Episodes

  • Ep. 8 | Industrial Automation Q&A: Rockwell QC Defects, TIA Portal Versions, & IT/OT Skills

    Ep. 8 | Industrial Automation Q&A: Rockwell QC Defects, TIA Portal Versions, & IT/OT Skills
    Jun 27 2026

    Industrial automation Q&A on the skills shift every controls team is feeling, plus a cautionary Rockwell quality story, a TIA Portal version trap, and honest career advice. This episode answers five of the most upvoted questions from the r/PLC community.

    Vladimir Romanov, founder of Joltek, answers each one as someone who has hired, mentored, and built automation teams. If you manage engineers or you are growing your own career, subscribe for breakdowns that connect the technical work to the business decisions behind it.

    The lead question is the one most managers are quietly navigating: have PLC programmers become accidental network engineers? The answer is yes, and it is worth understanding why. Over the last decade the field migrated off contained fieldbuses like DeviceNet, ControlNet, and SERCOS onto Ethernet based protocols, EtherNet/IP on the Rockwell side and PROFINET on the Siemens side, with OPC UA carrying data up to other systems. The push to make plants ready for AI only accelerates it, because every AI ambition starts with collecting more plant floor data. The practical result is that your controls people now spend real time on managed switches, IP addressing, VLANs, and duplicate IP troubleshooting, usually alongside the IT department. For a manager, that is a training and hiring signal, not a footnote. Joltek publishes a full OT networking fundamentals course for free, which is a low cost way to close that gap on your team.

    The second question is a useful reminder that incoming inspection still matters, even on premium hardware. A practitioner received a Rockwell ControlLogix L915 safety controller, a roughly $20,000 piece of equipment for use with PlantPAx, with a misaligned and improperly seated RJ45 port and missing faceplate markings. It is heading back on an RMA. Lower volume safety processors get produced in smaller runs, which is exactly where a defect can slip through, so it is worth checking expensive hardware before it goes into a chassis.

    The third question is a version standardization trap. A new machine arrived with a Siemens S7-1200 G2, and older TIA Portal versions 14 and 17 cannot go online with it. You need version 20, ideally version 21, and the Gen2 I/O is not backward compatible without a PROFINET bridge. The broader lesson for a plant is to standardize your engineering software versions before a mix of V14, V17, V20, and V21 turns every service call into a licensing scramble.

    The episode closes with two human questions: whether controls people are genuinely into broader technology, and whether you can get into automation without an engineering degree. On the degree question the honest answer is that it is possible but harder, because large employers often filter by degree, and the no degree path can take far longer than the four year shortcut.

    Learn more at Joltek:
    - Free OT Networking Fundamentals course: https://www.joltek.com/education/ot-networking-fundamentals
    - IT and OT Architecture Integration: https://www.joltek.com/services/service-details-it-ot-architecture-integration
    - Modern Plant Network Requirements in Manufacturing: https://www.joltek.com/blog/modern-plant-network-requirements-manufacturing
    - Workforce Development and Education: https://www.joltek.com/services/service-details-workforce-development-education

    Timestamps
    0:00 Intro and How This Q&A Works
    1:00 Have PLC Programmers Become Accidental Network Engineers
    4:45 Who Is Joltek
    5:20 A Defective $20,000 ControlLogix L915 Safety Controller
    11:20 Which TIA Portal Version You Need for the S7-1200 G2
    15:35 Are Controls Engineers Actually Into Tech
    21:25 Getting Into Automation Without an Engineering Degree
    28:50 Closing and How to Reach Out

    If you are weighing a skills investment, a hire, or a hardware standard, send a note on LinkedIn or leave a comment. Vladimir reads and responds.
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    30 mins
  • Ep. 7 | Industrial Automation Career Advice: How to Get Better, Get Hired, and Get Paid More [Q&A]

    Ep. 7 | Industrial Automation Career Advice: How to Get Better, Get Hired, and Get Paid More [Q&A]
    Jun 19 2026

    Industrial automation careers reward the people who treat skill building like a capital investment, not a hobby. This Q&A breaks down how to grow in controls, SCADA, and MES, how to break into the field without an engineering degree, and how to think about which skills actually pay.


