ACC Automation: PLC & Industrial Control Learning
Practical Tips and Techniques
One week ago, the free PLC simulator at accautomation.ca had 17 ladder instructions. Today it has 42. Between October 13 and October 16, the ACC PLC Simulator shipped six releases, v1.123 through v1.128, in four days. You can now change a program while it is running, step a traffic intersection with one drum instruction, pick … Read more
Until now, the ACC PLC Simulator ran one 3D scene at a time. You could program a motor starter, a conveyor, or a tank—but only one at a time— and the moment you connected a second scene, it fought the first for the same inputs. From version 1.121, that limit is gone. The multi-scene PLC … Read more
I Replaced a $5,000 PLC Trainer with a Free PLC Training Simulator. A PLC training panel costs between three and eight thousand dollars. Technical colleges buy racks of them. Self-learners look at the price and walk away. Companies send employees to week-long courses at two thousand dollars per seat. I built a free PLC training … Read more
Can AI Program a PLC? I Tested AI-Generated PLC Code Live. I gave an AI assistant one task: write a complete conveyor control program in Structured Text for the ACC PLC Simulator. Start the motor, detect the box at each end with proximity sensors, reverse direction, auto-stop, and handle a restart. Then I pasted the … Read more
This article on PLC programming languages was written by Chris Urban, an automation educator and PLC trainer with over 40 years of hands-on experience. Find Chris on YouTube and LinkedIn. — CU Can we even compare the programming languages used on our PCs to those used in PLC programming? To get to the bottom of this, we have … Read more
PLC Simulator is a convenient tool for testing and troubleshooting structured text (ST) programs in the XG5000 programming software. It allows you to simulate the operation of a programmable logic controller (LS Electric PLC) without needing actual hardware. This makes it a valuable asset for beginners and experienced programmers. We will use the PLC simulator … Read more
Structured text (ST) programming is a programming language that is part of the IEC standard and is used in the Arduino Opta PLC. This programming language allows you to write code in a structured and organized manner, making it easier to understand and maintain. With structured text programming, you can create complex and sophisticated programs … Read more