CODESYS vs Rockwell and Siemens: Where It Works, Where It Falls Short, and Why It Is Hard to Sell

How's it going everyone? Vlad here, and welcome to the next episode in which we're going to tackle some of the most upvoted questions and/or comments in our industry, which is industrial automation and manufacturing. So of course, always happy to discuss some of my past experiences, give you some insights.

If you have any specific questions, I'm trying to get a bit more involved in the industry. I'm now part of the ISA Montreal section. We have been organizing events as well in person on a variety of different topics for students as well as professionals. So if you're interested on anything of that nature, don't hesitate to reach out to me via leaving me a comment on YouTube and/or getting in touch with me on LinkedIn.

FAT, VAT and SAT: commissioning acronyms

Without any further delay, let's talk about the first question, which talks about commissioning. Of course, as you probably can guess, I have done quite a few commissioning projects in my career, especially early on when I used to work for Procter & Gamble and Kraft Heinz, bringing equipment from overseas and are either doing FATs or VATs or SATs for whichever the acronym.

So VAT, vendor acceptance test, SAT, site acceptance, acceptance test, and, uh, what was the other one? The F-FAT, factory acceptance test. Again, depends on the industry, depends on whom you ask. But basically, they are either evaluating equipment at the machine builder or the vendor side, or they will be bringing equipment to the factory and then making those tests there

What is in a PLC commissioning bag

And so our first comment comes from the username ZM.Joe, and they say: "What tools do you keep in your communication commissioning bag?" And we can see a couple of cables. We'll look at that in just a moment. "Here's what's in my bag. Feel free to share yours too. Thanks." So if we click on this, and hopefully some of this is familiar to a lot of you, there's going to be some USB to RS232.

If I zoom in, it's not really showing. So all the way on the left we have the USB to RS232 cable. Extremely important. Again, I don't have any PLCs behind me right now that have an RS23... Actually, I do have some serial port IPCs. Obviously, this is not for commissioning purposes, but a lot of the older model of PLCs require that connection.

We have a USB to RJ45 console cable, and there's a couple of them. So this is very common to see in Cisco equipment, and so you need to be really be careful with this because this is not really an Ethernet cable. So if you were to plug in this USB to RJ45, depending on the translation, this isn't something that you could, for example, plug into your switch and start commissioning.

What you need in that case, and here I can show you, for some reason we haven't gotten there yet, but he does have these dongles on the right-hand side. But you will be basically carrying-- And let me switch the camera just easily. So again, those of you who are listening to this, this is a USB to RJ45 adapter, which you can plug into your laptop.

In this case, I also have a USB C type of an adapter. So you plug in your RJ45 cable, and you can commission your hardware that way But in any case, looking at some of the other cables, so COM2V24 for Hirschmann. I have not seen this. This is very interesting. So COM, obviously the RS232, and then the other side, very interesting.

Maybe it's powering some of the equipment. In any case, we're going to leave that there. Nine-pin screw type of a COM cable. This is, again, I have commissioned tons of drives that have this connection. Typically, it's not something that I had to do unless there was a failure of the actual drive and there was no, for example, USB to RS232 cable.

You can string up some pins, but again, this is fairly rare. COM2COM gender change. I do have a bunch of those plugs laying around somewhere in my office, and I don't have them on me right now, but basically it allows you to go from male to female on the RS232 side or vice versa. And the reason why you need them, of course, is if you use the USB to RS232 cable, it's not going to be compatible with some of the PLC models like the old style CompactLogix series of PLCs.

I carry a ton of just standard RJ45 cables, and when I say a ton, maybe two or three just in case. I usually carry all sorts of USB cables. So of different formats because I generally see a lot of, and I'm just turning around to see if I have demos of such PLCs, but if you have worked with the CompactLogix, the ControlLogix series, you know that it's the printer style type B USB connection.

So you need to have that cable. I like to have, for example, HDMI cables as well as DisplayPort cables. So you'll notice that on some of these older and even newer IPCs, to be honest, you will see that instead of having an HDMI cable, it's going to feature a DisplayPort for whatever reason. And of course, there's going to be other tools that I travel with.

I remember making posts on SolisPLC, generally speaking, describing this again as I was doing a lot of the commissioning work earlier in my career. Nowadays, I try to carry as little tools as possible because my focus is really on plant architecture, not necessarily commissioning single components of equipment, but I do have to do it sometimes.

