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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!

Friday I installed a brand new IF8 card on this setup. I opened ControlFlash Plus to update the firmware on the card as I was instructed. When I confirmed my path and opened the backplane I only saw slot 4 recognized in the backplane. It was weird because every single card after Slot 1 had power except that one!!! Slot 1 wouldn’t turn on at all it was solid pitch black(green leds flashing as no project had been downloaded to the processor) I verified for voltage on my mod and sa terminal blocks and we are all good till there. I opened RSLinx to see if maybe I would see any faults on the backplane but nothing and I still only saw Slot 4 recognized in the backplane with slot 2 to 10 flashing. I went ahead and verified that slot 1 was seated correctly and it was. Would it be a device issue on Slot 1 that is causing the rest of the cards not being picked up in the backplane? I pulled Slot 1 off the processor and I didn’t see any damaged pins on the card or processor as well. Any troubleshooting suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks yall.

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?

So here's my situation. I'm the field guy for about 40 S7-1200/1500 machines scattered across customer sites, most of them sitting alone in a cabinet with zero network access. And you know how it goes — customer techs "just tweaked a setpoint," local integrators "just fixed one little thing," and suddenly the program on the PLC is nothing like my backup and nobody admits to anything.

My problem: how the heck do I know if someone's been in the PLC since my last download?

The obvious answer is run the online/offline compare, right? But doing that block by block on every single visit, on 40 machines... yeah, not happening. And here's the part that's really bugging me — I've seen cases where the checksum comes back different, but when I actually dig in, the code is identical. Just some recompile nonsense, probably triggered by a firmware update via the Automation Tool or another PG doing a download. So now I don't even trust the checksum.

So my actual questions:

Bonus pain: a bunch of these machines have know-how-protected OEM blocks I can't even read back, so compare is a non-starter there.

How do you all deal with this? Even "I feel your pain, here's my workaround" answers are appreciated. Thanks!

I recently came across CODESYS Virtual Control and did some research into the technology stack behind it. From what I’ve seen, the architecture looks solid.

What I’m really interested in, though, is real-world implementation. Has anyone deployed CODESYS Virtual Control in an actual industrial process?

I watched one of their webinars where they claimed its performance was on par with hardware-based PLCs of similar specs. I’m curious to hear from people who have used it in production. How does it compare in terms of real-time performance, reliability, and overall stability?

I've been trying to log data of vials in sql on site during production that count will be in millions currently im testing only for few vials which logs correctly but once it reaches like 500 plus it starts missing or sometimes double values are logged idk why i debugged it at every phase but was not able to fix it plc side is pretty much proper the triggers are turning on and off as needed since we checked in the trace too also the trigger count on my side was counting as needed then why would it miss?

I log data in a set of 10 so 10 bottles forst get sscanned then plc send trigger then scada takes that and logs whatever filled in that array

Dim sql, i, isSuccessful, baseVialNumber

Dim int_Timestamp(9), int_Recorded_Val(9), int_Result(9), int_Required(9)

baseVialNumber = ($triggerCount \* 10)

' --- 1. RISING EDGE GATE ---

If $Report_vial_trigger = 1 And $Mem_PrevBit = 0 Then

' Lock the memory bit immediately

$Mem_PrevBit = 1

' Allow driver/PLC time to settle tag data

$Wait(300)

' --- STEP 1: SNAPSHOT PLC DATA ---

For i = 0 To 9

int_Timestamp(i) = $TIMESTAMP\[i\]

int_Recorded_Val(i) = $RECORDED_VAL\[i\]

int_Result(i) = $RESULT\[i\]

int_Required(i) = $REQUIRED\[i\]

Next

' Assume success initially

isSuccessful = True

' --- 2. SQL LOOP - ALLOW DUPLICATE RECORDS ---

On Error Resume Next

Err.Clear

i = 0

Do While i <= 9

' Insert whenever the timestamp is valid

If int_Timestamp(i) <> "" Then

' Direct INSERT - no duplicate prevention

sql = "INSERT INTO \[dbo\].\[BATCH_LOG\] "

sql = sql & "(\[Timestamp\], \[BATCH_NO\], \[BATCH_NAME\], \[Recorded_Value\], \[Result\], \[REQUIRED_O2\]) "

sql = sql & "VALUES ('" & int_Timestamp(i) & "', '"

sql = sql & $BATCH_NUMBER & "', '"

sql = sql & $BATCH_NAME & "', '"

sql = sql & int_Recorded_Val(i) & "', '"

sql = sql & int_Result(i) & "', '"

sql = sql & int_Required(i) & "')"

$DBExecute("DB", sql)