    Vladimir Romanov, founder of Joltek, answers real questions from the community as someone who has hired, mentored, and built automation teams. If you manage engineers or you are trying to grow into a more valuable role yourself, subscribe for breakdowns that connect the technical work to the business decisions behind it.


    The throughline of this episode is simple and uncomfortable: interest alone does not set your market value. The people who pull ahead pair what they enjoy with what the industry will actually pay for. An engineer who can consult on the architecture of a SCADA and MES platform commands a premium over one who only produces AutoCAD or EPLAN drawings, not because one role matters more on a given day, but because the harder skill takes more years to master and carries more uncertainty and communication load. Treating your own learning like a portfolio, weighting it toward marketable and in demand skills, is the single most useful habit discussed here.


    That same lens reframes a career change. One viewer asked about moving into automation in his 40s from law enforcement and a Salesforce administrator role, with no engineering degree. The honest answer is that the most direct path for someone fluent in business IT, CRMs, and ERPs is SCADA and MES, not the electrician route, because the work feels familiar and the transition story writes itself in an interview. Inductive University from Inductive Automation is free and will take you a long way on the SCADA side before you ever pay for formal training.


    For managers, the rest of the episode is just as relevant. There is a detailed answer on when to deliberately limit a system's scope rather than over deliver, including how time and materials contracts shift risk to the customer while fixed bids shift it to the integrator, and why every extra mile should be a conversation with the customer before it becomes free work. The final question walks through a real OT network fault where two Rockwell devices ended up sharing an IP address behind NAT modules, and why DHCP in a production environment, aging battery backed controllers, and a single moved cable are the usual suspects.


    Learn more at Joltek:

    - Workforce Development and Education: https://www.joltek.com/services/service-details-workforce-development-education

    - Recruiting for Robotics and Automation at Small Manufacturers: https://www.joltek.com/blog/recruiting-robotics-automation-small-manufacturers

    - IP Addresses in Industrial Automation and OT Networks: https://www.joltek.com/blog/ip-addresses-industrial-automation-ot-networks

    - Manufacturing Execution Systems and Business Strategy: https://www.joltek.com/blog/manufacturing-execution-systems-business-strategy


    Timestamps

    0:00 Heading to Automate 2026 and What This Q&A Covers

    0:55 How Do You Actually Get Better at Your Controls Job

    8:18 How to Learn PLC Programming on Your Own

    13:50 Who Is Joltek

    14:25 Career Change Into Automation Without an Engineering Degree

    24:05 When to Limit Scope on Purpose: T&M vs Fixed Bid

    33:45 OT Network Fault: Two Rockwell Devices, One IP Address

    39:40 Closing and How to Reach Out


    If you are weighing a skill investment, a hire, or a career move in automation, send a note on LinkedIn or leave a comment. Vladimir reads and responds.

    Come find the team at Automate 2026 in Chicago.
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    41 mins
  • Ep. 6 | This Obsolete ControlLogix Runs a Whole Line, and Nobody Will Modernize It [PLC Q&A]

    Ep. 6 | This Obsolete ControlLogix Runs a Whole Line, and Nobody Will Modernize It [PLC Q&A]
    Jun 15 2026

    This obsolete ControlLogix has been running a whole production line for over a decade, the power supply just failed, and nobody will approve the modernization. In this Q&A I work through five real questions from the community, and the one that hits hardest is the nightmare cabinet: a dusty, ten foot high enclosure built around a controller that ended support years ago.

    If you program, wire, commission, or maintain industrial systems, this episode is built for you. I go past the surface and into why this specific failure mode is so expensive. The controller in that chassis predates Studio 5000, which means you cannot flash it forward and the program carries no stored comments, so the next person to walk up uploads logic with zero documentation. Support ended around 2017, so if the processor cooks itself in that heat you cannot simply buy a replacement, and the same controller that runs a multimillion dollar line is worth maybe fifty dollars on the used market. Add an unsupported Data Highway Plus network that tops out at 57.6 kbps next to gigabit EtherNet/IP, and the real risk is not the one hour power supply swap. It is the four week outage when a peripheral fails and there is no spare and no migration plan. Unplanned downtime now averages around $260,000 per hour across manufacturing and closer to $400,000 per hour for US plants, which is exactly why the do nothing answer is the most expensive one.

