it too but they kept out the General Ed classes. I wonder if this is why they say you can finish in two years? Even if there not a good choice. what about Devry? i do not believe they have night classes for there engineering B.S. program. Not to mention Devry may have you take General Ed classes like comp or psychology.

Sorry i have not checked the thread since last friday, I had to fix my 50 year old boiler that i cannot afford to replace but thank god i am handy lol. Anyways Devo with your experience you may or may not know much about the est side of job enviroment but i was thinking it seems either way i go there will be overtime lol and harsh enviroments. to me it seems more money in the ecm but yet the est would be more of a different day everyday. god these decisions

Devo, i am so glad you responded. I was hoping people that are in the field or with your amount of experience would pop in. I am leaning to the ecm program more now then the est. Last night i was in class and i swear to god, i feel i could have accomplished more at home then i did there. We watched the entire footb game last night and the teacher ordered rib tips 3 buckets worth. so instead of just sitting there i almost read the entire book for the class. but yet i want to get something for my 14,000 instead of something i can actually learn on my own. i think this is why i may just switch to the ecm program because i can take my manuals for my home theatre equipment and learn on my own lol. The only thing i wonder is if the ecm program would be good enough to get me in a job? I was told by the school the whole time i am there is considered experience and i will be there for just about 1.5 years when i graduate so i hope i can use that as experience.

Ianbuckley, thank you for the response, that is another thing i was wanting to hear from people in the forum even though you may not be in chicago it still helps me get an idea which path to choose. I was speaking with someone last night, he had told me that if it were him he would stay with the est program due to the easier work load then working at a factory on motors. I had said i would really like to work on plc's but there is not just a job for plc's its a mix i guess but not sure of what and i am thinking the ecm program is the way to go if i want to work on plc's due to the different courses included in that program. But for those of you that are in the electrical construction maintenance industry are the job conditions that bad? i mean labor wise. Another thing i was told was that a technician would get more higher respect then a ecm guy would ... i had asked why is this... he had said jokingly when he was at work with other engineers they would make fun of the electrician calling them 60 cycle electricians due to them only working with ac.. i had said that to me when i see those guys in there class room it looks challenging to what i am doing in class like watching movies and the teacher showing funny stuff on youtube..... see where i am coming from????

Robh, thank you for the response. like you were saying there is alot of huff with the est program, not to mention when i am in class now the class is 4.5 hours 3 days a week. but the thing is its a blow off... Monday we just started our home theater class and we watched the matrix and gladiator !!! Last night there is a new person in our class, well, for alittle over 2 hours was a discusion on politics!!! the last hour last night we finally got into the different cables, which i already know by learning myself. This really makes me mad cause i can be learning on my own instead.... but if i was in the ecm program i would be learning everynight. I will call around different employers and see what kind of description the job is what is required. I do not know why but i feel the need to get into plc's... would i make more money doing the ecm or the est ? also, i was thinking once i am done with school i was gonna go to something along the lines of allen bradleys courses as well. which out of the two programs would i have the better success with???

I may not have given enough info for you guys to help me out here.... I am trying to see which of the two programs is more worth the while. the ecm program has a plc class in it along with single and 3-phase motors, also redisdential wiring ect.ect. the est is mostly tech stuff like optics, telecommunications, home theater, burglar/fire alarms, satelite dishes. I talked with my father and he was saying the ecm is more like factory work like i would fix motors maybe plc stuff as well. he was saying that the est is probably a little more respected then the ecm. to me if i switch to the ecm program i would have single and 3 phas motors along with plc and other stuff, which would let me work with plc's like i would like to do but do not have the time or chance to go for a associates or bachelors. i know there is no such thing as a plc guy it is a mix of stuff but which would be more successful in the long run ecm or est.. by the way here is a link to my schools web page which you can see the courses for each program. thanks guys i hope i did not bable to much :O) http://www.coyneamerican.edu/programs/elec...-technician.php est program here http://www.coyneamerican.edu/programs/elec...maintenance.php ecm program here