I have to step in when the teams are not able to complete some of the tasks.

The HMI protective film that was the touch screen

The next question is basically a warning/a joke/a meme from our industry. If you haven't seen this before, so I'll give you a bit of an explanation And so this comes from a username PLCMan, and they say: "We'll just remove the protective film from the screen," they said. And so typically, when you receive new hardware, it will have protective screen, just like you would in your consumer electronics.

Your television, your iPad, for example, and it will be covered with a very thin sheet of plastic. Now, in the case of industrial automation, a lot of the screens have the touch panel, and so it is sometimes erroneous to assume that the front cover of that screen is just a protective film as opposed to the actual display.

And so in this case, we can immediately see that what happened is the person that removed the front panel removed the actual screen that was holding this touch panel in place, and we can see it's a touch panel because it has this little ribbon cable going into the back to the electronics. So ultimately, this screen is pretty much useless.

At this point, the only approach that I would recommend is either putting whatever you removed back and then trying to get a warranty claim on it or sending it back for repairs. This is not gonna be cheap. Again, in the industrial setting, this panel is at least a grand, probably several grand, depending on the, the features, of course, and the capabilities.

And so to buy a new one, you would have to replace it. And if you don't replace it, it probably will be fine if you're gentle and it's not, uh, susceptible to the external environment. But the moment there's moisture that gets inside of this LCD screen, it's just going to be pretty much useless. And we can already see that there's some issues with the teardown on the side here via the HMI.

So again, this screen is pretty much dead at this point, so be careful whom you tell to unbox your electronics.

A vision sensor pigtail cut at the sensor

And this is where maybe I can give you a, an interesting story from my past. So I did a lot of work on vision systems, and I worked with a variety of different sensors. And so this is an example of a Cognex camera, which is connected via basically M12 style plugs.

Some of them are going to be only four pins. So this is going to be your IO, if I remember correctly. I haven't looked at the data sheet in a very long time. But basically, you have several connectors, and all of their forms are very closely matched. So except that one is a male and two of them are females.

But the point here is that you can disconnect this camera and basically bring it back to the office. Some of the other sensors, as you may have seen in the field, will have what's called a pigtail that comes out of the actual sensor. And early in my career, I remember going through a project where we installed a fairly expensive vision system and expensive, relatively expensive.

So I'm talking about six to eight grand at the time. This was back in 2016. And so anyways, the sensor was looking down at the line. It was not the Cognex series it was a different manufacturer, but it was inspecting a product on the line. And once the project finished, this was an R&D project where we were trying different color schemes on the artwork of the product, I asked one of the mechanical engineers to bring me back that specific sensor.And so to my surprise, I didn't give him any more instructions. Instead of removing, so the pigtail was about two feet. So imagine that this camera has too long of a foot pigtail. So instead of disconnecting it where it was landing on the terminals or at the very least cutting the pigtail to be long enough, what the mechanical engineer at the time had done, is exactly where that pigtail was landed, basically took scissors and cut it right at the vision sensor.

And as you can imagine, it's very difficult to work with that because once it landed on my desk, there was no way to basically connect any of those cables to the terminals. What I should have said in that specific instance is be very specific. Because in this case, if they would have cut the cables, let's say, of the camera, at least I could have disconnected, thrown away the cables, put in new cables for the vision system.

In that case, there was nothing to be done. That sensor, unless you spent a lot of time just soldering the actual wires to the new circuit board inside of that sensor, it would have been also impossible to work with

About Vladimir Romanov

Hi, my name is Vladimir Romanov. I am the founder of Joltek as well as SolisPLC. With a background in electrical engineering and an MBA, and over a decade of experience leading projects in manufacturing and industrial automation, I help engineers, managers, and manufacturers make smarter technical and business decisions, modernize their operations, and build stronger careers.

If you're serious about manufacturing, automation, and staying ahead in the industry, subscribe and join the community

Life on the road during commissioning trips

The next question is a lifestyle question related to our industry. I have spent multiple years on the road where I pretty much lived out of a hotel commissioning and working on a facility. I used to drive down from Atlanta about three hours to a very small town called Tifton. And so I have a lot of, I would say, learnings from that period of time

And so this comes from the username SmorgasOfBorg, and they say: When you're on the road, what little things do you do for yourself that pay bigger dividends to your comfort, sanity that you might think? Road trips can be stressful on their own, but I discovered a few things that can do to make a big difference to my wellbeing when I'm on the road.

