OT SCADA CON

Be cooler than this Olympian & check out our testimonials... https://lnkd.in/gYA7gRGh ...pictures https://lnkd.in/gj3Mf5rc by Meghann Chapman ...and then realize you really messed up by not coming to OT SCADA CON this year... so you take advantage of our Extreme Early Bird special right now because it will never be lower than this again! 👉 https://lnkd.in/gNbgQCwy #conference #networking #industrialautomation #manufacturingautomation #scada #ot Nikki Gonzales Alicia Gilpin (Ali G)

What they dont (but should) teach you about PLCs in schools. 1) How to buy one, it's not typically just one part: You CAN buy them online with and without a warranty but mostly they are sold through distributors. Vendors might only carry one PLC OEM or multiple. You will need to "size" your PLC based on the IO list. For example If you count 22 digital inputs in your list you will want to have atleast that many available and some spares (recommend 25%) which means possibly also purchasing additional IO modules for digital inputs. The 5 most common IO cards you will find are analog input (AI), analog output (AO), digital inout (DI), digital output (DO) and thermocouple. 2) How the development software works: Most PLCs don't have open source programming software and you have to pay for a licence to develop your own PLC programs. Some PLCs do have free software and more PLCs are starting to have open software. The three main types of buyers of PLC development software are systems integrators that sell plc programming services, Machinery OEMs that include a PLC and the end user of the PLC (a factory) to allow technicians and engineers to make changes to customize to their needs. 3) History of the models so you can identify and program and eventually upgrade old versions that are still running Machinery or processes: Most PLC OEMs adopted two separate lines of PLCs, one was marketed towards process heavy industries and the other was marketed for individual machinery and typically had lower IO counts. Machinery OEMs started using PLCs and were buying so many they started receiving discounts from PLC OEMs For this reason you will see factories with Machinery from different parts of the country or different counties that use different plcs. This results in the needs for SCADA and MES platforms to be a able to connect to several PLC platforms to collect data centrally. For more content like this follow my systems integration firm: Process & Controls Engineering, LLC Our Podcast: Automation Ladies Our Community Conference OT SCADA CON

Come to OT SCADA CON July 23 to 25 in Houston and learn all about topics OT controls engineers and technicians have the opportunity to explore in their careers if they choose to. If you are from IT or Cybersec and are just getting started eith OT this is an incredible networking opportunity for you in addition to immensely helpful technical content. Emily Merritt

OT SCADA CON is where bros go to meet their other half that isn't their wife

Kaleb Travis is legendary. Want to hear what he has to say? OT SCADA CON July 23 to 25 2025 Houston HX

Dear Controls Engineers, have you ever been mistaken for the other controls engineers that have a modified version of your skills for industries that are either more process heavy or more robotics heavy? Have you ever wondered what the other type of design would be like? Maybe you know process controls really well and most of the Automation you do surrounded piping or ducting since things are typically being moved with pumps or blowers. The PID loops here involve Flow, pressure and temperature being controlled either by a VFD modulated pump or blower OR some kind of analog control valve. Maybe you are actually really strong with machining and know G code and CNC. Maybe all your background is with industrial robotics applications so you know motion instructions really well. Maybe you come from discrete manufacturing where they use a lot of conveyors and photoeyes and proximity switches to detect parts and start and stop machinery. Most people haven't done controls engineering in all of these realms but you can explore what you don't know at OT SCADA CON in Houston on July 23 to 25. You won't just learn what other topics light you up inside but you will meet active professionals in these topics to work with and learn from in the future. You will also have a chance to win a TON of hardware from raffles like entire PLCs and HMIs and smart IO, with development software. OT SCADA CON 2025 Emily Merritt Sections (1) Automation Supply Chain (2) Systems Integration (3) I/O Types and Field Devices (4) PLCs Programable Logic Controllers (5) HMIs Human Machine Interfaces (6) VFDs Variable Frequency Drives and Harmonics (7) Servo Drives & Controllers (8) Discrete Machinery (9) Machine Safety (10) Machine Vision - Greg McEntyre (11) Industrial Robots and EOAT -Courtney Fernandez (12) Process Instrumentation (13) Process Equipment (14) Process Safety (15) Process Control & PID Loop Tunning (16) Distributed Control Systmes (DCS) (17) OT Cybersecurity & Pentesting - Ashley Van Hoesen (18) ICS Networking & Wireshark (19) Server Hardware for SCADA Systems (20) Virtualization in SCADA Systems (21) Scada Screens & Trending Visualization (22) Historians and Process Databases (23) Industrial Alarm Notification & Remote Access (24) IIOT & Industry 4.0 (25) WMS Warehouse Management Systems (26) MES Manufacturing Execution Systems - Alex Marcy (27) Predictive Maintenance (28) Programming with AI, prompt engineering (29) Agriculture Automation - Vinny Endres (30) Oil & Gas Automation

Dylan DuFresne was a OT SCADA CON 2024 virtual attendee and Ryan Treece attended in-person! Glad Automation Ladies got a chance to talk with both of these awesome guys again! The connections we make at the CON are nothing short of amazing… Can’t wait for bigger and better 2025!