    From there I review a first automation project, a farm control panel built on an AutomationDirect CLICK PLC, and get specific on HMI design. Too much bright green and red, motor status that should show more than running or stopped, and a navigation scheme that changes position from screen to screen. I also critique a Siemens S7-313C and KTP 700 training kit, explain why I would add real networking gear and industrial buttons, and why an elevator is a better portfolio project than an obscure oil and gas spec. Then I share the most exciting project I have worked on, a full peanut butter plant modernization with Stratix switches, batch handling, and FactoryTalk View, and I close with a beginner deep dive on program structure, alarm management, and why HMI design is more important than most builders treat it.

    If this kind of field level breakdown is useful, subscribe so you catch every Q&A.

    Learn more at Joltek:
    - Rockwell PLC Lifecycle Migration Guide: https://www.joltek.com/blog/rockwell-plc-lifecycle-migration-guide
    - Control System Modernization Strategy: https://www.joltek.com/blog/control-system-modernization-strategy
    - Root Causes of Downtime in Industrial Automation: https://www.joltek.com/blog/root-causes-downtime-industrial-automation
    - Systems Modernization and Risk Management: https://www.joltek.com/services/service-details-systems-modernization-risk-management

    Timestamps
    0:00 Intro and how this Q&A works
    0:50 HMI and UX review of a first automation project
    9:50 The nightmare cabinet: an obsolete ControlLogix nobody will modernize
    17:40 PLC training kit feedback: Siemens S7-313C and KTP 700
    26:30 My most exciting PLC project: a peanut butter plant
    32:30 Program structure, alarm management, and HMI design

    More from Joltek:
    Website: https://www.joltek.com
    Connect on LinkedIn and leave your questions for the next Q&A in the comments.
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    49 mins
  • Ep. 5 | Allen-Bradley vs Siemens: Why Plants Pick One PLC Platform and Live With It [Field Q&A]