Get out and do something every day that you can. It could be the end of a 12-hour day, and all you want to do is crash in your hotel room until it's time to wake up and do it all again. But getting into a rut where your entire trip is just job site, hotel, job site, hotel, and then you're having a nervous breakdown over a blown fuse.

As often as you can, spend a few hours outside of that ground. Go to the grocery store and get stuff for lunches. Go for a run. Go out to dinner. Go to a movie. Go to a tourist thing. Whatever it is, break up the monotony. Only wear your work boots once you have to. A lot of people like to think, "Oh, my work boots are comfortable.

I'm just going to wear them all the time." There's no getting around it. Safety toes add weight. Work boots are always heavier than casual shoes. They might not feel heavy on your feet after a day of wearing them, but once you take them off and put a pair of cushioned running shoes on, you'll feel the difference.

I will actually change into my work shoes at the job site at beginning of the day, and then change back out of them on site at the end. I found doing that right before a drive gives me a bit of spring in my step and starts the recovery process that much earlier, so I have more motivation to do number one when I get back to my room.Only carry what you need with you. Go through your bag and evaluate what you're bringing compared to what you needed to do your job. If you can't conceive of a realistic scenario in which you would need that item with you, leave it at home. The heavier it is, the more you should scrutinize it. I'm really going to use the external keyboard and a monitor.

Do I really need multiple USB cables? If you got a bag of serial cables and you're commissioning a bunch of CompactLogix, leave it at home. Take the time to make a list of what you need, empty your bag, and put only what's on the list that is in your bag. I guarantee you there's gonna be stuff in there you forgot about.

What else do you do in your field to make it bearable?

Road rules: real food, packing light, checked bags

So like I've mentioned, I do have quite a few comments. I have spent multiple years in the field, so I do believe, at least for myself, I have crafted a number of things that I would like to share So number one, for me, the main thing that got old really quick is the monotony of eating fast food.

And so since then, so I travel a lot less, so I have that opportunity not as often as I used to. But ultimately, I started to prepare meals in my hotel room. I remember learning a number of different recipes of food that I could make easily by just having a fridge, a microwave, and whatever cookware I could bring with me basically to work.

I started renting out not only the normal hotels, the Marriotts and the Holiday Inn Expresses and whatever else. I started to book Airbnbs where I had access to a full kitchen. And so for me, having Better food on the road improved my lifestyle quite a bit because if you're eating always, I would say, processed food, if you're eating fried food all the time, I think that the energy levels do decrease, and it becomes frustrating to only have to eat at three, four places.

Now, don't get me wrong, of course, with the guys at the site where there was an opportunity, we would go out and grab a fast lunch. But in the evenings, I really started to try and avoid those fast food places. Number two, when it comes to travel and what equipment you bring. So nowadays, when I travel and I know that I'm gonna be there for a week, not only for commissioning, but in general, I travel with a carry-on and my laptop backpack.

When I was going to the same exact site all the time, to the point of the gentleman that made this post, I try to leave as much as I could at the site in terms of tools and equipment so that I could travel light. The second item is that, again, my current carry-on always goes with me on the plane.

In that instance, since I have learned the route, I have been on the same exact plane. I flew in at the same time. I haven't had any issues. I started checking in my bag. So by checking in the bag, I don't have to carry anything in the airport. I just had a very light laptop bag. I had a nice roller suitcase that I could bring.

Like I said, I could check that in at the airport, so I had nothing during the time of travel. I would then put it inside of my rental car and drive down, put it in the hotel. Everything was well-organized, and I would typically just take my backpack to the actual site. So again, lighten the travel as much as possible.

Invest in a suitcase that is good. I have had to travel with fairly questionable suitcases, and when the wheels break, when the suitcase starts to break on the zipper, it becomes quite frustrating. So get your sort of like travel equipment into a state that makes sense for you.

Exercise, the sauna and starting SolisPLC

Number three is I actually lost the most amount of weight, and I had done the most exercise while traveling.

