Bruce Ottenwalder

So you’ve decided to become a Controls Engineer… I hope you don’t like sleep because you aren’t going to get any for the next decade you masochist. But seriously, if you want to get better at ICP design here is how you start… 1. Take your UL 508A class, read the books front to back, then go shove it in your desk drawer. You won’t easily remember most of what you learn this way so keep reading… 2. Go work for a machine builder. In your first week go scope out the panel shop. Find the grumpiest looking old panel builder… there is your guy or gal (extra points if they are Eastern European, you’re about to see your panels look like a work of art) 3. Create your first set of schematics and don’t waste your time trying to make them perfect, they won’t be. Release them to the shop along with your BOM. Give them the morning to review. 4. Take a deep breath and go walk to the panel shop. Find your job and drawings and take a look. Your hard set of schematics should be covered in redlines and lit up like a Christmas tree. 5. Swallow your pride and eat the shit sandwich. Don’t try to talk back or resist. They will be right (mostly) and you will be wrong. Now you may feel sad for them as well because you feel as though you’ve ruined their day. Trust me you didn’t. That’s the best drive home they’ve had all year. They love this shit. 6. Thank them, be humble be grateful. They just made you better. Spend the next year or 2 doing this. Not only will you be a better engineer, but you will have made a good friend and possibly a lifelong friend at that. I’ve gotten interviews and recommendations from my panel builder friends. They trust me and I trust them. Great work. You are now a better controls engineer. Now just wait til you have to write your first PLC program from scratch on the shop floor…

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Here is a question regarding current and legacy controller software. I have been working with the issues that have been created by the updates to Windows 11 software, so I am told. Does anyone have anything positive to say about the advancement of industrial software as it relates to Windows 11? I have heard that the next version of Windows will be heavily weighted towards AI. What will that do to Studio 5000 or RSLogix 5000? We still have some 503's running in the plant and have put together a life cycle replacement/upgrade program to address these things. VM partitions on my laptop are a pain and really slow to work with. I read on the Siemens website a selection of Windows 11 software updates to remove so the license manager doesn't get damaged. Horner PLC software also has many issues with Windows 11. Did we build the industrial software platform to work with Windows software because ease of use at the expense of future reliability? Why doesn't anyone use the Linux/Ubuntu operating system in the industrial world? My guess is the end user.

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