Hello everyone, i had posted a while back on how to learn plc's on your own. I am already attending a trade school for electronic system technician program which you earn a diploma. The thing that is confusing me is this, I have a smudge on my background and i still am not sure yet if i can or cannot have the smudge removed. Even though this had happen back in 1996 i still am sure it has not gone away yet. With that said, I feel i will not be able to require my perk card which is required to get a job with burlar/fire alarm tech or installer. So i have till august this year until i graduate. instead of finishing this program that i am in now they have another program called E.C.M electrical construction maintenance. this program is a little smaller then the one i am in now and is also 4,000 dollars cheaper. Seeing as how i wanted to get into plc's i feel maybe this is the option i should take instead of throwing 14,000 to the e.s.t program that i am currently in and not sure my background will land me a job, taking into consideration that the school said there is other fields for the est program to get a job in. i feel that i do not want to have the responsibility of the company van or worry about accidents not to mention having a set schedule. so with all that said and done and you can now see what i am talking about. i was wondering if any of you fine gentlman can give me some insight on what electrical construction maintenance can do for me. i do know a little about the jobs i can get from it but i do not want to be a full fledged electrician i feel it is too long to go through i just want to finish school and get a decent career whether it be working in a factory on motors or on plc's.. would i be heading in the right direction by switching to ecm or should i stay with est program?????? i am not looking for someone to make my decision but i am looking for thought, experienced people, and advice. thanks

i see what you guys mean... i am not looking for the fastest route, i want to make sure i start learning at the right place if i am going to start it by myself... i am going to take a plc class at school once i am done with my electronic system tech diploma. would you guys recommend starting off with learning ladder logic or learning terminology or programming? also, before i forget to mention i do know someone that is an engineer and just retired lol my dad.. he started off in the airforce ( i could not join the service due to asthma but man did the rangers want me lol) after he got out of the service he went to devry for engineering.. My dad is a really smart guy but he has one problem he is somewhat of a perfectionist which means he has some patience but if i do not understand something and if he has to repeativly show me he kind of is done then i guess you can say... but this is one reason i am going for the electronic systems technician diploma so this way i have a grasp on the basics so i can follow him easier then looking retarted lol... he was an engineer for at least 30 years and he did really well with retirement, so on the weekends i can go to him and learn plcs i guess he should be able to help me the man has 3 patents under his belt.

Hey guys, Last night i finally ran into a teacher i had in another class that used to work with plc's. i had asked him about where to begin and he was not much help but did provide a name to search for jobs with plc's. which is control engineer... i did a search for control engineer on career builder, alot comes up in my area and the pay doesnt look bad at all. but when i look into the description and requirments it becomes jibber jabber. some places are looking for a bsee or 5 years experience. now since i am not going to school for a bsee or engineering at all but i am going for a diploma in electronic system technician. i also found out last night that once i am done with the program i am done with now i can go back and take the other diploma program which is called the electrical construction maintenance which is more towards single phase, three phase, high voltage, plc's, motors. but i will be able to skip the classes i already took. Now i know if i just stick with what i have now or go for the other program it will be nothing close to engineering but will i still have a chance getting into control engineering??? for some reason when i see engineering in the title or desription or requirements i get discouraged. but until i finish with my school program in august i want to get into plc's on my own time so i can grasp plc's better once i take the class. but until then should i start off learning ladder logic, programming or the different devices and they do??? the teacher i talked to kinda harped on learning the different devices, he told me if i try this all on my own i may get to some points where i cannot figure it out unless someone shows me and i said that is what mrplc.com is for lol... i do understand terminology is also a very big thing and consider that a must that is why i did not mention terminology... also, in previous posts from members in this thread i found a nice big free book to read which i have started just need to read more. but anymore help or guidance please keep providing i feel like a giant sponge

Thank you for the post over the weekend. i thought this post would be dead by now. I am glad you talked about having a plc and playing with it because i know when i was a kid all i did is play with legos and man since that i believe that is why i am able to have such a creative mind, am able to put things together where some have problems with it. also i believe it gave me good troubleshooting skills, different ways of analyzing stuff as well when some people can only look at one thing in one way i can look at the same thing and see a few different ways of doing it instead of the one way most see. just over this weekend i got my kids into legos and man they never been so quite. What would be a worthy purchase for a plc to start with or is a very common one that many places use that would be a good start for me? thanks

Well, i do know for sure this is the best move for me and my family. my wife will have unemployment for the next 6months and then can extend it at this time. so my money situation is okay not like i had thought when i started this post. So now i know i have time to learn on my own with out having to have a dead line or anything. i will be done with my school this august. so i will learn on my own till august, then i will see about taking a course that may give some sorta certificate for plc's because then i will know the basics i learned on my own so i wont need to start from square one i will know some of it so i can grasp the more indepth study instead of the basics.