And the reason for that is as I have gotten into the routine, so not the first week, not even the first or second month, I had gotten into a routine where I would come back from the job site where I was running a variety of different projects, and you could call me basically a contractor at the time that was a senior control systems engineer resource that would work on a variety of different projects from helping out to troubleshoot something that was failing at the moment to leading longer term projects.

But basically, I would get back to the hotel, and I would always go and exercise for at least an hour and then close that off with either ten to twenty minutes at the sauna, sometimes ten to twenty minutes at the pool So the Holiday Inn Express that I was staying at had a pool, same with the Marriott.

And so it was easy for me to rotate between one of those activities. But yes, to his point is you need to get some physical exercise in so that you can sleep better, so that you could feel better, so that you could eat better, and ultimately be better at your craft. I would also, and this is the time that I started to, I would say, get bored of wasting time at the hotel.

So I remember buying myself at the time the Nintendo Switch was released and I played some video games for a period of time, but I started to get bored playing video games at the hotel. And that's when I started SolisPLC. And those of you who don't know, it is a YouTube channel as well as a website where I started teaching industrial automation.

And so again, I would come back to the hotel room around six. I would spend an hour at the gym. Seven, seven thirty, I would eat something quickly at the hotel and then spend one or two hours just creating content and tutorials for the type of materials that I didn't see myself and basically based on the problems that I have experienced and witnessed during the day.

So it was a lot easier for me to document what I had done as opposed to try and come up with materials. I had actually worked on a lot of those problems so I could basically come in and share some of that information. And then this is also where I started to travel a little bit with my hobby. I remember bringing PLCs and other control systems with me and creating some of that content from the hotel room and thus breaking the monotony, so to speak, of the work at work.

But again, it's a little bit of a, I would say, dilemma because I would work on PLCs and I would come back to the hotel and make videos on PLCs. So it was doing something different but still related to the work that I was doing during the day.

Career advice: five years out and feeling lost

The next question is career related. And so I got extremely lucky by being, I would say, at the right place at the right time with the right individuals that gave me an opportunity, gave me a chance to prove myself, and those relationships have only grown over the years over, over a decade. And so I can certainly relate to the struggles of other engineers and other professionals.

So we're going to read this post, and I'll give you a couple of pieces of advice based on the question

And so this comes from the username BeautifulExcuse559, and they say, "Five years after graduating, only two years of real experience and I feel lost. Advice for an automation engineer. I graduated five years ago as a controls engineer, and I'm based in Saudi Arabia. Here's my experience so far. Automation engineer at a packaging factory one year, mostly maintenance.

I didn't gain much real experience. Automation engineer on a project three months. I programmed a Siemens S7 1500 series PLC in TIA Portal, but I wasn't the main engineer. I only did minor tasks and little programming. SCADA engineer at a station current. My job is mostly monitoring and I'm learning almost nothing from it.

In total, I have only two years of real work experience. I feel like I know very little and I've always been the third wheel on my teams. I don't feel I've added value at any job. I feel lost and I don't know what to do. I'm also considering low current ELV systems, fire alarm, CCTV, access control, uh, BMS building management systems as a possible direction.

I'd really appreciate advice on how to build real practical skills from where I am now, whether low current is worth moving into or whether I should stay with PLC, SCADA in Saudi. Books, courses or certifications worth my time? Thanks in advance." So there's a lot of different questions to unpack here.

And let's get through this a little bit in detail.

Why maintenance experience counts

So the first question is one year as an automation engineer at a packaging facility, mostly maintenance. I would not discount this experience as extremely valuable. Maintenance is, in my opinion, one of the most challenging environments in the industrial automation or manufacturing spaces.

So I would be hard-pressed to say that you have not learned anything. I would assume that you have at least done a lot of hands-on work and you started to gain an appreciation on how a true packaging facility, works from a technical standpoint. So maybe you have not rolled out any large projects, but hopefully you understand maintenance cycles, you understand predictive maintenance, you understand maybe the basics of a CMMS system, maybe even ERP.

You understand how work orders are created. I would hope that you have seen a variety of different components and/or assets. So I certainly would not discredit this experience.

Shadowing on night shift is normal early on

Automation engineer on a project three months. Programmed a Siemens S7 1500 PLC in TIA Portal, but I wasn't the main engineer.