    Ep. 5 | Allen-Bradley vs Siemens: Why Plants Pick One PLC Platform and Live With It [Field Q&A]
    Jun 2 2026
    Allen-Bradley vs Siemens is rarely a pure technology decision, and this field Q&A breaks down why region, hiring, support networks, and vendor lock-in usually decide your PLC standard long before specs do. If you own a platform decision, this gives you the real reasoning to defend it upward.Most managers inherit a control system standard rather than choose one from a clean sheet. A plant accumulates machines from different builders, each arriving with its own controller, and over time the cost and difficulty of supporting many vendors pushes the organization toward harmonizing on one platform. The honest answer to "why Allen-Bradley and not Siemens" starts there. Allen-Bradley and Rockwell Automation dominate North American plants because the surrounding ecosystem dominates: the integrators, the distributors, the training centers, and the engineers who can be on site during a midnight shift all cluster around the regionally entrenched brand. Siemens carries that same weight across most of Europe, while Omron and Mitsubishi hold strong positions across much of Asia. Standardizing on a platform your region cannot easily staff or source is a real operational risk, not a spec sheet footnote.There is a genuine technical contrast worth understanding too. In this episode the comparison is framed as Rockwell being easier to use but more prescriptive, similar to a closed and guided ecosystem, while Siemens offers more flexibility and customization at the cost of engineering complexity. North American teams tend to lean heavily on ladder logic and external integration resources, whereas European teams more often carry deeper in-house engineering capability and reach for structured text. Once a platform is embedded, the surrounding products follow it: the HMIs, the VFDs, the servo drives, the managed switches, and the energy monitors all integrate more cleanly inside Studio 5000 or TIA Portal, which is exactly how vendor lock-in compounds and why switching platforms after you scale almost never pencils out.This Q&A also tackles the questions that fill a maintenance manager's week. We cover whether to suspect PLC logic or field hardware first when a conveyor stops intermittently, using a real example of a Siemens S7 line where an intermittent proximity sensor tripped the stop logic without ever holding an alarm long enough to be obvious. We get into building latches and trending the exact stop bits so an intermittent fault can be captured instead of chased for hours. We look at a vandalized PanelView Plus terminal, what a screen replacement actually involves, and why a full terminal can run $2,000 to $5,000 depending on features and source. And we close on whether every control system inevitably becomes harder to modify over time, why software segmentation per line keeps that complexity contained, and where SCADA and MES layers genuinely do raise the risk.If you are serious about manufacturing, automation, and making technical decisions you can defend to leadership, subscribe and join the community.Learn more at Joltek:- Control System Modernization Strategy: https://www.joltek.com/blog/control-system-modernization-strategy- Rockwell PLC Lifecycle Migration Guide: https://www.joltek.com/blog/rockwell-plc-lifecycle-migration-guide- Root Causes of Downtime in Industrial Automation: https://www.joltek.com/blog/root-causes-downtime-industrial-automation- System Integrators in Manufacturing: https://www.joltek.com/blog/system-integratorsTimestamps0:00 Intro to Factory Field Notes0:38 On the road at a client site1:08 New apprentice: how long until you feel competent5:05 Why Allen-Bradley and not Siemens6:00 Standardizing a plant on one PLC platform9:00 How region decides Rockwell, Siemens, Omron, Mitsubishi9:55 Rockwell vs Siemens: ease of use vs flexibility11:20 How vendor lock-in compounds across the ecosystem13:28 Troubleshooting: do you check logic or hardware first15:50 Reading the HMI fault and working backwards17:00 Latches and trending to catch intermittent faults18:45 A vandalized PanelView Plus and what repair costs20:55 Do PLC systems get harder to modify over time24:30 Where SCADA and MES layers add real complexityFind more from Joltek and Vladimir Romanov:Website: https://www.joltek.comBook a modernization consultation: https://www.joltek.com/book-a-modernization-consultationNew episodes of Factory Field Notes drop regularly. Subscribe so you do not miss the next one.
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    26 mins
  • Ep. 4 | PLC and Automation Q&A: Engineer Burnout, IT/OT Skill Gaps, and the 2026 Hiring Reality

