Book Image

Mastering PLC Programming

By : Mason White
Book Image

Mastering PLC Programming

By: Mason White

Overview of this book

Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a new feature of PLC programming that has taken the automation world by storm. This book provides you with the necessary skills to succeed in the modern automation programming environment. The book is designed in a way to take you through advanced topics such as OOP design, SOLID programming, the software development lifecycle (SDLC), library design, HMI development, general software engineering practices, and more. To hone your programming skills, each chapter has a simulated real-world project that’ll enable you to apply the skills you’ve learned. In all, this book not only covers complex PLC programming topics, but it also removes the financial barrier that comes with most books as all examples utilize free software. This means that to follow along, you DO NOT need to purchase any PLC hardware or software. By the end of this PLC book, you will have what it takes to create long-lasting codebases for any modern automation project.
Table of Contents (25 chapters)
1
Part 1 – An Introduction to Advanced PLC Programming
6
Part 2 – Modularity and Objects
10
Part 3 – Software Engineering for PLCs
14
Part 4 – HMIs and Alarms
19
Part 5 – Final Project and Thoughts

Final project – creating a user-friendly HMI

For our final project, we are going to expand and modify our HMI from the previous chapter to accommodate a home screen, a calibration screen, and a general health screen. As such, the first thing we are going to do is add the screens to the project. Therefore, we’re going to add calibration, home, health, and operator visualization to the project. All of the screens are going to be newly created, except for the operator screen, which is the HMI from the last chapter. With all that said, the first screen we are going to make is the home screen.

The home screen should be very simple and only serve as a navigation menu. With that in mind, the home screen is usually akin to a welcome page, with simple navigation and maybe pictures, such as company logos and so on. For this project, we are going to lay out the screen like the following:

Figure 13.25 – Home screen

Figure 13.25 – Home screen

This is a very minimal home...