Again, this is I think the a dilemma that many of us face, especially early in our careers. If you're only one year on the job. So this project began one year after graduation, I would expect you not to be a lead on a lot of these projects. So when I joined Procter & Gamble, a lot of the projects in my first year were just me shadowing my boss and basically being the second resource during a lot of the initiatives that we had done.

So he would lead, for example, the day shift, and he would have full control over the day shift. And I remember commissioning entire multimillion-dollar lines. I was a night shift, and I was there to make sure that everything is advancing, but ultimately learn the process and understand how things are done.

I would certainly make changes in PLCs, but it would always be for me to document those changes and relay them back to the team as, again, one year out of university or whichever a program that you finished is certainly not enough to build projects from scratch. So this is perfectly normal. I would not expect you to be the main engineer depending on the scope of the project.

And it says, "I did minor tasks and a little programming.". So again, this is perfectly fine after one year that, uh, you have done at the packaging facility. You finally got some hands-on PLC programming. You completed some minor tasks. I would also argue that in the industry, generally speaking, when you're working on a new project, it is rarely completely new, completely, I would say, groundbreaking.

A lot of times you have an existing line, you can take a look at what someone else has done. You're making changes because the equipment is different, but you're almost never starting from complete scratch. And you do get those opportunities every now and then. I personally programmed multiple lines and entire facilities from scratch, but even there, the OEMs had some starting code or some logic that they would put into the equipment for you to begin working on those controls.

Turning a SCADA monitoring job into learning

And then the third experience, so SCADA engineer at a station. "My job is mostly monitoring and I'm learning almost nothing from it." So this is, once again, I just dislike the way this experience is positioned. So SCADA engineer, and he says that he's mostly monitoring, which is perfectly fine.

It means that you're sitting in front of many screens, you're trying to understand the process, you're trying to maybe fine-tune some of the parameters. And to be honest with you, I see this more as a maybe supervisor or management experience as opposed to SCADA engineer. So if you're labeled as a SCADA engineer, typically you're developing the actual solution.

But all-- If all you're doing is monitoring and maybe tweaking the process and trying to, uh, make the plant or the environment run better, I'm not sure what station, maybe this is a stub substation, but this is mainly a supervisor or manager role. But in any case, I'm almost learning nothing from it. I think that this is a problem in how you approach maybe some of these projects.

And my guess is that Or I guess my advice is that you need to be more curious. So when you're working or sitting in front of the SCADA for this specific process, start asking questions as to why it was developed the way it has been. I would hope that you have the capability of tweaking some of the parameters, but maybe also redesign some of the screens.

It is up to you in some cases to propose projects where you can improve things. So if you're just sitting there and pretty much looking at the screen all day, you have nobody else to blame but yourself. So I would start asking questions as to what your projects are. So you, you were hired for this position.

What is the success criteria for you at the end of the year? What has your boss told you that needed to be done in order for you to be I would say at the top tier of the similar engineers within this company. I am very surprised to hear that there's nothing to learn in this position, because once again, it is really sometimes up to you to find ideas and projects to deliver them to your upper management, sell them on that idea, receive funding, and then improve.

So my advice generally would be, don't leave this current position. Start looking for ways when you do have downtime, how can we improve this? Is there something else that I can make better? Start talking to... Again, if you're a SCADA engineer, there's probably some technicians, there's operators, there's other people that understand the process potentially better than you do.

Ask them the question, what can you do to help them solve some of their problems? And what are even the problems for that specific company? Every single industry has a set of KPIs, key performance indicators, that they're trying to achieve upon which they are evaluated. So start asking those questions. I would be really surprised to learn that there's nothing that you can be doing while there is downtime.

So it says, "I have only two years of real work experience." Again, it, uh, to me, it sounds like you have five. Maybe it is unclear what you're actually doing, but again, I would not sell sell yourself short yet. "I feel like I know very little." Again, this could be a confidence problem, and this could be a real problem where, again, if you're not being asked to deliver certain things, you're just not yourself pushing maybe to figure out what can be done.

"And I've always been the third wheel on my teams." In the early career, this is perfectly fine. So if you're just learning the ropes, if you're trying to understand a process, if you're working on some of your early projects, this is perfectly fine. When it isn't fine is, again, as you start to transitioning to a senior level position, you need to start taking, I would say, responsibility for your projects.

You need to start leading some of that. You need to start inspiring others into buying into some of your ideas I don't feel like I've added value to any job. Again, it's hard for me to comment on this. I would hope that you have added value because three employers have brought you in and have been paying you for a relatively long time.