    Ep. 4 | PLC and Automation Q&A: Engineer Burnout, IT/OT Skill Gaps, and the 2026 Hiring Reality
    May 22 2026
    This PLC and Automation Q&A answers six field questions on engineer burnout, IT/OT skill pressure, Studio 5000 bitwise AND, and the 2026 entry level job market.Every question maps to a decision an engineering manager is already navigating: retention, training, IT and OT scope, and how to hire and evaluate junior talent.Subscribe for analysis of engineering team dynamics, capital planning, and the operational realities of running an industrial automation function.Learn more at Joltek:- IT and OT Architecture Integration: https://www.joltek.com/services/service-details-it-ot-architecture-integration- Workforce Development and Education: https://www.joltek.com/services/service-details-workforce-development-education- Automation Leadership: https://www.joltek.com/blog/automation-leadership- Recruiting Robotics and Automation in Small Manufacturers: https://www.joltek.com/blog/recruiting-robotics-automation-small-manufacturersThe first question is a familiar one. Controls engineers used to spend most of their time inside PLC logic, and now the harder problem is everything around the PLC: HMI servers, edge devices, OPC UA, MQTT, historians, and the IT side consuming plant floor data. At larger sites this still gets handled by dedicated controls teams who never touch a switch or a domain controller. At smaller sites the same engineer is expected to do both, and the gap between job description and actual workload is widening fast.The second question is the one engineering managers should pay closest attention to. A practitioner asked whether people are generally miserable in this field after two and a half years across two jobs. The pattern in the post is structural, not personal: zero training, no mentorship, hostile reception to mistakes, operators escalating against engineers, and a previous occupant of the seat who left in under a year. Schneider Electric's 2024 workforce survey reports 59 percent of frontline skilled workers over 55 plan to retire within five years, and only 9 percent of workers ages 19 to 24 are entering skilled trades. The retention play is unglamorous: structured onboarding, named mentors, and shielding junior engineers from blame culture during the first 12 to 18 months on the floor.The third question was technical. A practitioner asked why Studio 5000 logic was applying a bitwise AND with 65,535 to a Local:2:I.Data array. That mask preserves the lower 16 bits of the 32 bit input register and discards the upper 16, a common pattern when an analog card packs two values into a double integer or when the upper bits hold status flags the application should not act on. For managers approving training spend, this is the type of question every junior engineer carries into their first commissioning, and a short internal documentation library of these patterns saves hours per project.The fourth and fifth questions both connect to skill development. One practitioner posted a wall of secondhand PLCs including SLC 500, ControlLogix L71, CompactLogix, Micro800, MicroLogix 1000 through 1400, Point I/O, GE Fanuc, ABB, and Mitsubishi units, most sourced for a fraction of new pricing. Another engineer with 15 years in the field admitted feeling behind on virtualization, domain controllers, and firewall rules. The structured path is Cisco CCNA fundamentals, then VLAN configuration on Rockwell Stratix or equivalent managed switches, then IP planning, OT segmentation, and the IT and OT DMZ patterns common to modern plant networks. Sponsoring a shared lab and protecting dedicated learning time are the two interventions engineering managers control most directly, and both compound.The sixth question was the entry level PLC market in Germany. The honest read is that Germany has a real shortage of automation engineers and a soft labor market for new graduates at the same time. Plant closures driven by pressure from Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers, rising energy costs, and broader economic conditions are pushing experienced engineers into open roles before junior candidates compete. The platform expectation in most German plants is Siemens TIA Portal and WinCC, with Beckhoff and Phoenix Contact present in specific verticals. The consistent hiring filter regardless of region is the same: can the candidate operate safely on a live plant floor, and will they put in legwork before escalating.Timestamps0:00 Intro and How to Submit Questions0:30 Q1: Is Automation Now Software Infrastructure4:00 Q2: Why Controls Engineers Burn Out10:30 About Vladimir and Joltek11:00 Q3: Bitwise AND in Studio 5000 Explained14:50 Q4: Building a Personal PLC Training Bench18:20 Q5: The IT and OT Skills Gap23:00 Q6: PLC and Automation Job Market in Germany28:30 What Senior Engineers Look For in Junior Hires31:30 Closing ThoughtsConnect with Vladimir and Joltek:Website: https://www.joltek.comBook a modernization consultation: https://www.joltek.com/book-a-modernization-consultationAbout Joltek: https://www.joltek.com/about
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    33 mins
  • Ep. 3 | Rockwell State of Smart Manufacturing Report 2026: What Executives Should Actually Believe [Review]

