PLC Troubleshooting 101. Basic Steps to Diagnose and Fix Your Machine 

No matter what you are troubleshooting, DON'T just start "stabbing" at problems. Every test or attempt should have an expected result. That means you have to think it out before you do it. And it's like chess, be ready to perform the next move based on the results of the first move. Easy fixes should come in 1 to 3 moves because you expected results have led you to a logical conclusions. I call it triangulating on the problem. And while really good operators will give you really good insight, to be honest it's rare and too many disappear the minute you show up and if you do get something out of them it may be completely false or they are covering up a stupid mistatke they made. But never forget RULE # 1 !! Check all the power supplies, fuses and circuit breakers FIRST before starting to troubleshoot anything. You don't even need prints for that most of the time. Suddenly you're a genius!

Schematics? Diagrams? That’s like finding a unicorn in your bathtub. Feel lucky and blessed if you find them.

Timestamp: 5:59 I’ve been working in a manufacturing plant for about 6 weeks at this point. When a machine breaks - I start by asking the operator to describe in detail what happened and if they noticed anything out of the ordinary before the incident. I also ask them what they have done since it happened. This gives me a starting point to begin looking for the issue. Electrical drawing and machine plans are out of date at best and most of our machines have been engineered in Germany and the drawings we do have are mostly in German. It’s sink or swim baby!

Operators can be valuable if they are good operators. I have lots that dont care or dont know. Being the rookie controls tech i get a lot of crap from the maintenance techs and lately it has come down to always being a " controls issue", because they dont want to bother doing the job.

When everything else falls into water, get the user's manual 😂

Love your Channel !!! when an e stop is pressed if there are multiple estops they will usually cuts power to the inputs or out put or both

Divide and conquering. Power. No power

First thing I ask is...Has anything changed...Who worked on this last...ask operator what's happening...what operator is working...do a visual look around...then start testing with meter etc.

The HMI is only as good as it has been programmed! Start with the easiest things and work your way up!!

Good info. Need to have basic maintenance skills in industrial electricity, power drives & transmission, hydraulics, pneumatics, welding, plumbing to be a good machine troubleshooter.

Ive been wiring up plcs for the last year and still have a long way to go to feel confident. The funny thing is I have an associates degree in industrial robotics. Now Im just looking for work since I just graduated.

As someone new to this industry with electronics background it's been an interesting ride. In this plant prints are the unicorn. it comes down to troubleshooting skills. Operators are you friend, until you piss them off. I bring in every operator in to find out what the machine was, or not, doing when the error showed up. They know the machine way better than I do. I have to ask questions otherwise I'll go in circles. Troubleshooting is a true acquired skill.

I train control techs and your advise around 8:40 is spot on. Having the techs trust, or even just their initial buy-in, helps you to get a very clear picture of the block.

Is it Destructive (Yes or No) because - if Yes, the process can perform a function (moves) and potentially destroy machine or flesh?

Knapp system here at Dimond drug, Indiana Pennsylvania is a new fulfillment center. Nothing ever breaks down. We maintenance shuttles, tote jams, reset a breakers.

I started just after automation trade school in Tysoon plant 1500 people plant with most new mashines (Spider robots use pc as plc ,one motion motors as servo can be used ,Fanuc robots,studio5000 mostly used also other plc's ,still have old type mashines too but small size, and type network-cloud based operations as a scales and soo on...) we had to learn 80% of mashines how they operate soo first 2 years was hell but now I got a lot of skills for 3 years in the field soo we get call's from mechanics and production but not too much issues overall because they know mashines now to point out what it doesn't doo, it is good experience.

Thanks Tim. That was a great video for me. I am beginning to troubleshoot with PlC and I do get lost a lot. I will continue practicing. If there is anything I could set up myself I probably could at work

Thank you for validating, get to know your operator!!

i want to work at your workshop

Where do you livestream at ?

Have you seen the remote setups that yaskawa have for their sigma 7 drive training. A remote plc training setup like that might be interesting.

Tim, I was at a plant over the holidays and in there the downtime cost 20K/min!

Love you Tim, Thanks for sharing the knowledge.

Thank You So Much Tim ! , Im Trying to Get as much Information so i can Troubleshooting Equipment with Studio 5000. Most of the Time it's something simple but I need to Prepare myself for the Technical Part. My Regards , Greetings to all.

It must be nice to have access to plc program. Working 2nd shift most of the time we don't have access to that. So I always ask the operator what is it not doing, than go to what ever makes it do what ever it was supposed to do. And work back from there.

Missing prints is everyday.

I would be super interested in the troubleshooting trainer !

Very good points! Been to multiple service calls this week and the only thing I would add is asking maintenance upon arrival what parts or wires have you guys changed/modified?

You are so correct about down time! I'm and engineer converted to cybersecurity and I have such a hard time explaining the importance of 0 unscheduled downtime and that maintenance windows are extremely tight. I keep getting "just update the firmware." Explaining it doesn't work that way to IT security professionals can be difficult. I'm going to start sending people to this channel! So good! Please keep this up.

Hey Tim I just signed up for some of the online lessons and the very first link is not loading, also do I need your trainer for these lessons? Thanks

Excellent video, thank you.

Where is this classroom at.? Do you offer education.?

Thank you for this video!

Mom showing up is soooo wholesome lol. She just loves you so much 😂❤

I want to get better at using the program as a tool to determine what the problem is.

Very very informative video. God bless you. Make more videos like this.

Would you tell me the issue in this system why not working?

Good job 👍

I would love to attend but I live in north texas. What would you suggest?

How can I get enrolled in your class

Where is your school located?

How do I get info for your onstte training.

Thanks

Where is the tutorial?

Great video Tim love it!

❤

You’re awesome

How can I join that classroom sir?

Trust me, in the food industry, operators know more than maintenance on how to lead where the issues are...of course they need maintenance to go in controls and thumb there brains out...but if you as tech dont know what you r looking for, you are causing DT.