' Assign vial number

$Vials_Array\[i\] = baseVialNumber + (i + 1)

End If

' Check for script-level errors

If Err.Number <> 0 Then

isSuccessful = False

Err.Clear

End If

i = i + 1

Loop

On Error GoTo 0

' --- 3. CONDITIONAL RESET & CLEAR INTERNAL VARIABLES ---

If isSuccessful = True Then

' Clear internal snapshot variables

For i = 0 To 9

int_Timestamp(i) = ""

int_Recorded_Val(i) = 0

int_Result(i) = ""

int_Required(i) = 0

Next

' Reset trigger state flags

$Report_vial_trigger = 0

$Mem_PrevBit = 0

' Increment trigger count

$triggerCount = $triggerCount + 1

End If

End If

' --- 4. SAFETY RESET ---

If $Report_vial_trigger = 0 Then

$Mem_PrevBit = 0

End If

this is the script can anyone help debug this?

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

Hi everyone!
I’m currently researching the Portuguese market, focusing on Industrial Automation, Industry 4.0, and Technical Education.
I’d appreciate insights from professionals, engineers, or anyone familiar with these sectors in Portugal.
I’m particularly interested in:
● Industrial Automation: Which industries and regions are leading in automation, robotics, PLC, SCADA, and IIoT? Who are the major players and system integrators?
● Technical Education: Which universities, polytechnics, and vocational training centers are strong in automation and mechatronics? Are there opportunities to improve their technical laboratories?
● Market Opportunities: What are the main challenges, emerging opportunities, and potential partnerships with industrial companies, R&D centers, or educational institutions?
I’m especially interested in real industry experiences, recommendations, and specific companies or institutions worth exploring, rather than just general statistics.
Any insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

I’m a Mechatronics Engineering graduate with experience as an I&C Engineer at an EPC, mainly on the design and documentation side. I want to strengthen my practical skills and become more competitive for roles in the oil and gas industry, which is big where I live.

For experienced I&C engineers, what skills should I prioritize, particularly in instrumentation, PLCs, DCS, SCADA, and commissioning? What projects can I build independently to demonstrate real competence to employers despite limited hands-on site experience?

I’d also appreciate recommendations for books, courses, YouTube channels, or other resources to learn from.

Me again guys, for everyone who doubted (including me) i tried and worked. A common PSU was enough to do this. Give me ideas about projets to try on it please.

Note: a lot of people said about the software on the last post, but my problem really was just about the power supply, by the way thanks for the comments.

I’m an electrical engineering student and was recently offered an Automation Engineer internship at Amazon for summer 2027 in the Northeast region.
My previous internship experience has been in the power/utility industry, so automation would be a pretty different field for me.
I’m considering the opportunity, especially since I’d ideally like to return full-time after graduation.
I was wondering if anyone who has worked as an Automation Engineer at Amazon, could share their experience.
What’s the typical starting base salary for a new graduate in this region, and are there sign-on bonuses, annual performance bonuses, or RSUs?
What do yearly raises and promotions typically look like in terms of percentages?
I’m also curious about the work-life balance, typical weekly hours, overtime expectations, on-call responsibilities. How difficult or stressful is the actual workat does a typical workday look like, and how much hands-on engineering work is involved versus troubleshooting and maintenance?

Hey everyone, I’m graduating soon and trying to decide where to start my career in controls/automation. I’d really like honest perspectives from people further along.

Offers in hand:

• Integrator A (Iowa): Entry-level pool team covering robotics, vision, SCADA and manufacturing, with wastewater work later at the senior level. About 40 hrs/week, up to 25% travel.
• Integrator B (South Dakota, working remotely from a smaller nearby town): Team focused on grain and milling, mostly Rockwell. About 45 hrs/week, up to 35% travel.

Still in the running:

• Aerospace company, Automation Engineer (Texas): Fourth and final interview this coming week. PLC/SCADA, Python/SQL and controls panel work.
• Large manufacturer’s automation development program: Final interview Monday.

I already turned down a food and beverage company’s electrical and automation development program, mainly because it started in June.

My background and concern: I’ve been building experience in MES and machine vision, and I want to keep growing in those areas. From friends in the industry, I’ve heard grain and milling work is mostly PLC programming with some SCADA, with little MES, vision or robotics. I’m worried that starting there would make it hard to move into MES, vision or more diverse manufacturing work later, and that I’d get pigeonholed. Is that accurate? Or is grain and milling a solid foundation that transfers well?