    Ep. 3 | Rockwell State of Smart Manufacturing Report 2026: What Executives Should Actually Believe [Review]
    May 21 2026
    The Rockwell State of Smart Manufacturing Report 2026 is the most cited smart manufacturing study of the year. This executive review pulls apart which findings hold up on the plant floor.Rockwell Automation surveyed 1,560 decision makers across 17 countries for the eleventh annual edition, with 62 percent holding spend authority.Subscribe for executive analysis of industry research, capital allocation, and the operational reality behind digital transformation.Learn more at Joltek:- Digital Transformation in Manufacturing: https://www.joltek.com/blog/digital-transformation-in-manufacturing- Industry 4.0 and Smart Manufacturing: https://www.joltek.com/blog/industry-4-0-smart-manufacturing- Industrial Cybersecurity (ICS): https://www.joltek.com/blog/industrial-cybersecurity-ics- Unlocking Industrial Data in Manufacturing: https://www.joltek.com/blog/unlocking-industrial-data-in-manufacturingThe report frames 2026 as the start of an execution era, with smart manufacturing moving from pilot to production. The directional read is right. The specific numbers behind it deserve closer scrutiny from anyone carrying P&L responsibility for a plant or a portfolio of plants.The most generous figure in the report is the claim that 43 percent of collected manufacturing data is now used effectively. In dozens of plant walks across food and beverage, CPG, life sciences, and pharmaceuticals, the realistic number looks closer to 5 to 7 percent once "effectively" is defined as data that is captured, contextualized, and actively moving OEE, quality, yield, or cost. Most production data still dies at the PLC and DCS layer, never reaching a historian, never landing in a database, and never informing a decision. The companion claim that 34 percent of operations are AI augmented today is similarly soft. Microsoft Copilot helping a quality engineer write a better email is not the same as a machine learning model closing a vision loop on a packaging line, and the survey does not separate the two.The cybersecurity finding is more credible and more strategically important. 46 percent of respondents reported a cyber incident in the past year, and the report correctly identifies the IT and OT integration layer as the most vulnerable surface. The angle that the prose underweights is insurance. Cyber regulations already in force in the European Union under NIS2 are penalizing critical infrastructure manufacturers for extended downtime, and equivalent frameworks are expected to reach North America by 2027. Premiums for industrial cyber coverage are rising in advance of those frameworks, and underwriters increasingly demand evidence that legacy Windows XP machines, SLC 500 controllers, and PLC 5s are either retired, patched, or placed behind defensible firewall architecture. That is the dynamic shaping CapEx priorities right now, more so than the headline AI numbers.The eight step path forward published in the report is recognizable to any operations leader who has run a transformation program. Two of the items deserve more weight than they typically receive. The first is communicating progress to build organizational momentum. A measurable share of transformation programs lose their best engineers to roadblocks, IT pushback, and approval friction long before the technical work is the bottleneck. The second is governance, because the data and decision rights questions only get harder as more systems become connected.A useful framing for the data side of this work is connect, collect, store, visualize. Connect is mostly a protocol decision across OPC UA, MQTT, and EtherNet/IP in a mixed Rockwell, Siemens, Beckhoff, and Opto 22 estate. Collect introduces software on top of the control layer and pulls in OT to IT cybersecurity considerations directly. Store is a question of historian, time series database, and cloud strategy. Visualize is where the human in the loop decision discipline lives, and where most organizations still underinvest. PwC's 2024 Digital Trends in Operations finding that only 32 percent of industrial products companies say their operations technology investments delivered expected results sits honestly alongside the more optimistic figures Rockwell publishes. Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute project 2 million unfilled manufacturing jobs in the United States by 2030, which reframes automation investment as a labor strategy as much as a productivity one.The full report is free to download from Rockwell Automation and the link is provided in the description below.Timestamps0:00 Why Industry Reports Matter1:30 Note From the Chairman and CEO5:20 Demographics and Who Actually Responded8:50 Executive Insights and Headline Stats11:30 Energy, Workforce, and Cyber Pressures13:40 Is 34 Percent of Operations Really AI Augmented16:00 The 43 Percent Data Utilization Claim22:00 Workforce Reskilling Reality Check24:30 IT and OT Cybersecurity Incidents30:20 Five Capabilities of the Execution Era36:20 Connect, Collect, Store, ...
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    59 mins
  • Ep. 2 | Industrial Automation Q&A: From Generalist to Specialist Without Regret [Career Strategy Episode]