Therefore, it demonstrates that you were able to deliver on whatever it is that they were asking. I feel lost and I don't know what to do. I'm also considering low current ELV systems as a possible direction. I'd really appreciate advice on. So I don't think that this is a problem with the industry.

Potentially, it is a problem with the employer. You've had three employers, so that would be a bit of a coincidence/surprising. So I seriously would look at your position and see is it truly the problem of the employer, or is it you maybe not applying yourself as much as, uh, you could be. I would also seek out some feedback from your direct supervisors.

I would seek out other connections within the company with whom you can connect with and then ask them, "What can I do to help? What can I do more? How can I learn some of these things?" What I have learned, again, and obviously I had a different mentality early in my career, but if you don't ask, you will not receive.

So if you're looking to learn something and you convince the company that it's worth investing in you because of reasons X, Y, Z, I would be fairly confident to say that they are likely to send you to that specific training. If you're looking to take on more responsibilities, simply start by asking.

Building practical skills from a SCADA seat

So the question here is how to build real practical skills from where I am now. I would say that you're in the best place possible being a SCADA engineer to learn absolutely everything on the plant floor and even above that. So a SCADA system connects to PLCs, connects to HMIs or has its own display screens, which ultimately connects to a lot of instrumentation on the plant floor or the station floor.

It also usually goes to your MES systems as well as ERP. It is connected through a network, so you can basically learn a ton of different concepts if you simply start asking those questions. It's possible that you have peers within your job that can answer some of them. It is possible that you will need to reach out further if that's not the case.

But my general recommendation on that specific question is if you're working with SCADA, you're probably in the best position to learn any relevant skills that you would like. I would assume that there's a platform upon which that SCADA is built. It's in Saudi Arabia, so it really could be anything, but maybe it's Rockwell, maybe it's Siemens, maybe it's Omron, maybe it's Mitsubishi.

But I would start by learning about that platform. I would reach out to the distributor that can maybe provide you with some of the training materials, either in person or otherwise. Maybe talk to someone that can get you a license so that you could start. But ultimately, you should be able to build skills, and I would assume there's more than enough for you to learn to fill an entire career.

Should you move into low current ELV systems?

Whether low current is worth moving into or whether I should stay with PLC SCADA in Saudi. Again, I personally don't know that specific market, what is being done in Saudi Arabia. I don't think that It is worth moving for the reasons that you are mentioning. So if you have maybe an interesting job offer or a company that is offering something significantly better on the technologies that you're describing, it is worth considering to move.

But I wouldn't seek out other systems simply because you're not happy with the lack of learning that you have had in your current jobs. I don't think that it is a job problem. I think that you simply need to have the right conversations in order to be successful. So again, is it worth moving there? I think it depends what your end goal is You have a lot of experience, I would say, on the automation side.

So I'd simply look for either maybe an employer that is satisfactory to your needs and/or, like I said, work with the current employer and try to get some more experience within your current role.

Courses and certifications worth your time

Last, books, courses, or certifications worth my time. I would look at-- So if you're working with SCADA that is not Ignition, I would start by, like I said, building a strong foundation with that specific vendor.

Ignition has really good training, and Inductive has built a tremendous university that may unlock some ideas. You can obviously do that on your off time and learn SCADA at a level that hopefully you haven't had the opportunity yet. If you're looking to learn something else, there's also a ton of opportunities.

That could be cybersecurity. It could be OT networks. It could be on the IT side. How servers are deployed to host the SCADA as well as some of the other software solutions. You could learn PLC programming if that's what you desire to do. You've already gotten exposed to the Siemens platform.

There's a ton of learning materials. I would start by identifying what it is that you actually enjoy. Do you like working with SCADA? Would you like to work more on the OT side? So I'd probably pursue some of the PLC courses. If you'd like to be more in software/IT, there's also a ton of different options.

But I would not get discouraged and simply learn for the sake of learning. Identify what you like. Identify where you would like to go. There's tons of materials. I would start with the free ones, YouTube. I would then probably look for courses on Udemy and then, of course, some of the paid certifications.

And again, I've mentioned Inductive. You can earn credentials for which you need to pay. You can also earn credentials on the network side, so if you go for the Cisco certificates. I do recognize the fact that some of those are a little bit more structured but also are a little bit more recognized by employers.