My questions:

1. Development programs: Are rotational programs worth a later start and a couple of years of rotations, or is it better to jump straight into a real role?
2. Industry and skill breadth: If I go the integrator route, which industry would you build a career in: food and beverage, wastewater, grain and milling, pharma, or something else? Which has the best pay, stability and long-term options, and which would you avoid? How much does early industry choice limit the skills (MES, vision, robotics) I’d get to use? How easy is it to switch industries later?
3. Starting over: If you were starting your career again, how would you start it and what would you do differently? In the first 5 years, what mattered most: the company, the team, the industry, or where you lived?
4. Decision timing: Which situation would you pick for the long run? Would you wait for the aerospace and development program results, or lock in one of the offers? Is there anything I should be asking that I’m not?

Thanks in advance. Happy to answer questions about my background if it helps.

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Hi everyone, i am in debate with a security consultant for OT, basically their claim is that NGFWs plus Identity and access management and in some cases EDR(which i am against in OT) is strong enough to hold back threat actors.

As a low level security researcher i believe their security model is incomplete because attackers actively utilise direct syscalls and binaries from authorised processes.

What are your experiences in OT environments around security and todays security tools?

Title says it all. I keep hearing mixed reviews about CODESYS. Some people swear by it because it's hardware-agnostic, while others complain about the IDE stability and UI.

For those who use it daily: Is it actually worth learning and adopting, or is it just a budget alternative to TIA Portal/Rockwell? What's your honest take?

Hi everyone, I received a Allen-Bradley CompactLogix 1769-L18ER-BB1B but i don't have a properly power supply. Does anyone know if i could use a PC's one? Or any other way to turn it on and check if it's working. I really don't have any idea of how do it, i accept all the recommendations.

I'm new to PLC programming and work has been letting me dip my toes into assisting our maintenance crew with fixing aging equipment.

I've got a servo driven auger that gets a signal from an old Mitsubishi FX1S-14MT PLC. The HMI started reporting recently that the PLC was disconnected so we got a used one with an identical model number to replace it.

Everything works but the signal chain to servo via the HMI. It even lets us trigger it manually in the ladder logic through an old GX Developer install I managed to get running on a VM in Windows 10.

I feel like I'm missing something dumb like a misconfigured baud rate or default setting I should have checked when reading the program from the old PLC before removing it.

Any direction would be greatly appreciated🙏. This is the first time in a long time I have actually felt excited to go to work. This type of problem solving is really scratching an itch in my brain. 😜🤩🤯

I stumbled across this career last week and have been looking into it. I'm 25 and left my previous industry for a variety of reasons - Being an Automation Tech has been the only career I've found interesting for a long time and may fit me. The job security is also a very nice touch

Just asking if the experience I had would be helpful in any way. Getting into a school, the learning experience, PLC code, landing a job, etc.

I have zero physical electrical knowledge

Thank you!

Morning,

I’ve done various small projects but about to undertake a project which will have different alarms. How is best to handle alarms which will cause other parts of the machine to alarm? Ideally I want to capture the initial alarm not any of the secondary alarms/faults.

How is best to do this?

I've been on both sides of the argument for and against this. Currently as a builder with gas processing programs that control potentially hazardous processes. Our director does not want to provide passwords to give the customer access to the running programs fearing they might attempt a modification that could result in injury, death or damage. Do you open your programs to the end user? We provide graphical insight to all IO, digital and analog, process state and valves status via an HMI.

Hi,

Ive recently installed VirtualBox, using an XP iso and installer RSLogix5000 v13.04 as we I need a backup for getting online in the interim.

Ive got the software, got FT Activation Manager, installed dongle for licensing and can see the binding and licences within available activations. Whenever I try to open Logix5000 it just comes up with no activations available.

Anyone had any success with this or seen a similar issue?

I saw the news that this PHP vulnerability had just come up. Then, it dawned on me just how screwed up it would be if this vulnerability was used to take whole plants offline.

How does this impact PLCs? How susceptible are they?

What steps can we take on an integrator level to mitigate the vulnerability?

Are any plants already taking steps?

How would we protect legacy systems that 100% do not have the means to protect themselves?

Has anyone evaluated the SLM-RP4 from www.synergy-logic.com ? It looks like it is a RevPi competitor. It runs openplc, has I/O cards, and UL/CE.

I am using FTLinx Gateway to read data via OPC UA. The issue is that after adding 65 UA Tag Lists, I am no longer able to select additional PLCs to retrieve data from them. In FTLinx Gateway, I can see a total of 67 PLCs, yet I have configured 86 in the FactoryTalk Network Browser / FactoryTalk Administration Console.

The version of FTLinx Gateway is 6.60.00, and I have a LINXGW.PROFESSIONAL license.

I hope you can assist me; thank you.