    Ep. 2 | Industrial Automation Q&A: From Generalist to Specialist Without Regret [Career Strategy Episode]
    May 17 2026
    Industrial automation Q&A: a consultant answers six of the most consequential career and modernization questions facing engineers and managers in manufacturing today. Real questions, no vendor pitch, no oversimplified answers.From legacy PLC migration to the polymath trap, this episode walks through the operating decisions quietly shaping plant floors across the country right now.Subscribe for weekly conversations on industrial automation, manufacturing modernization, and the operational decisions that separate plants that scale from plants that stall.Learn more at Joltek:- Rockwell PLC Lifecycle and Migration Guide: https://www.joltek.com/blog/rockwell-plc-lifecycle-migration-guide- Control System Modernization Strategy: https://www.joltek.com/blog/control-system-modernization-strategy- Systems Modernization and Risk Management: https://www.joltek.com/services/service-details-systems-modernization-risk-management- Recruiting Robotics and Automation Talent for Small Manufacturers: https://www.joltek.com/blog/recruiting-robotics-automation-small-manufacturersThis episode opens with a project that has been getting a lot of attention from controls engineers building interview portfolios. A candidate built a virtualized material handling system in Factory IO, controlled it almost entirely in structured text on CODESYS, used Inductive Automation Ignition for the SCADA layer with role based perspective sessions, and ran the architecture across a PC, an EtherNet/IP network, and a tablet client. From a hiring manager perspective, the project is impressive. The harder question is whether it converts in an interview. If the plant runs Allen-Bradley Studio 5000 or Siemens TIA Portal, the hiring engineer often does not give a CODESYS portfolio full credit even when the architecture is more advanced than what the role requires. The practical move is to bring the demo on a tablet, prepare to defend the design choices in plain operational terms, and ideally re implement a slice of the project on whatever platform the target company actually runs. That last step is what turns an interesting candidate into a hireable one.The second question is the one every plant manager with aging infrastructure should be asking. A maintenance team spent a weekend cleaning up the wireway and reseating cards in an Allen-Bradley PLC 5 panel on a lumber sorter at a sawmill. The panel now looks excellent. The underlying business risk did not change. The Rockwell Automation PLC 5 line has been discontinued for years. Replacement I/O cards, specialty modules, Data Highway Plus interfaces, and ControlNet remnants now move through eBay, part auctions, and a shrinking pool of distributors at prices that increasingly exceed new CompactLogix or ControlLogix hardware. Spending engineering and skilled trades hours to revamp an obsolete asset without addressing the migration path is a capital allocation problem disguised as a maintenance project. For most plants running PLC 5 on a production critical line, the right next step is a migration plan to CompactLogix or ControlLogix, scoped honestly around the specialty modules and protocols still in use.The third question is the kind every operations leader recognizes. A family business inherited a three axis die casting robotic arm from 1991. The robot was acquired secondhand, never used, and someone stripped every wire from the cabinet for copper value before they took possession. The owner is asking whether to wire it back to the original terminal numbers or use the project as an excuse to modernize the PLC, the HMI, and the VFD. The honest answer from anyone who has lived through this kind of project: start by collecting part numbers from the largest components, retrieve the program backups if any exist, call the OEMs for the SEW Eurodrive, the legacy Siemens controller, and the robotic system, and price the migration before touching a wire. If the migration path is brutal and the business cannot afford the timeline, the better capital decision is often to retire the asset and source a functional secondhand unit rather than spend two years of part time effort getting a 35 year old machine back to a marginal state of operation.Connect with Joltek:Website: https://www.joltek.comBook a Modernization Consultation: https://www.joltek.com/book-a-modernization-consultationAll Services: https://www.joltek.com/servicesTimestamps0:00 Intro0:30 Home lab project in CODESYS and Ignition, interview worthiness5:40 About Vladimir and Joltek6:18 Allen-Bradley PLC 5 cleanup versus full migration on a lumber sorter10:18 Rewiring a 1991 three axis robotic arm with no documentation18:30 Polymath or specialist, the honest career conversation29:00 PLC programming versus troubleshooting in real organizations35:30 Essential skills to break in as a PLC technician
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    47 mins
  • Ep. 1 | PLC Programming Q&A: Free Simulators, Browser IDEs, and Physical PLC Trainers Reviewed