Dear IT people, Cybersec people and Automation OEM Sales people, I created a way for you to not only get an overview of how all OT devices are used but also an incredible social networking opportunity. Our second conference is taking place in Houston on July 23 to 25. Our speakers have all "done the thing" in the field. I wanted to give people access to people using the following topics in real life to build real systems. OT SCADA CON 2025 Sections (1) Industrial Automation Supply Chain (2) Systems Integration for ICS (3) I/O Types and Field Devices (4) PLCs Programable Logic Controllers (5) HMIs Human Machine Interfaces (6) VFDs Variable Frequency Drives and Harmonics (7) Servo Drives & Controllers (8) Discrete Machinery (9) Machine Safety (10) Machine Vision (11) Industrial Robots and EOAT (12) Process Instrumentation (13) Process Equipment (14) Process Safety (15) Process Control & PID Loop Tunning (16) Distributed Control Systmes (DCS) (17) OT Cybersecurity & Pentesting (18) ICS Networking & Wireshark (19) Server Hardware for SCADA Systems (20) Virtualization in SCADA Systems (21) Scada Screens & Trending Visualization (22) Historians and Process Databases (23) Industrial Alarm Notification & Remote Access (24) IIOT & Industry 4.0 (25) WMS Warehouse Management Systems (26) MES Manufacturing Execution Systems (27) Predictive Maintenance (28) Programming with AI, prompt engineering (29) Agriculture Automation (30) Oil & Gas Automation

Being the sole controls person onsite can feel isolating at times. It’s easy to go down a rabbit hole when troubleshooting, especially with hardware as tricky as Siemens ET200SP bases. Today, I hit one of those moments but was reminded of the power of reaching out. Huge thanks to AJ Willmer and Steve Jozwiak for answering my calls and sharing the insights I needed to get back on track! Sometimes, all it takes is someone asking the right question or offering a new perspective to reignite the problem-solving process. The ET200SP bases have always been a source of stress—there are so many variations, and during the global supply chain crunch, getting the right one was nearly impossible. That left us scrambling to find alternative I/O cards and bases that could somehow work for our applications. Today, I learned the hard way that the first base must be the light base unit. Thankfully, I finally tracked down the base unit manual (because we all know the documentation is there… buried somewhere, ha!). This experience was a great reminder: you don’t have to figure it all out alone. Sometimes, a quick “phone a friend” is all it takes to push through. 💡 #Siemens #controls #automation #commissioning #hardwareconfiguration #phoneafriend #nodumbquestions #networking #lifelongconnections #distributors #systemintegrators #electricaldesign #controlpanel

I'm doing all this because nobody did it for me: Behold a "PLC" or Programmable Logic Controller. As the name implies it is programmable. Humans made this up so we could automate things we were already doing. We started with really basic control of discrete signals and then figured out PID Controls with analog signals. Traditional PLCs pre Digital Revolution didnt consider Cybersecurity whatsoever and all the network switches in control cabinets were unmanaged. You will find PLCs normally in metal cabinets next to machinery, in the machinery itself or in MCCs motor control centers. They all have several small indicator lights especially a "run" light indicating the plc is running a program continuously. PLCs replaced relay and pneumatic control. Post Digital Revolution PLCs are designed with Cybersecurity in mind as and there are now safety rated PLCs for processes and machines that have been deemed extra risky. We have started replacing some traditional PLCs with IPCs or industrial PCs. There is no limit to what types of machines PLCs can control but for a long time people where afraid of reliabitly of pc based control for machinery. The original plc programming language was ladder logic but today you can program most PLCs in more than one way including combining languages. Structured text, funtion blocks and other languages are now available in development platforms for various plcs. Traditionally the software to program PLCs was not open so you had to buy it from the manufacturer of the hardware. Thats starting to change. PLCs are little brains that make decisions based on instructions that we write. If I want to interlock a fill valve with a tank level for example I could program into a PLC to close a valve when the level of the tank is X. This would prevent further filling of the tank. When the level reached some lower safe level I could instruct the plc to open the fill valve again. If you like this content please follow Process & Controls Engineering, LLC Automation Ladies