Field transmission · FFN
The real work behind modern manufacturing.
Factory Field Notes is a no-fluff podcast about PLCs, controls, automation, and the careers built around them — pulled straight from the questions real engineers are asking. Hosted by Vladimir Romanov.
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Q&A Week — May 25, 2026
Six real questions from r/PLC: an interview-worthy home lab, modernizing a PLC-5 lumber line, rewiring a 1991 robotic arm, the 'more I learn the less I know' feeling, when troubleshooting becomes an art, and the skills that actually matter.
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The premise
Notes from the floor,
not the brochure.
Most manufacturing content is either a vendor pitch or a theory lecture. Factory Field Notes is neither. It's the conversation that actually happens between controls engineers — about the legacy PLC-5 that won't die, the IT/OT line that nobody owns, the troubleshooting instinct you can't buy, and whether this career is worth building.
Each Q&A week, we pull the sharpest questions from the r/PLC community and the field, and work through them honestly — no sponsors steering the answer, no jargon for its own sake. If you program, wire, commission, or maintain the systems that make things, this is your field journal.
More about the show →Your host
Vladimir Romanov
Founder of Joltek & SolisPLC, former Procter & Gamble and Kraft Heinz engineering leader, and co-host of Manufacturing Hub. He's commissioned $20MM+ lines, led unionized maintenance teams, and trained hundreds of thousands of automation professionals — and now he's taking the questions.
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