Is anyone using an AI agent for PLC programming? If so what has your experience been and where do you see it going?

Hello everyone
I have a degree in Computer Engineering, but for the past 2.5 years, I’ve been working as a CNC programmer/technologist.
In the future, I’d like to transition into PLC programming and industrial automation. I still have one year left on my current employment contract, and I’d like to use this time to learn as much as possible and prepare myself for the transition.
My question is: Would I be competitive in the job market after a year, even without previous professional experience in PLC programming or i will need more time?
I’d also appreciate any advice on what I should focus on during this year?
Would my Computer Engineering degree and CNC programming experience be an advantage when applying for PLC jobs?
I’d really appreciate hearing from people who work in PLC programming or have made a similar career transition.

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Help me please

Could someone please help me? I’m working on a term project that requires using the software Factory I/O (it’s not a game on Steam). I need to program a box-sorting station—which sorts boxes by weight—using the "Control I/O" language. (The station is already available in the software's built-in scenarios, but it isn't programmed yet.) I’ve been struggling with this for 2–3 weeks now and just can’t seem to get it to work. If anyone is able to help, please let me know! Below, I’ll show you the station itself and how I’ve attempted to program it so far.

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Hey everyone,

I’m currently mapping out my long-term career path and looking for some real-world perspective or success stories from people who have actually made this jump.

Right now, I have a vocational certification in Electrical Installation and Maintenance (EIM), with a strong foundation in hardware, 3-phase systems, motor controls, switchgear, and electrical fault-finding. My immediate plan is to get hired as a field Industrial Electrician / Maintenance Tech on a factory floor to get solid experience with physical machinery and wiring.

While working on the floor, my goal is to heavily self-study PLC programming (focusing on Siemens TIA Portal, Ladder Logic, and troubleshooting/monitoring) with the ultimate goal of transitioning into a full-time PLC Programmer role.

For those who started on the tools and moved behind the laptop:

1. Did you find that your hands-on electrical troubleshooting background gave you an advantage over pure software/engineering graduates?
2. How did you handle the transition logistically? Did you learn on the job during downtime, or did you build a portfolio at home using simulation software?
3. What is the one thing you wish you knew or started studying earlier while you were still just pulling wires and swapping sensors?

Would love to hear any advice, pitfalls to avoid, or stories from anyone who successfully crossed the bridge from the tools to the code. Thanks!

Hello everyone, looking for a quick sanity check. Is it
normal for these panelviews to not be able to ping them but still show up on rslinx? i just spend half a day troubleshooting my network and it was fine the whole time

Hey everyone,

Just want to say that this subreddit has been extremely useful for a non-automation engineer to get my controly system started!

To all of you that are contributing here, Thank you! ❤️

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Hey everyone!

I wanted to share a control cabinet we've been working on and get some honest feedback from other automation engineers, PLC programmers and panel builders.

The entire automation system is programmed using Siemens TIA Portal V20, with WinCC Unified handling the HMI and graphical interface.

As you can see in the pictures, the cabinet includes:

- Siemens SIMATIC IPC industrial PC, installed in the upper section of the cabinet.

- PHASAK rack-mounted UPS for power backup.

- Siemens industrial power supplies and associated protection devices.

- Industrial communication and control equipment, including Ethernet/network connections.

- Circuit breakers, contactors, interface modules and terminal blocks, mounted on DIN rails.

- Cable ducts and separated installation areas for power distribution, control equipment and wiring.

- Rittal enclosure with an integrated cooling unit, providing thermal management for the installation.

- Additional space at the bottom of the cabinet for cable routing and future modifications.

The goal was to build a reliable, maintainable industrial automation system, with reasonably easy access to the components for troubleshooting and servicing.

I'd especially appreciate your feedback on:

1. Overall cabinet layout: Would you arrange the components differently?

2. Cable management: What do you think about the wiring, routing and accessibility?

3. Thermal management: Any concerns about component placement, ventilation or cooling?

4. Maintenance and future expansion: Does the design look practical from a technician's perspective?

5. General design quality: How does it compare with the control cabinets you normally see in your industry?

If you had to rate this cabinet from 1 to 10, what score would you give it, and why?

Constructive criticism is more than welcome. I'm particularly interested in hearing from people who work with Siemens PLCs, TIA Portal, WinCC Unified and industrial panel design.

Thanks in advance!

A customer wants help obtaining Rockwell licenses for Factory Talk and Studio. When they went to Rexel for the licenses the rep at Rexel said Rexel was out of stock for the licenses and that CO should ask other vendors. Does this make sense? Does Rockwell only bless certain vendors with a limited number of software licenses?

Hey guys,

I've been tasked with setting up communications between an old MicroLogix 1000 and a PC with Ignition v7.9 HMI software on it. I've got a Digi One IAP handling the serial conversion, however everytime Ignition attempts to poll the PLC the serial converter just throws the packets away. I've contacted Digi about it and they say that my configuration is right, but they no longer support Allen Bradley DF1 conversion as of 2020.

Basically what i'm curious about is if there is a better product that has been successful in the past, or if i've just been dealt a fools errand because of how old the MicroLogix is. Thanks in advance folks.

Our design team is in the process of proposing the following design to our customer:

• PLC is Redundant ControlLogix 5580
• Firewalls are Fortigate FG-70F
• Access Switches are Stratix 5200 (1783-CMS10B)
• Distribution Switches are Stratix 5800 (1783-MMS10)
• Rapid-PVST Mode is being used on all switches to prevent loops.
• Primary Dist. Switch is Primary Root Bridge whereas Secondary Dist. Switch is Secondary Root Bridge.
• Fortigate Firewalls are in transparent mode with "stpforward enable" issued on uplink and downlink ports.

I have simulated the above on EVE-NG after which I see that if we use Fortigates in an HA configuration, whether it is Active-Active or Active-Passive, the Primary PLC will not be able to "see" the Secondary PLC and as a result of that, the two CPUs will remain in DISQ (disqualified) state.

Can someone please guide me if the same behavior will be exhibited on a live network? If yes, then how do we modify this design such that i) both PLCs remain "visible" to each other on the network and are able to attain the SYNC (synchronization) state, and ii) the HA link between the Fortigates is retained?

Alternatively, if I remove the HA link and configure both Fortigates as standalone firewalls, would it be considered as a "bad" design?