HPR4738: Programmable Logic Controls - Episode 4

Hosted by Whiskeyjack on 2026-09-30 01:00:00

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HPR Comments

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Archer72 says: PLC relevance

RE: hpr4738::2026-09-30 Programmable Logic Controls - Episode 4 by Whiskeyjack
00:29:37 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Hi,

When I started listening to this series, I remembered that in a previous job being told that PLC's were not relevant anymore. And this was at a company that dealt with spindle and servo drives for industrial robots. Little did he know that I was moving to Toyota country (Kentucky), where PLC's were widely used. While I am not in the industry at the moment, this has still been an intriguing and timeless series. I would also think that robotics and PLC's would go hand in hand.

Thanks for all the effort in these episodes.

Cheers,
Archer72

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Whiskeyjack says: Reply to Archer72 on robots

RE: hpr4738::2026-09-30 Programmable Logic Controls - Episode 4 by Whiskeyjack
00:29:37 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Industrial robots have their own controllers which are distinct from PLCs in terms of how they work and are programmed. A very typical configuration for a complex manufacturing cell would be to have a PLC coordinating the overall cell plus controlling various parts of it which are not part of the robot.

The PLC would then tell the robot when to do its job, and the robot would tell the PLC when it was done in a handshake process.

Some robot manufacturers offer robot controllers which have PLC functionality integrated into them. I haven't worked with these, but it is a pretty straightforward feature to have.

In episode 8 in the series I talk about soft logic systems. You will see that running PLC type software on other hardware is in fact quite possible and all the same PLC concepts apply. If you understand PLCs, you will understand logic systems embedded in other controllers as well. You simply need to have an operating system running the different systems which can then communicate with one another and it can be possible to have robot controller software and PLC logic software running on the same embedded computer.

If you have some experience with industrial robots or with their drive systems, perhaps you could do an episode on them for the rest of us?

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archer72 says: robots

RE: hpr4738::2026-09-30 Programmable Logic Controls - Episode 4 by Whiskeyjack
00:29:37 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Hi Whiskeyjack,

I'll see what I can pull together, but it may take a while to jog my old memory. Though it has only been 3 years, I find that better notes would have been helpful.

Cheers,
Archer72

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