August 15, 2025 • 31 mins
Shawn meet's up with Giovanni Mendoza of GM Automation and Controls in today's episode of Automation Tech Talk, Lunchtime Edition:
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Thanks for listening! If you'd like to join the show sometime, don't hesitate to use the contact us link. You'll also find Giovanni's website here.
Read the transcript on The Automation Blog: (automatically generated)
Shawn Tierney (Host): Giovanni, thank you for coming on the show. I really appreciate you coming on. I know we've talked a lot about ControlLogix and CompactLogix over the months and years, But I recently saw you did a project, and I know your company and you guys do a lot of different projects. But I noticed you recently did a project on the micro eight hundreds. And I wanted to ask you, well, just a bunch of questions.
It just really got me curious. So if you don't mind, I would like to start off with why you chose the micro 800. And I just for so everybody knows, I teach both Logix, you know, Compact Control Logix micro 800. You know, I teach other brands as well. And, you know, I like them all.
But I a lot of times people who use Logix never use the micro 100. So this really piqued my interest. So I wanted to start, asking you and, really, before we get to that, tell us a little bit about what you do. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your company.
Giovanni Mendoza (GMAC): Sure. Well, first thing, thanks a lot, Shawn, for, having me here. It's, it's an honor to be on your podcast. Yeah. So I am a systems integrator, essentially.
A, I'm a business owner here in California. And so we do a lot of, bakery automation, but we just dug into the, foam molding industry with this project. So that one was very cool. Yeah. You know, I know that's pretty much all we do as far as our typical projects, you know, logic stuff.
But we pretty much had to ask the customer what was their budget.
Shawn Tierney (Host): Yep.
Giovanni Mendoza (GMAC): And, you know, I have used the micro eight hundreds at home. And I know they were very, you know, versatile as far as what you can do with them. So and the cost was awesome. You know? The Yeah.
Very justifies the cost for the customer and whatnot. And so we sat down with the customer, and we were like, hey. Like, what are you guys expecting with this project? What are you expecting it to do? What do you wanna see on, like, a screen?
What is it that you guys want? And the application was very simple. It's a hydraulic press, essentially, that was, automated with a MicroLogix 1,100. But
Shawn Tierney (Host): Okay.
Giovanni Mendoza (GMAC): The entire program wiped out, and the person that programmed it was long gone and actually passed away many, many years ago. Ugh. The there was no records or anything that we can pretty much use for, essentially, just to get kinda, like, a picture of what was going on.
Shawn Tierney (Host): Mhmm.
Giovanni Mendoza (GMAC): So, thankfully, the process was very basic.
Shawn Tierney (Host): Mhmm.
Giovanni Mendoza (GMAC): And so, you know, the customer was a little bit on a tighter budget, and so we couldn't really justify the cost to put in, like, a CompactLogix in there. So we picked out the micro 800. And, the environment I know there's a lot of people that don't really like CCW for Mhmm. You know, many reasons. Sometimes the software is a little different in certain aspects.
Right?
Shawn Tierney (Host): It is. Yeah.
Giovanni Mendoza (GMAC): But, it wasn't bad for the application. You know, we had a lot of inputs, but only a couple outputs. So that was pretty nice. And it was cool in the aspect that we we were able to combine the HMI and the PLC program into one file, right, all in CCW.
Shawn Tierney (Host): Yeah.
Giovanni Mendoza (GMAC): So pretty much it you know,
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Giovanni, thank you for coming on the show.
I really appreciate you coming on. I know
we've talked a lot about
ControlLogix
and CompactLogix
over the months and years,
But I recently saw you did a project,
and I know your company and you guys
do a lot of different projects. But I
noticed you recently did a project
on the micro eight hundreds.
(00:23):
And I wanted to ask you,
well, just a bunch of questions. It just
really got me curious. So if you don't
mind, I would like to start off with
why you chose the micro 800. And I
just for so everybody knows, I teach both
Logix,
you know, Compact Control Logix micro 800. You
know, I teach other brands as well. And,
you know, I like them all. But I
(00:43):
a lot of times people who use Logix
never use the micro 100. So this really
piqued my interest. So I wanted to start,
asking you and, really, before we get to
that, tell us a little bit about what
you do. Tell us a little bit about
yourself and your company.
Sure. Well, first thing, thanks a lot, Sean,
for, having me here. It's, it's an honor
to be on your podcast.
(01:06):
Yeah. So I am a systems integrator, essentially.
A,
I'm a business owner here in California.
And so we do a lot of,
bakery automation,
but we just dug into the,
foam molding industry with this project. So that
(01:26):
one was very cool.
Yeah. You know, I know that's pretty much
all we do as far as our typical
projects, you know, logic stuff. But
we
pretty much had to ask the customer what
was their budget.
Yep. And, you know, I have used the
micro eight hundreds at home. And I know
(01:49):
they were very, you know, versatile
as far as what you can do with
them.
So and the cost was awesome. You know?
The Yeah. Very justifies the cost for the
customer and whatnot.
And so
we sat down with the customer, and we
were like, hey. Like, what are you guys
expecting with this project? What are you expecting
it to do? What do you wanna see
(02:10):
on, like, a screen? What is it that
you guys want?
And the application was very simple. It's a
hydraulic press, essentially,
that was,
automated with a
MicroLogix
1,100.