hold on a second.... i did not mean that i only wanted to get a job programming plc's.. i know there is more to it then just plc's... The information i am trying to get out of this post is... i know alot of the people on this forum have been working with plc's for sometime now, so i know there not newbies but yet they had to at one time learn plc's from the bottom and work your way up.... So since alot of you guys know your stuff on plc's NOW, then BEFORE i would like to know how you started out in plc's, if you went to school or took a course on plc's then you may not be able to put your two cents in but you can tell me where to start out at. but for the ones who learned it on your own or started yourself and then went to school or took a class on the rest please let me know... i just do not know where to start off with plc's, so since you guys already learned them by the road you took and at the end of the road realized hey, if i was to went this route or did this instead of that i would have been done faster or it would have been easier to learn.. that is what i am trying to find out a place to start or a correct path to follow.. i started reading about plc's themselves and once i have that down i will learn the other tools one by one... some of the links that were provided to me have a good intro pdf to download and print out ;

thanks for the responses guys. i will check into the links that were provided. i see what you mean that this is only one tool... this is why i was asking where to start out in plc's i do not have a problem with getting familiar with other tools, its just that i want to know where to correctly begin the learning process. to me so far it seems like i need to learn the actual plc's themselves first. this seems to be the major part to the process and everything else kinda revolves around the plc, as explained in the last post about other tools like push buttons, sensors, pnuematics ect... i wasnt going to spend more money on anything as of yet, that is why i was asking if anyone had any good links or how did some of you out there start out in plc's... Once i have a good grasp on the basics is when i would consider a class in plc's. i do not wanna struggle through the class and be discouraged. I know there are not many jobs just to be a plc programmer, i was browsing career builder and i had saw some jobs with plc in the description and i figured that would give me more of an edge then just going through the diploma program that i am taking now at school because the school is a more of a touch on everything not too in depth but enough to get you familiar and then the place you get a job at would form you to there needs i guess.. this is what were told so far. but if anyone could let me know how and where they started off with plcs that would be great like did you start off by reading books or taking a class or websites or one of those week long crash courses...thanks

Hello everyone, my name is tony and i am from illinois. i am not fresh out of high school or going into college or just got out of college, matter of fact i never went. I was never pushed to take school seriously, i was never taught or talked to about how important it is to find or do something you like for a job/career. as a matter of fact i went through my early years as a free for all, my mom was always busy with my lil sister and my dad was really into his work, to the point where he would work 8-10 hours then come home and eat and work till midnight. i do not blame any one for this especially my parents, my dad just retired as an engineer and did very well. he was able to retire with out having to worry about money, seeing this and realizing i just got into my 30's and am running out of time myself to make myself a comfortable and enjoyable retirement. not to mention help my children out with college and teaching them the importance of school. also not to blow it off. Not to mention my wife just lost her job this past friday due to the economy so things are not looking good right now. i really do not wanna loose my house or have my wife stressing out from looking for a new job and cant get anything. so i would like for her to be home with our two little girls and just me work, now i know at these times its hard to do this but i feel if i get into the electronic field i can make that happen for her. She really is upset, she feels like it is her fault, blames herself and i am tired of seeing her with tears for something she could not control... So what i want to do is make this all go away for her.... So here i am.... i made a choice to go with electronics..... just not sure what path in electronice but i feel i found it in plc's.... I just started to go to a school called Coyne American institute, I enrolled in the E.S.T diploma program which stands for electronic systems technician. I did not go with the E.C.M. diploma program which stands for electronic construction maintenance which of course has a course in plc's. but i am gonna try to see if i can take it by itself. For some reason i feel plc is the path for me dont know why just have that feeling. One, it might be because i really like computers and plc's sorta remind me of them. The only thing is i do not know where to begin. I wanna try to learn it on my own. due to work and school i have no time to take a plc training at some company so i would have to do it on my own. I just dont wanna dive in and dive into the wrong part which might discourage me, thinking i couldnt learn it. i have been broswing the net and on this site for beginning plc's but not finding anything... can anyone help me out ????? So far from what i have seen allen bradley seems like the right place to start off in, to me it seems allen bradley is very popular or being used the most, though i could be wrong thats why i am here but i thought to start with allen bradley is this wrong? I also have seen kits or bundles you can buy that say you can learn plc's from that, i guess there kinda do it on your own course for like 150.00 dollars. not sure if that is the way to go? since alot of this forums members have been in the plc field for a long time, so i would like to know how you started off in the field???? whether it was a course or a package deal or on your own if you could please help me out i would really be grateful and just think of the karma thats in it for you