So I generally recommend, like I said, the Cisco suite of certifications, whether on the networking and routing side or if it's on the cybersecurity side. Again, you can go for your cloud certificates from AWS or Azure. I think those are always valuable. So again, there's a ton of different options available if you're not looking to stay within the PLC realm.

Should machine builders give customers PLC access?

All right, we've got a very interesting question/dilemma when it comes to, again, commissioning equipment And so this question comes from the username ImNotMarvin. I'm not Marvin. As a machine builder, do you allow customer access to programs in machines on site at the customer's facility? 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 valve status via an HMI. So I have a lot of comments. I have worked with a variety of different machine builders, some of which will completely lock down all access to control systems and some of the other ones that will basically leave it wide open.

And I have been on both sides of the story. So again, I early in my career worked for P&G, where if you were to password protect anything, you were basically not selling to the company. So we had full access to all the control systems. All modifications were made from the internal resources. And if you were attempting to password protect anything, that was a no-go.

You were not selling any equipment into the facility. So I have been part of projects even where we had asked for access to a specific control system and asked for it to be made on Rockwell controls with a normal PLC, as opposed to a printed circuit board. And that vendor made the equipment with their original material.

They basically declined to make it in Rockwell systems. We ripped out all of the hardware and we replaced it with our own. Then I went to work in the food and bev industry where it was common to see certain equipment that was completely custom and thus unaccessible by any control system. So these were basically industrial computers that were put inside of pieces of equipment.

So even if you could access, let's say the front of Windows, you could not reverse engineer the application that was then reading some of the IO via a variety of different buses. Whether that's Modbus or CANopen and simply ingesting the IO and then processing on that specific machine. But basically we had no access to any of the programs and you had to pay to be able to access any of the IO.

Safety passwords and liability at handover

Now I've also worked in, I would say environments where safety was a priority And that was handled a little bit differently. So when there was a pass down from the machine builder to the end customer, someone would take control of the password for the safety section. So once it was validated on site to be compliant and working, the machine builder would give the password to the customer, which then basically limited their liability going forward, and any changes at that point contractually would fall onto the end user that purchased the equipment, and they would be liable for making those changes.

The way I read this post is do you allow the customer access to program in machine on site at the customer facility? So for me, this reads as the customer has taken full ownership of the equipment. I am in full support of full transparency, therefore you should be providing the customer full access to all software and at a minimum, software that allows them to maintain, modify and run equipment.

I would be very surprised that this specific customer is in the business or is trying to be in the business of making equipment. If they need access, it is probably to make the machines better. It is probably to diagnose or troubleshoot certain failures. And to their point, maybe the HMI alone with the indicators is simply not sufficient.

Maybe they're trying to tie this into another process, but ultimately they are the ones responsible for the equipment. That's not to say that this is, again, a hazardous process. They should carry full liability and have full traceability. So what I have seen is once they do have access and once they have accessed the control systems and have made modifications to the software, to the panel, to the HMI--, when I say panel, electrical panel-- to the HMI or anything that touches the equipment, they are fully liable from that point forward and any liability is waived from the machine builder.

So in my mind, this needs to have the legal, I would say, department involvement to try to figure out who's liable if something were to fail. But to me, this is not a concern that the machine builder should have once the equipment has been transitioned to the end customer.

Why no access before the VAT and FAT

Would I give the end customer access to write the software before it has been VAT'd and FAT'd and handed over?

Absolutely not, because at that time, the machine builder is the one that needs to complete the job and showcase that the equipment works to the agreed-upon specification. At which point, once the end customer has fully paid for the equipment, has signed off on the equipment, and said that they take full responsibility for any changes, for any issues, they can...

again, there could be a lot of failure points. They could overwrite the software with... and make a mistake. So again, they could just remove some of the capabilities, but obviously they need to be legally liable at that standpoint

Is CODESYS any good?

The next question we have is about a platform in our industry. I have some of my own opinions based on some of the events that I will discuss. Again, these are just my initial impressions of the platform

And so we are talking about CODESYS, and this question comes from the username Parallel Node, and they say, "Is CODESYS actually any good? 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 the 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 is your honest take?" So a couple of months ago, and even maybe several years ago, I had looked into CODESYS as it was brought to my attention by multiple colleagues in our industry, that I respect a lot and think very good things about.

And so ultimately, I took the time to learn CODESYS. I have... and I don't know, let me switch over So above me, you may see the book of CODESYS right here, which I read basically half of, I would say. A lot of the concepts are very familiar because, again, I've programmed PLCs for over a decade at this point.

I have done the majority of my projects on Rockwell, on Siemens, on Opto 22, on PLCnext, the tutorials of which you can find on SolisPLC, so I do have quite a bit of experience when it comes to PLC programming.

CODESYS on PLCnext and Opto 22

And as you probably know, PLCnext, the Phoenix Contact platform is basically CODESYS under the hood.

And you can also load CODESYS natively onto PLCnext. You can also load CODESYS onto an Opto 22 controller, and it comes preloaded with CODESYS out of the box.

Integration gaps: drives and CIP Motion

So my general impression is that CODESYS is a reliable solution. However, and there is a however, when you talk about PLCs, PLCs are rarely standalone components in a control system.

You find your HMIs, you find VFDs, you find servo drives, you find vision systems, you find robotics. And so when you're talking about the entire ecosystem, obviously each one of them is going to have their own flavor of connectors to a variety of different hardware. So if you have worked in Studio 5000, for example, you know that you can very easily download the UDT as well as the AOIs needed to run the PowerFlex 525 series VFDs, for example.

You know that you can easily integrate into the Kinetix whichever flavor that is, if that's the 6000, if that's the 5500 series, if that's the 350 series drives there. There's a whole family of Kinetix drives, but you can work very easily with those drives. Now, from my general understanding, I have not ran very high speed and advanced projects in CODESYS.

That level of integration is not necessarily available out of the box. From what I have seen, they certainly offer some of those connectors, but you will not, for example, have native CIP Motion because that is the proprietary Rockwell algorithm for some of their motion components. Therefore, you're not necessarily able to take full advantage of the features of the other peripherals.

Are there servo drives that will work with CODESYS? Absolutely. Will they be of the same accuracy as if you were to do it in Rockwell natively? I am not so sure

Hardware choice as supply chain insurance

Now, of course, there's the argument to be made that CODESYS can run on hardware from different vendors. So I would say that it is an advantage for some of the businesses, especially as we had seen what happened during the pandemic, where if you were not some of the largest manufacturers, you simply could not get replacement parts for Rockwell and a few other top-tier automation companies.

So you could, in theory, justify that there is a risk level of protection and tolerance that you could mitigate by going with a software that can deploy on a variety of different platforms. Now, there's of course caveats to that. So I remember reading the website and the installation and deployment of CODESYS is going to be a little bit different between platforms.

So it is not as seamless as I had anticipated. It is not simply take the program and load it into an Opto 22, take that same program and load it into a WAGO. You do need to still do some mapping, and you need to have the files for the specific hardware. So just keep in mind that it's not-- it is not as seamless as it may sound

Why CODESYS is hard to sell into plants

I have also talked to multiple groups, I'm not going to mention them, that basically sell some of that hardware.

And what I have found, and this is again personal experience, they are simply not as hungry as some of those top-tier vendors to keep selling the hardware. So basically that leads to a very difficult situation as a consultant, as a systems integrator. If you walk in the door and the customer has already selected Rockwell and there's no salesperson pushing CODESYS and the hardware upon which it runs, it becomes very difficult unless you're one of the largest integrators whom already are pushing either Rockwell or Siemens or Schneider to come in and pitch that smaller potentially platform for a solution that is going to be rejected because they want to be standardized on Rockwell, Siemens and/or Schneider.

So is CODESYS actually good. Let's go back to the actual question. I do believe that there is some validity in the platform. From my perspective, it usually comes in smaller to medium-sized applications as, again, from what I understand, you cannot synchronize hundreds of drives, you cannot have high-speed control, and it's a little bit difficult to integrate other peripherals.

But ultimately, it truly comes down to sales and marketing. And in my opinion, again, having talked to many groups, it is simply not being sold well enough by the companies that should be selling it because either they have their own platform or they have alternatives, or they simply are playing the waiting game because they're making a lot of money from some of the other products that they're selling as opposed to the automation controllers, so on and so forth.

Again, I don't want to name any groups, but I've had multiple conversations it in which it felt to be the case