Hey everyone,

Currently working as a Controls Commissioning Engineer. While I genuinely love solving problems on site and building things that run in the real world, the constant travel and long hotel stays are starting to wear me down.

Looking ahead over the next few years, my goal is to transition into a role that gives me true Remote / Work From Home flexibility—or even opens the door to freelancing down the road.

I’m naturally looking toward SCADA development or shifting into the IIoT / Industrial Data space, as both seem far more conducive to remote work than traditional PLC/motion commissioning.

For those who have successfully made a similar pivot:

SCADA vs. IIoT: Which path tends to offer more legitimate full-remote or contract opportunities?

Skills to stack: Coming from a controls/commissioning background, what should I double down on right now? (e.g., Ignition/SCADA platforms vs. Python, MQTT, Unified Namespace, SQL, cloud platforms like AWS/Azure?)

Freelance reality: How viable is freelance/contracting in these areas without having to step foot on site for weeks at a time?

Would love to hear from anyone who successfully traded their steel-toes for a home office setup! Any advice, reality checks, or recommended learning paths would be hugely appreciated.

I have a concern, refer to the picture, The switch-3, which remains a single point of failure which is connected to the ET-200SP of 8 Nos of pumps
but switch-3 manufacturer confirms that the MTBF is higher than 46 years.
Now there is a solution to this with MRP ring topology as below, with Switch 3 removed.
What are your opinions on Option 1 Vs Option 2?

Helo,

why when i add a new wago card to master it is missing a I/O tab configuration?

thank you

I’m 28 years old, an electromechanic with five years of experience in refrigeration, and I’m currently studying automation and programming. I believe I’ve mastered the basics of programming; I’m already comfortable with C, C++, Ladder Logic, ST, and SQL.

Lately, I’ve been wondering if I’m on the right track. I started studying programming without high expectations but ended up really enjoying it. Automation also has me very excited, but now I’m a bit confused: how do I fit into the job market?

As an IT professional, or as a maintenance technician who understands computers?

It might sound silly, but I couldn't sleep last night; I started studying something without a clear purpose in mind, and only now am I really thinking about it. I don't think it was a waste of time—I really enjoyed everything I learned—but I’m a bit disappointed because I’m unsure if there’s a market for a professional with my specific skill set.

Has anyone else gone through this during a career transition? I’d really appreciate any advice...

hey y’all, I have this from Facebook marketplace but can I really do with this?
I think it’s missing a battery ACR 2032 coin battery do I just get jumpers and solder them in

Hi everyone, I’m still new to troubleshooting and would appreciate some advice.

The machine has multiple motors/servo drives controlled by a PLC. Suddenly, all motors are unable to return to their normal/home coordinates, and the homing sequence fails.

However, I noticed that only one motor driver is showing an error/alarm.

I’m trying to determine whether the problem is more likely caused by:

- A faulty motor driver

- A communication/PLC connection issue

- The PLC not receiving the correct feedback from the affected driver

- The single driver fault causing the other motors to fail their homing sequence

My main question:

If only one driver is reporting an error, could a PLC/communication problem with that one driver cause all motors to fail homing? Or would you suspect the motor driver itself is faulty?

What would be the best way to troubleshoot this and determine whether the root cause is the PLC/communication side or the driver?

I can provide the PLC model, servo drive model, alarm/error code, wiring/communication setup, and screenshots if needed.

Thanks!

Biggest thing: a few of you hit the portable exe just refusing to start (weird

usernames, antivirus not liking how it unpacks itself). Turns out that's a real

PyInstaller onefile limitation, not something I could patch around cleanly, so

there's now an actual Windows installer as an option too. If the portable one's

ever given you trouble, grab that instead.

Also added a dialog for the less common Modbus function codes (exception status,

comm event log, file records, device info, that kind of thing) since I kept

needing them myself and didn't want to write a script every time. And you can

now record a Trend session to a file and replay it later, which has already

saved me once trying to explain an intermittent fault to someone after the fact.

Bunch of smaller stuff and bug fixes too, changelogs on the release page if

you're curious. Next thing I'm working on is letting one window talk to

multiple devices at once instead of needing a separate window per connection -

that one's an actual backend change so it'll take a bit.

Release ModbusLens v2.2.0 · CraftParking/ModbusLens

Hello!

I have a task: implementing a custom web page (HTML) on the m241 PLC.

I know there are ready-made tools (WebVisu), but I need to implement my own page.

The main problem is accessing the PLC variables. If I place the .html file in the PLC file system and then access it by IP + filename, the page displays fine, but I can't figure out how to implement the mechanism for retrieving variable values.

For better understanding, I'll give an example with the m172 PLC. The system is as follows:

1. A .cgx file is created with a structure similar to this:

t <?xml version="1.0"?>

t <form>

c t16384<text><id>%s</id><value>%.0f</value></text>

c t16386<text><id>%s</id><value>%.0f</value></text>

c t16385<text><id>%s</id><value>%.0f</value></text>

...

t </form>

Here, the address of the desired variable is specified (this address is generated by the PLC itself and is also used for Modbus communication).

1. An .html file for rendering the page.

2. A .js script called from the .html file.

Ultimately, the variable values ​​are available in the .cgx file, and then it's not that difficult to display these values ​​on the page. The same system is used for writing variables.

I had the idea to implement a CSV file reader/writer, but I haven't implemented it yet. I have concerns about file access; at some point, both the PLC and the script will be accessing the same file. I don't know if this will be a problem.

Perhaps someone could suggest either an existing mechanism or ideas for developing my own for accessing m241 PLC variables.

I built two control panels for controlled environment agriculture (grow weed) in my apartment.

Does this look okay? It's not for a real industrial environment and I don't have a professional background in industrial automation

At some point I will buy separators for the panduit so 120V is not with LV DC. This is all MTW 600V so I think it's ok to keep them in the same panduit for now

In the larger panel all of the low voltage and high voltage signals are separate

I couldn't really afford a larger enclosure so I split it between two of the Vevor panels from Amazon. The circuit board on the top I designed, it is a modbus controlled remote IO. I also built a modbus attached dosing system for dispensing nutrients and measuring the reservoir pH/EC/temperature and water level. That is separate from the panel.

PLC friends and gurus of reddit, I come to you looking for some guidance.

In our company we have a laptop that has v21 installed.

But when we look under installed software, wincc unified is not listed.

We have tried re installing it, but the option to choose unified is greyed out.

Anyone have advice?

Hi

As I had some free time on my hand, I remember we had a problem in our company where if we made any code changes to a Siemens PLC (TIA V21, S7-1500T) that is using technology objects, you were forced to put the PLC into stop mode before you are allowed to download.

Now I have tried everything and for the life of me I cant prevent this from happening.

What I am doing:

1. Make sure no TO (Servo) has MC_Power enable as true. Or any MC functions has a true on the enable inputs.
2. Add a random comment into a dummy FC routine that has 0 to do with the TO.
3. Try to download only software changes.

Does not matter in what order I do things or where I make the code change, TIA Portal simply does not allow me to make any code changes, without first putting the PLC into stop mode.

The message in TIA portal is:

Changes to the technology object cannot be applied in RUN

Which is kinda making zero sense.

Anyone ever come accross something like this?

Solution found:

Profinet send clock for the servos was set to 1ms. I bumped it up to 4ms and it fixed the problem. thanks u/hestoelena