    Ep. 1 | PLC Programming Q&A: Free Simulators, Browser IDEs, and Physical PLC Trainers Reviewed
    May 9 2026
    PLC programming Q&A walks through five r/PLC community questions on free simulators, browser IDEs, physical trainers, automation careers, and project complexity.This first episode pulls the most discussed questions from r/PLC, PLCtalk, control.com, and automation subreddits, then answers each with the perspective a working controls engineer would give. Subscribe to follow the rest of the series.Learn more at Joltek:- PLC Scan Cycles, Polling, and SCADA Data: https://www.joltek.com/blog/plc-scan-cycles-polling-scada-systems-data- Connecting an Allen Bradley PLC to Ignition: https://www.joltek.com/blog/connecting-allen-bradley-plc-ignition- Modern Plant Network Requirements in Manufacturing: https://www.joltek.com/blog/modern-plant-network-requirements-manufacturing- Rockwell PLC Lifecycle Migration Guide: https://www.joltek.com/blog/rockwell-plc-lifecycle-migration-guideQuestion one is the RavSControls free browser based ladder logic simulator. I built a motor start and stop circuit: normally open start, normally closed stop, a coil for the motor, and a seal in branch on the motor running tag. Latching worked. The UI has a vibe coded feel familiar to anyone who has used Claude Code or Gemini, and it is useful for rung structure, contact and coil semantics, and the basic instruction set. It is not a substitute for Studio 5000, TIA Portal, or CODESYS when you need deterministic scan cycles or peripherals support, but for an introductory motor starter it is a clean free sandbox.Question two is from a 40 year old switching out of retail and transit into automation through a community college program funded in part by the Pell Grant. Age is not the limiter, time is. Working 15 hours a day with two kids leaves very little room for the math, physics, and mental models automation work assumes. The market is real though. The 2025 workforce data lists the skilled worker shortage as a top business threat for 38 percent of manufacturers, and the average controls engineer salary sits at $119,682, up 4.3 percent year over year. The path takes longer than for a 20 year old in the same program, but it is absolutely possible.Question three is whether physical PLC trainers with switches, BCD displays, and analog dials are still worth building. After the first hour of PLC wiring practice, the value of physical pushbuttons and LEDs drops fast. PID loops and sequence logic are better simulated in software. You can latch bits inside Studio 5000, RSLogix 5000, TIA Portal, or CODESYS, and use Inductive Automation Ignition or Node RED to emulate field devices and HMI screens. Physical trainers earn their keep for teaching wiring discipline; for logic instruction, virtualization wins on cost and flexibility.Question four is from someone who built a fully browser based IEC 61131 part 3 environment with all five languages, OPC UA and Modbus, live tag monitoring, an HMI designer, multi user role based access, and version history. The build is real; the market problem is harder. Rockwell controllers run on Studio 5000. Siemens controllers run on TIA Portal. Interfaces, address structures, AOI tooling, and module configuration are tightly coupled to the vendor and firmware, and exporting cleanly into either stack is rarely smooth. The architecture also underestimates peripherals: VFDs, servo drives, smart sensors, third party load scales, and safety relays all need vendor specific configuration that OPC UA or Modbus alone does not erase.Question five is whether modern PLC projects are actually getting more complex. They are. The PLC logic is often the easy part now. The full scope today usually includes HMI development, plant SCADA on top of local screens, OT networking with managed switches, VLAN segmentation, NAT for OEM cells, remote access for vendors and on call engineers, and a databases and analytics layer feeding plant KPIs like OEE, MTBF, and MTTR. Since 2020, remote access has shifted from a nice to have to a default expectation, and the pressure to measure with real time data has made historians and SCADA a baseline component, not an add on. The controls engineer role now extends well into IT territory.Timestamps0:00 Intro to the Q&A Series0:50 Free PLC Ladder Logic Simulator (RavSControls)5:33 Switching Into Automation at 408:23 Channel Intro: Vladimir Romanov and Joltek8:55 Physical vs Virtual PLC Trainers12:20 Browser Based IEC 61131 Part 3 PLC IDE15:30 Are PLC Projects Getting More Complex?19:30 Closing and Call for QuestionsVisit Joltek: https://www.joltek.comAbout Vladimir Romanov: https://www.joltek.com/team-members/vladimir-romanovBook a modernization consultation: https://www.joltek.com/book-a-modernization-consultation#PLCProgramming #IndustrialAutomation #LadderLogic #ControlsEngineering #OTNetworking
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    21 mins