But
Okay. The entire program wiped out, and the
(02:30):
person that programmed it
was long gone and actually passed away many,
many years ago. Ugh. The there was no
records or anything that we can pretty much
use for,
essentially, just to get kinda, like, a picture
of what was going on. Mhmm. So,
thankfully, the process was very basic.
(02:50):
Mhmm.
And so, you know, the customer was a
little bit on a tighter budget, and so
we couldn't really
justify the cost to put in, like, a
CompactLogix
in there.
So we picked out the micro 800.
And,
the environment I know there's a lot of
people that don't really like CCW
(03:12):
for Mhmm. You know, many reasons. Sometimes the
software is a little
different
in certain aspects. Right? It is. Yeah. But,
it wasn't bad for the application. You know,
we had a lot of inputs, but only
a couple outputs. So that was pretty nice.
And it was cool in the aspect that
(03:34):
we we were able to combine the HMI
and the PLC program into one file, right,
all in CCW.
Yeah. So pretty much it you know, it
was very cool to just
you're working on your your programming, and then
at the same time, you got the HMI
popped up in the same file. Yep. You
know, you don't have to open up a
separate software.
(03:54):
You know, it's all conjuncted into one.
Oh, you still there? Did I lose you?
Testing one, two.
(04:16):
Giovanni, do you have me?
(05:12):
Oops. Do I get you?
Yeah. It looks like I lost it there
for some reason. I don't know what happened.
You know, it happens every once in a
while, but it's good. As long as one
of us is in the meeting, it keeps
recording. So last the the thing I lost
you on was
you you said you had the POC and
the software all conjuncted or or all collated
in one application. If if you just wanna
(05:34):
pick up right from that?
Yeah. So it was very easy as far
as,
you know, integration
goes. You know, we were,
you know, jumping around two softwares and, you
know Mhmm. Doing all that stuff. So it
was it was cool. You know? It was
all in one whole piece.
And it was nice because we were able
(05:54):
to just,
you know, put it in a small file,
email it out. It's just one
just one simple file they have to save
in there. So,
yeah, I I definitely,
this was the first time we cut our
teeth into really providing a micro 800 for
a process. So,
(06:14):
you know, definitely
not as bad as, you know, some people
say as far as the software platform goes.
Definitely did its job. I I really did
enjoy the migrate 100. I think it was
it's very, very powerful controller indeed.
Yeah. You know, I was surprised how powerful
it was when I did my
(06:35):
training course on it.
Gee, it must be almost going on ten
years now. I'm actually in the process of
upgrading, all my training courses.
But one of the things I wanted to
do first was
solve the Factory IO
lessons. So I did three factory IO courses.
And so I decided to do them in
the order of Micrologix,
(06:55):
controller CompactLogix,
and then Micro 800.
And I really get to see the differences
between the three packages.
And the micro 800, you know, I think,
like, an eight twenty, if somebody's out there
thinking of getting one for a small project,
I just looked up the list price today.
It's August, you know, 2025,
and it's it's about $3.97
(07:16):
list price. Now this doesn't have, like, a
huge discount off it typically.
This product line, you gotta call your local
representative, and they'll give you your actual price.
But don't expect, like, 50% off that price.
Right?
That's been my experience anyways.
But, still at that price,
you know, list price on the $400,
it's you know, when I started this, it
(07:37):
was $2.50. So, you know, you know, over
time, over the decades, it goes up over
time, of course. But,
it can do a lot. Now, you know,
I there are some people out there who
say,
if it's not a lot if it's not
Studio five thousand we used to say Logix.
If it's not Studio five thousand, I won't
use it. And, you know,
I I really found
(07:58):
there are some things in the ladder editor
that are just great, drag and drop. You
know? You can change, you can change, you
know, different instructions and do do the things
you're used to doing. They added in the
where you can edit the rung in text.
They added that a few years ago. So
if you're one of those guys who do
that a lot, I just happen to be
one of those guys who like to do
(08:18):
that.
Because in the June Micrologix, we kinda had
to do that because you couldn't just toggle
a destruction from XIC to XIO or latch
to unlatch or whatever.
But, you know, I really like that feature.
They do have a,
a a a Logix
theme,
which I love the idea behind, but I've
had some students get in trouble with that
(08:40):
when they did a lot of subroutines and
the way it handled those subroutines. I haven't
I haven't done a lesson on that yet.
But, you know, there are some usability
things
that I'm just used to, you know,
like, putting in the tag values, right,
into different instructions. So if I have a
bunch of rungs that are very similar,
I just wanna go through and change each
(09:00):
of the tag values. I find that tag
browser did you find this as well? The
tag browser is a little clunky. It depends
on where you click, which browser you get,
and then it just seems a little bit
harder to navigate than the other packages.
Did did you find the same thing, or
was that not a big deal for you
guys?
Yeah. It it was. You know, it is
(09:20):
kind of a challenge with tag browser that
they have,
even just
to kind of,
put in descriptions on the tags Yeah. They
have to open up the tag browser and
then kinda just pop up another page and
then put all your info in there. So,
yeah, it was a little clunky,
compared to, you know, the Logix environment where
you could create a tag on the fly
(09:42):
and then, you know, just open up the
tag properties and just put in your descriptions
or, you know, do the alias tags if
you're you're gonna do that. So, yeah, in
that aspect, it was a little bit,
challenging,
but,
you know,
it's it wasn't too bad. Yeah. And for
those people who say and I know the
MicroLogix says only the 1,400 left and, you
(10:04):
know, it's end of life. Right? And or
active and mature, I think, is the correct
way to say it. You know, talk to
your Rockwell people to get actual information.
I'm just a I'm just a,
instructor. But,
you know, the Micro 800 supports,
you know, function blocks and structured text, and
I think it does a good job at
(10:24):
it.
So, you know, as much as I love
my old MicroLogix and I use the 1,100
in, 14 and here's the thing too. If
you wanna you program the 1,400,
you're gonna have that $300 package of, software.
You know? The software is free for the,
for the,
1,100, and it has an emulator built in,
a simulator built in. Yeah. With the free
(10:46):
software, it only runs for ten minutes, but
still, you don't get that with Logix. Right?
You don't get a free simulator built in.
Other vendors do that. The other big vendors
include that for free. And with Rockwell's Studio
5,000, they don't.
And I also, you know, I also like
the integration of the panel view 800, formerly
the panel view component
or,
(11:08):
the what we used to call the PVC
slow because it was so slow. But the
800 has been very of a very good
product line.
You know, and and,
did you do the HMI on that as
well? Did somebody else do it? Did you
we did you do the HMI? Yep. What
did you think of that? I mean, it's
simple, but functional. Right? Yeah. You know what?
(11:28):
I've I've used their,
the eight hundreds, the panel v eight hundreds
a lot more than the micro eight hundreds.
Okay. So it's yeah. You know, it's a
very it's a very good platform, and, and
I'm sure you know this. But with the
eight hundreds, you can also connect to certain,
Logix controller.
So it's very cool where, you know, you
(11:49):
can just
you know, if the customer is on a
budget and you just they want something simple,
then you can just get, like, an 800
and, you know, do everything on there. And
it it's very it works well. You know?
I I I personally do like the,
HMI environment. There is a couple things that
I feel like it, you know, it is
missing out, you know, like, you know, you
have on, you know, factory talk to you
(12:11):
Yeah.
Is, like, you know, animations. Right? You don't
have any animations. Yeah. That would be the
only downside that I don't like on,
creating HMIs on,
CCW.
But otherwise, you know, it's it's not too
bad. I like it. I remember
when it first came out,
(12:31):
maybe fifteen, twenty years ago, I recreated the,
demo that's in the panel view plus in
CCW.
And the animation thing was painful, so you
had to use, like, a multi state indicator
and Yeah. Have multiple pictures of what you
wanna do. And, but but aside from and
and that animation feature is just,
you know, the panel view plus, gee, it
(12:52):
must be 30 years old now, but, well,
maybe not that old. 25 years old. But,
it was alright. Maybe,
well, maybe 20 years old.
Alright. 20. I keep going down. I'm like,
oh, not that old. But, the Panelview Plus
was just because RSVUE, you think RSVUE predated
the Panelview Plus. RSVUE was, like, ninety five
(13:12):
ish. I was a beta user. Then FactoryTalk
View, I'm thinking early two thousands.
So and don't quote me on that. I'm
not looking at my notes. But, you know,
it really pull force all all of that
same
that same technology with the animations as identical.
So if you go back to '28 let's
say, nineteen ninety five, ninety six, you open
up RSVU,
which is the predecessor RSVU 32,
(13:35):
the animation window looks almost identical to what
you're using today in factory talk view.
And it just kick it's it's I don't
wanna say any bad words, but it's really
cool.
And and and some of the features,
you know, very powerful features that even comp
the competition don't have yet,
is still in that product. Kinda, you know,
I understand why they're doing the factory talk
optic. Have you used any factory talk optics?
(13:57):
I have not. Okay. You know, I I
I have definitely seen it and, you know,
it's it's talk of the town at the
moment, but I haven't really dug into it.
Yeah. I,
you know, I it's kinda sad that with
it almost feels like we're seeing the end
of an era of the panel views,
because of factory talk optics, and I have
not used it. I do like that the
development is free for, you know, especially for
(14:20):
students who wanna play around with it and
try it.
That we used to give away demo discs
for the panel view plus software, Effector Talk
Vue Machine Edition.
Now you gotta call somebody to get a
demo, and they get you an email. And
it still runs for two hours, you know,
in demo mode forever,
but you still have to call somebody and
and, you know, and and do all that.
So it's there's a little friction there to
get a demo of it. But,
(14:42):
you know, I think you also recently did
if I if I'm following you, correct me
if I'm wrong, I also saw your company
did something with Logix, and I think you
had some servos on it as well.
Was that something you recently posted on LinkedIn?
That was about a month ago. Yeah. Yep.
Can you tell us a little about that
project and what you used on that?
So that was actually just a troubleshoot. But,
(15:04):
it yeah. It was just a it was
a tissue paper line Okay. With,
well, I'm sure you saw the panel. It's,
like, twenty, twenty five servos in there.
So, yeah, very big system.
Yeah. No. Definitely not something I integrated. Just
working on the line. But Just working on
the line. A really interesting,
production environment, though. That was the first time
(15:26):
I ever been to a,
tissue paper manufacturer, so that was pretty cool
to see. Oh, yeah. They do some cool
stuff. We have some tissue mills in the
area, like, with an hour of where I
am, and it's just amazing to watch them
run. And and I think all paper machines
actually, the building I'm in that at least
my office is out of used to be
a paper, a a paper mill. And, then
(15:48):
it was a printing press for the Berkshire
Eagle. So,
and, I don't know if they I don't
think they print the paper here anymore. I
don't quote me on that. But in any
case, they do have so the big printing
press in the in in in the side
of the building. But in any case,
you know, I think when it when it
comes to the the micro 800, I think
you summed it up. It is nice working
(16:09):
in one environment. Have you had a chance
to use the Panelview 5,000 at all?
I have. Yes. I used it recently,
first time
on a cookie mixer. Oh. So that yeah.
That one was pretty cool.
That wasn't on my LinkedIn, so that that's
why, no one's really seen it yet.
(16:30):
So Tell us a little bit about that
project. You know, in comparison to the micro
800,
you know, PanelView 800
using that was probably a CompactLogix
or a ControlLogix?
Okay. It was. And so both of them
did they both they kinda both lived in
the same GUI. Right?
Yeah.
Yeah. Pretty much. So how did you find
(16:51):
the Panelview 5,000 as a new user?
A little bit of a small learning curve,
but it wasn't
really that different from, you know, like, a
Panel v plus
environment.
We
I where I kinda struggled a little bit
was,
making a recipe selector.
(17:13):
So that one was pretty interesting. Yeah. Because
you have to use pretty much, like,
indirect
addressing
to really,
go through a list to see your recipes.
Mhmm. So that one was kinda fun to
figure out.
And, of course, you know,
as far as
the rest of the whole programming was for
(17:34):
that line,
I thought it to be very easy, you
know, as far as
there's a lot of,
features to it that, you know, I thought
were pretty cool. So, you know, there's, like,
ways to pretty much like, if you bring
in
a,
like, an image of, an object that's in
there Mhmm.
(17:56):
And I'm sure you probably do this in
the panel view. I just really haven't spent
too much time on it, but,
it it's already preset so that you can
if you wanna make, like, the level indicator
on the tank Yeah. You just put the
tag in there for your level indication, and
it automatically already does, you know, all the,
logic for you, in other words. So, yeah,
(18:17):
definitely a cool environment. You know? It wasn't
too bad other than the recipe stuff. Mhmm.
I find it to be,
pretty
pretty, pretty useful as far as if I
were to consider those,
on another project.
You know, I,
when when they were getting ready to launch
it years ago, I was really excited for
(18:37):
it. Yeah. And and it really it took
a while to come out. There was some
hardware changes. There was a lot of going
on in the industry at that time.
And when they decided to make it Ethernet
only and make
it Logix only,
it's kinda like, well, what what kind of
life can this product have?
(18:58):
You know? And and I've had the product
manager on the show, and we've talked to
him. I think it's a great product.
But for the longest time, it didn't have
some of the basics,
that you think of an HMI having, like
alarming.
Right? And I think that really hurt its
development. Not a Rockwell bought the, ASIM or
ASIM, however you wanna say it, company, and
(19:19):
they had the factory tuck optics. I could
I could definitely see that.
It seems to me that their their focus
is on optics and not on the 5,000.
And quite honestly, again, I'll say it. I'm
sad that we won't have a Panelview Plus
product because
that product is,
you know, a a Panelview Plus, you know,
nine or 10 or 11 or because I
just such a favorite product that has you
(19:40):
know, so many people know how to use
that product
inside and out, you know, parameters
and, you know, just, and and they've you
know, I was just working in version 10.
So one of the things I'm doing is
I'm giving away a free panel view plus
project with my PLC courses.
It's not out yet, but it's coming soon.
So I have a lot of students, and
(20:01):
I I know you have a lot of
stuff in your office. You guys are building
stuff, so you can hook up buttons and
lights and switches if you need to. But
I've had a lot of students over the
years where they're either using an emulator or
a simulator or a VectorTalk echo
or, you know, they just don't have the
physical hardware that when they wanna learn everything
on their laptop,
maybe they're on a plane or or they're
you know, they do it during lunch.
(20:22):
And so,
I'm releasing simulation code that goes with the
the that students can use to simulate the
hardware. So I wrote the code. It's like
a subroutine.
It's like, don't touch this, but this will
simulate what I have in the videos. Right?
And that way, they can write the programs
and test it in whatever. You know, if
you're using a MicroLogix, then it would be
(20:43):
emulate. If you're using the micro 800, it'd
be the simulator that's built in for free,
the CCW. And then if you're using I
actually show how to get Factor Talk Echo.
It's only a thirty day license,
but you can get it for free right
from Rockwell's website. I wish they would do
that with more products because it it really
was easy to get a free thirty day
trial right from their website.
And I'm gonna be the first one I
(21:05):
did just because I know it so well
is the panel view plus. So it's a
a little screen that, you know, with a
bunch of buttons and pilot lights, kinda like
the simulator you would have if you were
in a classroom.
And,
the the thing the reason I did that
one first, of course, I know it first,
but,
also, the, PanelView plus development software, it goes
into a demo mode if you don't have
a license, which is great Yeah. You know,
(21:26):
great for students. But the PanelView five the
the the Studio 5,000, you know
you know, what they call view designer, right,
instead of Logix designer. It is
it comes with if you have a Studio
five thousand's license,
you know, you get that software.
So Yeah. There's that about it. And I
do like like you said, all of they
have all these canned objects that are smart
(21:48):
objects,
like the tank. You put it in there.
You just put level into it and boom.
You don't even have to do the animation.
So I I really like that.
Did you use any of, like, the direct
to PLC push buttons?
They have, like, some high speed push buttons
you can integrate directly to the PLC.
No. I did not. Okay. No. Yeah. So
(22:08):
we just had a couple,
you know, just regular momentary push buttons on
the screen Mhmm. And, a recipe selector. So
it was very, very basic. Mhmm. But definitely,
it was,
you know, I know I noticed there was
a couple other things that kind of, got
me a little curious to pretty much test
it when I had a chance. Was it
a customer request for the 5,000, BMW 5,000?
(22:31):
It was. Yeah. They actually That's interesting. Yeah.
Yeah. They have a 5,000
on their,
laminator line. So I guess the operators are
already used to that kind of environment and,
you know, they didn't wanna really teach anyone
a new, like,
I guess, a new platform. I tried to
explain the customer. I was like, you know,
Amity plus isn't gonna be too far off
(22:52):
away from what the 5,000 looks like.
But, you know, they just wanted to standardize
on just having Totally. You know? Right. So
that will not all do. Right? Especially if
you can have just one spare or one
platform to teach people on. So Right. You
know, I know I know you're a busy
guy. I don't wanna take up too much
of your time. I do appreciate you coming
on the show. Was there anything
else that you've used that you wanna share
(23:14):
your experience with, maybe to the other students
or to any of the people listening to
the podcast,
any of the products you've run into, any
any insight you can share with us?
You know what, Sean? I just started getting
into IO Link. First time I ever cut
my teeth into IO IO Link. And,
I have sent off this
(23:36):
Yes.
Little IO Link of Oh, yeah. That's a
small one. It looks like an eight port
or six port. The four port. Yeah. Four
port. Yeah. Yeah. Power, Ethernet, and then four
ports. How did you like integrating that? You
use the, they have add on blocks for
that, add on instructions?
They do. You know what? They have pretty
much
all the AOIs for
(23:56):
every almost every sensor
that IFM has to offer that's, that works
on IO Link. So it was totally awesome.
Just I mean, I I was only integrating
a a a little laser photo eye, but
it was very cool, all the data that
you can actually get and grab from all
the sensors. So,
you know, and and I see this as
(24:16):
something very innovative in the aspect that, you
know, it cuts your labor costs. Right? You
know, guys like me, we're looking to, you
know, try to
do as least less physical work as far
as pulling cables and having to have a
contractor come in to run conduit
Yep. And all these sorts of things. Right?
(24:38):
So this is, like, something that I feel
like is is gonna be a a a
very good platform to use for for guys
like us
that, you know, all you need is communication,
some power,
and, you know, you just run-in all your
sensors into the the hub and, you know,
you pull all your data from them. Right?
And,
yeah, we we I pretty much got the
(24:59):
starter kit
for testing purposes. Mhmm. And I was able
to finally use it at a bakery.
Okay. So we finally used it in a
real world application where we installed,
three humidity sensors
inside a proof box,
and they were in different zones. And it
was awesome. You know, we had
(25:21):
a contractor come in just, you know, run
a small three quarter inch pipe
with, you know, a a shielded CAT six
and then some 24 volt
power on the hub master, and then all
the humidity sensors go into the, the hub.
And,
integration time, I did it in about two
(25:41):
days.
So it was very, very easy as far
as, you know, bringing in all the data,
setting up the AOIs,
and, you know, installing the EDS files for,
RS links. And, I I personally think it
was awesome. You know? It was very cool.
Like I said, I'm very recent to IO
Link, so I'm definitely
(26:01):
yeah. I don't have any expertise there yet,
but it's definitely something that
I feel like a lot of people have
been talking about, and it's definitely very innovative.
You know, I glad I'm glad you brought
that up. IFM, I worked with them a
lot,
especially early in the company's,
history and,
just a great company.
I'm I am adding, like, the unit you
(26:22):
have, I have two two different units that
will be added as lessons. They're actually sitting
in my garage on the workbench
being mounted to a demo board, so I
can actually add those lessons to all of
the courses that I can add it to.
So the the the problem I have with
the micro 800 is the Ethernet IP capabilities
of that. It's,
(26:44):
I believe we've, find that it's explicit on
implicit.
So, you know, with logic, she just add
it to the IO tree, and it's easy
peasy. Right? So may not come to the
micro 800
lessons right away unless I could find an
easy how to to do that. But,
you know, I I think I think,
you know, IO Link just keeps growing. And
(27:04):
you may not know this because I didn't
tell you. But next week, I'm recording an
episode of the podcast with the folks who
are, who who are in charge of IO
Link, the marketing
group for IO Link. So they're coming on,
and they're actually having hands on IO you
know, for first time users, hands on IO
Link sessions throughout the country.
(27:25):
So that's gonna be pretty exciting to to
get that out there. So anybody interested in
IO Link? If you haven't used it yet,
check out that, upcoming episode. But what I
would say is,
you know, I really feel like your feedback
is excellent because I've gotten the same feedback
from some people I know personally in this
area. And not only about IFM being easy
to use and having great added instructions,
(27:46):
but also about how much they like IO
link and how much wiring it saves them,
especially people I think people like it for
stack lights because,
you know, you think about if you don't
have a stack like on a network, then
you got a bunch of signal wires you're
gonna send to it. Right? So it's painful.
And now now the stack lights do, like,
you know, bazillion different colors. Right? So,
(28:07):
really cool stuff you could do with those
and,
and excellent. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that.
So
if there was one tip you could share
with the audience
on using
IO Link or using that IFM starter pack,
what would it be?
Definitely,
sometimes the,
the manuals are a little clunky as far
(28:29):
as, the setup goes. Mhmm. So I would
just really recommend,
you know, just
using them to their their you know, like,
as best as you can.
But, really,
you know, this the setup is is very
easy to the point where you can probably
avoid the manuals on certain things.
(28:50):
But,
yeah, definitely, there's a couple things that I
feel like the manual missed out as far
as the setup goes for, you know, things
like,
the,
sensor
AOIs Mhmm. As far as setting them up.
So So that would be the only thing
that, I would just kinda look out for.
That that's probably the only thing. Did you
salvage just through trial and error, or did
(29:11):
you have to get in touch with them?
I had to get in touch with them
for the,
yes, the the radar. Sorry. Not the radar.
The, laser photo eye because it I wasn't
really reading any, distance from it. So,
I told them, hey. You know, I I
didn't see this on the manual, and they're
like, oh, we haven't updated the with the
(29:32):
new
the new, edited version of the new manual.
So I was like, oh, okay. Could you
send it out? And sure enough, you know,
I got it sent out. And Yes. So,
really, I would just watch out for the
versions of the manual. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Could
be some updated ones that aren't there yet.
But But you did find you found them
helpful, though? They were responsive?
Oh, yeah. IFM's
customer support is
(29:53):
probably the most awesomest customer support I've dealt
with. So That's awesome. Yeah. I've heard that
too.
Yeah. They're very, very good. You know, any
questions that, pretty much you need answered, they
there's always someone there as long as it's
in, between the the hours that they're operating.
Right? So open hours. Well, that's awesome. I've
heard that from so many people too, so
it's good to hear it from somebody else.
(30:15):
Else. Well, I don't wanna take up your
whole day. Anything else you wanna, you wanna
say to the show? You wanna tell them
a little bit, how to get in, contact
with your company if they need some, if
they need some of your expertise?
Sure. If you guys wanna reach out,
you could go to ww.gmautomationandcontrols.com.
Okay.
We service pretty much all of California.
(30:37):
K. So,
of course, we have some travel work here
and there. I just recently posted this. I'm
sure you saw it.
We're kind of expanding over there to Omaha.
So that's that's been pretty good. Yeah. So
we're trying to move over a little bit
over there, as far as, you know, we
know the area a little bit. I actually
lived there for about a year and a
half,
(30:58):
with a couple cousins, a couple family members
that were out there. And, you know, it
was it was it was pretty nice to
be out there, and now I'm trying to
expand the company over there. So, definitely, if
you guys need help, just reach out. Yeah.
And just for the video audience, he's really
not 16.
I know he's clean shaven, and he looks
like he's only 16. Yeah. But he's he
(31:18):
has a lot of experience under his belt.
He's not a he's not a teenager.
Yeah. Yeah. I get that a lot. I
go to sites and then they look at
me and they're like, how old are you?
Can you be in here? I'm like, I
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. So,
in any case, it's a blessing to look
young.
And,
and so that's good. That's good. And, you
know, you got a great company, and I
(31:39):
just wanna thank you for coming on the
show and sharing your experiences.
And we just kinda pulled this together last
minute. It was like, hey. Let's chat. And,
you know, I think I learned some things,
and hopefully, the audience enjoyed it too. So,
Giovanni, thank you again for coming on the
show. Thank you, Sean. I appreciate you having
me here.
Giovanni, thank you for coming on the show.
I really appreciate you coming on. I know
we've talked a lot about
ControlLogix
and CompactLogix
over the months and years,
But I recently saw you did a project,
and I know your company and you guys
do a lot of different projects. But I
noticed you recently did a project
on the micro eight hundreds.
(00:23):
And I wanted to ask you,
well, just a bunch of questions. It just
really got me curious. So if you don't
mind, I would like to start off with
why you chose the micro 800. And I
just for so everybody knows, I teach both
Logix,
you know, Compact Control Logix micro 800. You
know, I teach other brands as well. And,
you know, I like them all. But I
(00:43):
a lot of times people who use Logix
never use the micro 100. So this really
piqued my interest. So I wanted to start,
asking you and, really, before we get to
that, tell us a little bit about what
you do. Tell us a little bit about
yourself and your company.
Sure. Well, first thing, thanks a lot, Sean,
for, having me here. It's, it's an honor
to be on your podcast.
(01:06):
Yeah. So I am a systems integrator, essentially.
A,
I'm a business owner here in California.
And so we do a lot of,
bakery automation,
but we just dug into the,
foam molding industry with this project. So that
(01:26):
one was very cool.
Yeah. You know, I know that's pretty much
all we do as far as our typical
projects, you know, logic stuff. But
we
pretty much had to ask the customer what
was their budget.
Yep. And, you know, I have used the
micro eight hundreds at home. And I know
(01:49):
they were very, you know, versatile
as far as what you can do with
them.
So and the cost was awesome. You know?
The Yeah. Very justifies the cost for the
customer and whatnot.
And so
we sat down with the customer, and we
were like, hey. Like, what are you guys
expecting with this project? What are you expecting
it to do? What do you wanna see
(02:10):
on, like, a screen? What is it that
you guys want?
And the application was very simple. It's a
hydraulic press, essentially,
that was,
automated with a
MicroLogix
1,100.
But
Okay. The entire program wiped out, and the
(02:30):
person that programmed it
was long gone and actually passed away many,
many years ago. Ugh. The there was no
records or anything that we can pretty much
use for,
essentially, just to get kinda, like, a picture
of what was going on. Mhmm. So,
thankfully, the process was very basic.
(02:50):
Mhmm.
And so, you know, the customer was a
little bit on a tighter budget, and so
we couldn't really
justify the cost to put in, like, a
CompactLogix
in there.
So we picked out the micro 800.
And,
the environment I know there's a lot of
people that don't really like CCW
(03:12):
for Mhmm. You know, many reasons. Sometimes the
software is a little
different
in certain aspects. Right? It is. Yeah. But,
it wasn't bad for the application. You know,
we had a lot of inputs, but only
a couple outputs. So that was pretty nice.
And it was cool in the aspect that
(03:34):
we we were able to combine the HMI
and the PLC program into one file, right,
all in CCW.
Yeah. So pretty much it you know, it
was very cool to just
you're working on your your programming, and then
at the same time, you got the HMI
popped up in the same file. Yep. You
know, you don't have to open up a
separate software.
(03:54):
You know, it's all conjuncted into one.
Oh, you still there? Did I lose you?
Testing one, two.
(04:16):
Giovanni, do you have me?
(05:12):
Oops. Do I get you?
Yeah. It looks like I lost it there
for some reason. I don't know what happened.
You know, it happens every once in a
while, but it's good. As long as one
of us is in the meeting, it keeps
recording. So last the the thing I lost
you on was
you you said you had the POC and
the software all conjuncted or or all collated
in one application. If if you just wanna
(05:34):
pick up right from that?
Yeah. So it was very easy as far
as,
you know, integration
goes. You know, we were,
you know, jumping around two softwares and, you
know Mhmm. Doing all that stuff. So it
was it was cool. You know? It was
all in one whole piece.
And it was nice because we were able
(05:54):
to just,
you know, put it in a small file,
email it out. It's just one
just one simple file they have to save
in there. So,
yeah, I I definitely,
this was the first time we cut our
teeth into really providing a micro 800 for
a process. So,
(06:14):
you know, definitely
not as bad as, you know, some people
say as far as the software platform goes.
Definitely did its job. I I really did
enjoy the migrate 100. I think it was
it's very, very powerful controller indeed.
Yeah. You know, I was surprised how powerful
it was when I did my
(06:35):
training course on it.
Gee, it must be almost going on ten
years now. I'm actually in the process of
upgrading, all my training courses.
But one of the things I wanted to
do first was
solve the Factory IO
lessons. So I did three factory IO courses.
And so I decided to do them in
the order of Micrologix,
(06:55):
controller CompactLogix,
and then Micro 800.
And I really get to see the differences
between the three packages.
And the micro 800, you know, I think,
like, an eight twenty, if somebody's out there
thinking of getting one for a small project,
I just looked up the list price today.
It's August, you know, 2025,
and it's it's about $3.97
(07:16):
list price. Now this doesn't have, like, a
huge discount off it typically.
This product line, you gotta call your local
representative, and they'll give you your actual price.
But don't expect, like, 50% off that price.
Right?
That's been my experience anyways.
But, still at that price,
you know, list price on the $400,
it's you know, when I started this, it
(07:37):
was $2.50. So, you know, you know, over
time, over the decades, it goes up over
time, of course. But,
it can do a lot. Now, you know,
I there are some people out there who
say,
if it's not a lot if it's not
Studio five thousand we used to say Logix.
If it's not Studio five thousand, I won't
use it. And, you know,
I I really found
(07:58):
there are some things in the ladder editor
that are just great, drag and drop. You
know? You can change, you can change, you
know, different instructions and do do the things
you're used to doing. They added in the
where you can edit the rung in text.
They added that a few years ago. So
if you're one of those guys who do
that a lot, I just happen to be
one of those guys who like to do
(08:18):
that.
Because in the June Micrologix, we kinda had
to do that because you couldn't just toggle
a destruction from XIC to XIO or latch
to unlatch or whatever.
But, you know, I really like that feature.
They do have a,
a a a Logix
theme,
which I love the idea behind, but I've
had some students get in trouble with that
(08:40):
when they did a lot of subroutines and
the way it handled those subroutines. I haven't
I haven't done a lesson on that yet.
But, you know, there are some usability
things
that I'm just used to, you know,
like, putting in the tag values, right,
into different instructions. So if I have a
bunch of rungs that are very similar,
I just wanna go through and change each
(09:00):
of the tag values. I find that tag
browser did you find this as well? The
tag browser is a little clunky. It depends
on where you click, which browser you get,
and then it just seems a little bit
harder to navigate than the other packages.
Did did you find the same thing, or
was that not a big deal for you
guys?
Yeah. It it was. You know, it is
(09:20):
kind of a challenge with tag browser that
they have,
even just
to kind of,
put in descriptions on the tags Yeah. They
have to open up the tag browser and
then kinda just pop up another page and
then put all your info in there. So,
yeah, it was a little clunky,
compared to, you know, the Logix environment where
you could create a tag on the fly
(09:42):
and then, you know, just open up the
tag properties and just put in your descriptions
or, you know, do the alias tags if
you're you're gonna do that. So, yeah, in
that aspect, it was a little bit,
challenging,
but,
you know,
it's it wasn't too bad. Yeah. And for
those people who say and I know the
MicroLogix says only the 1,400 left and, you
(10:04):
know, it's end of life. Right? And or
active and mature, I think, is the correct
way to say it. You know, talk to
your Rockwell people to get actual information.
I'm just a I'm just a,
instructor. But,
you know, the Micro 800 supports,
you know, function blocks and structured text, and
I think it does a good job at
(10:24):
it.
So, you know, as much as I love
my old MicroLogix and I use the 1,100
in, 14 and here's the thing too. If
you wanna you program the 1,400,
you're gonna have that $300 package of, software.
You know? The software is free for the,
for the,
1,100, and it has an emulator built in,
a simulator built in. Yeah. With the free
(10:46):
software, it only runs for ten minutes, but
still, you don't get that with Logix. Right?
You don't get a free simulator built in.
Other vendors do that. The other big vendors
include that for free. And with Rockwell's Studio
5,000, they don't.
And I also, you know, I also like
the integration of the panel view 800, formerly
the panel view component
or,
(11:08):
the what we used to call the PVC
slow because it was so slow. But the
800 has been very of a very good
product line.
You know, and and,
did you do the HMI on that as
well? Did somebody else do it? Did you
we did you do the HMI? Yep. What
did you think of that? I mean, it's
simple, but functional. Right? Yeah. You know what?
(11:28):
I've I've used their,
the eight hundreds, the panel v eight hundreds
a lot more than the micro eight hundreds.
Okay. So it's yeah. You know, it's a
very it's a very good platform, and, and
I'm sure you know this. But with the
eight hundreds, you can also connect to certain,
Logix controller.
So it's very cool where, you know, you
(11:49):
can just
you know, if the customer is on a
budget and you just they want something simple,
then you can just get, like, an 800
and, you know, do everything on there. And
it it's very it works well. You know?
I I I personally do like the,
HMI environment. There is a couple things that
I feel like it, you know, it is
missing out, you know, like, you know, you
have on, you know, factory talk to you
(12:11):
Yeah.
Is, like, you know, animations. Right? You don't
have any animations. Yeah. That would be the
only downside that I don't like on,
creating HMIs on,
CCW.
But otherwise, you know, it's it's not too
bad. I like it. I remember
when it first came out,
(12:31):
maybe fifteen, twenty years ago, I recreated the,
demo that's in the panel view plus in
CCW.
And the animation thing was painful, so you
had to use, like, a multi state indicator
and Yeah. Have multiple pictures of what you
wanna do. And, but but aside from and
and that animation feature is just,
you know, the panel view plus, gee, it
(12:52):
must be 30 years old now, but, well,
maybe not that old. 25 years old. But,
it was alright. Maybe,
well, maybe 20 years old.
Alright. 20. I keep going down. I'm like,
oh, not that old. But, the Panelview Plus
was just because RSVUE, you think RSVUE predated
the Panelview Plus. RSVUE was, like, ninety five
(13:12):
ish. I was a beta user. Then FactoryTalk
View, I'm thinking early two thousands.
So and don't quote me on that. I'm
not looking at my notes. But, you know,
it really pull force all all of that
same
that same technology with the animations as identical.
So if you go back to '28 let's
say, nineteen ninety five, ninety six, you open
up RSVU,
which is the predecessor RSVU 32,
(13:35):
the animation window looks almost identical to what
you're using today in factory talk view.
And it just kick it's it's I don't
wanna say any bad words, but it's really
cool.
And and and some of the features,
you know, very powerful features that even comp
the competition don't have yet,
is still in that product. Kinda, you know,
I understand why they're doing the factory talk
optic. Have you used any factory talk optics?
(13:57):
I have not. Okay. You know, I I
I have definitely seen it and, you know,
it's it's talk of the town at the
moment, but I haven't really dug into it.
Yeah. I,
you know, I it's kinda sad that with
it almost feels like we're seeing the end
of an era of the panel views,
because of factory talk optics, and I have
not used it. I do like that the
development is free for, you know, especially for
(14:20):
students who wanna play around with it and
try it.
That we used to give away demo discs
for the panel view plus software, Effector Talk
Vue Machine Edition.
Now you gotta call somebody to get a
demo, and they get you an email. And
it still runs for two hours, you know,
in demo mode forever,
but you still have to call somebody and
and, you know, and and do all that.
So it's there's a little friction there to
get a demo of it. But,
(14:42):
you know, I think you also recently did
if I if I'm following you, correct me
if I'm wrong, I also saw your company
did something with Logix, and I think you
had some servos on it as well.
Was that something you recently posted on LinkedIn?
That was about a month ago. Yeah. Yep.
Can you tell us a little about that
project and what you used on that?
So that was actually just a troubleshoot. But,
(15:04):
it yeah. It was just a it was
a tissue paper line Okay. With,
well, I'm sure you saw the panel. It's,
like, twenty, twenty five servos in there.
So, yeah, very big system.
Yeah. No. Definitely not something I integrated. Just
working on the line. But Just working on
the line. A really interesting,
production environment, though. That was the first time
(15:26):
I ever been to a,
tissue paper manufacturer, so that was pretty cool
to see. Oh, yeah. They do some cool
stuff. We have some tissue mills in the
area, like, with an hour of where I
am, and it's just amazing to watch them
run. And and I think all paper machines
actually, the building I'm in that at least
my office is out of used to be
a paper, a a paper mill. And, then
(15:48):
it was a printing press for the Berkshire
Eagle. So,
and, I don't know if they I don't
think they print the paper here anymore. I
don't quote me on that. But in any
case, they do have so the big printing
press in the in in in the side
of the building. But in any case,
you know, I think when it when it
comes to the the micro 800, I think
you summed it up. It is nice working
(16:09):
in one environment. