You're reading from PLCs for Beginners An introductory guide to building robust PLC programs with structured text

Product type Paperback

Published in May 2024

Publisher Packt

ISBN-13 9781803230931

Length 380 pages

Edition 1st Edition

Languages

PLC programming

Tools

PLC

Concepts

PLC Programming

Author (1):

M. T. White

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Table of Contents (25) Chapters

Preface

1. Part 1: Basics of Computer Science for PLC Programmers FREE CHAPTER

2. Chapter 1: Computer Science Versus Automation Programming

3. Chapter 2: PLC Components – Integrating PLCs with Other Modules

4. Chapter 3: The Basics of Programming

5. Chapter 4: Unleashing Computer Memory

6. Chapter 5: Designing Programs – Unleashing Pseudocode and Flowcharts

7. Chapter 6: Boolean Algebra

8. Part 2: Introduction to Structured Text Programming

9. Chapter 7: Unlocking the Power of ST

10. Chapter 8: Exploring Variables and Tags

11. Chapter 9: Performing Calculations in Structured Text

12. Chapter 10: Unleashing Built-In Function Blocks

13. Chapter 11: Unlocking the Power of Flow Control

14. Chapter 12: Unlocking Advanced Control Statements

15. Chapter 13: Implementing Tight Loops

16. Part 3: Algorithms, AI, Security, and More

17. Chapter 14: Sorting with Loops

18. Chapter 15: Secure PLC Programming – Stopping Cyberthreats

19. Chapter 16: Troubleshooting PLCs – Fixing Issues

20. Chapter 17: Leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI)

21. Chapter 18: The Final Project – Programming a Simulated Robot

22. Assessments

23. Index

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Unlocking the Power of ST

Alright, now it’s time for the fun stuff! Now that we have a solid foundation in program design, computer science, hardware, and so on, we can get into the exciting material and start writing code. This chapter is going to be dedicated to installing the software that you’ll need to write PLC code, as well as taking an in-depth look at Structured Text (ST).

ST, is, for lack of a better word, feared by many PLC programmers, as it can be intimidating. However, ST does not have to be something to be afraid of. In fact, for many applications, ST can be easier to use and understand than the more popular Ladder Logic (LL or LD) programming language. What you’ll find in this chapter is that ST bears a very close resemblance to the pseudocode we used in Chapter 5, so if you skipped over that chapter or didn’t fully grasp the information presented, it’s a good idea to return to it until you feel comfortable with that material.

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