PLC,Computers,ESD-Static.?

Greetings all,

I have just recently completed my first coarse in PLC –training. For those who are not familiar with this expression it stands for (Programmable Logic Controller.)We use it in a wide area of applications and it’s main function is to control the whole operation of a sophisticated manufacturing line for example: In our kind of business it is controlling a packing line which packs 10kg and 12,5 kg maize meal products. Basically it is a small pc with which you can control just about any type of machine using censors, inputs, outputs, analog potentiometers for adjusting user variables and counters etc.

Once again I have seen how important it is in today’s lifestyle, to be fully computer literate. These two go basically hand in hand. So now you might ask why am I telling you all this. The one is to let the youth of today know how important it is to try and at least complete some sort of pc training and as much of it as you can. Secondly, we covered an aspect which most of us here at AO experience at some stage, electro static discharge, more commonly known as, ESD-“Electro Sensitive Devices”. What is ESD? All electronic modules are equipped with large scale integrated Ics or components. Due to their design, these electronic elements are very sensitive to over voltages and thus to any electro static discharge. These voltages are present whenever you touch any electronic devices and are fatal, usually not immediately but over a long period of time or operation.

Precautions: Wear a wristband which complies with esd specifications. Wear special designed esd footwear if possible when walking on an esd floor. Try and discharge your body as much as possible on grounded metal parts. Try and place esd devices on an esd table, or conductive esd foam plastic (mostly colored black) or esd bags. Avoid direct contact with esd devices like monitors, TV sets and try to keep a minimum distance of >10cm.

Wow, out of breath. Hope you find it useful and please tell me how many of you are also interested in the PLC field. I think it is a very interesting field and one can surely benefit from it if you are interested in computer programming in the industrial field.By the way , the coarse I did was on the Siemens S7-300 series.

Regards
V/man:)

Well in general you are right about ESD. Nevertheless, personally I believe ESD is over rated. I mean come on, esd floor? ESD shoes? Thats ridicolous. Unless you work in such environment and your boss requires you to do so. When working with devices such as NIC (Network Interface Card), Motherboard, cpu...the internal devices of the pc; you have to ground yourself, by simply touching the metal part of the case. I usually use power supply to ground myself. In all my experience of building pc's I never wasted money on ESD wristStrap or anything like that. If you careful enough, you wont fry any of your devices. By the way, if you do work with components such as nic, cpu etc etc, any electronic devices with their boards exposed and unprotected, do yourself a favor dont work with it on the carpet.

On the side note, for those who still dont know what ESD is. Here is a simple explanation. You know when u shake someone hand? At times you shock the other person with a little electricity or they shock you? Well to humans it's not dangerous, but it holds enough electricity to fry your internal pc components. STATIC ELECTRICITY IS A PC COMPONENTS KILLER. So be careful out there ;). :p Nevertheless, nice post Vanman. Oh, and "ESD - Electro Sensitive Devices" ? never heard of that before. ESD - Electro Static Discharge. <-- the definition.

Thanks deranger, your definition is quit correct.The part on static I just included for people who don't know that much about it,no offense.The PLC part is what I mostly wanted you guys to hear.

thanks again
v/man:)

brb

TestingYaJP, .. what a name ... couldn't load ur giffy thing , is it blocked or something,
anyways, the esd part i already know and bilieve it's important, i c all our engineers and technichens use it.
but as for the PLC: do u mean this chip as the one installed with the new fridges ??

I am not sure about the fridges , please give me some more info.I am sure it could be used in a variety of applications, depending on your client's needs.

regards
v/man:)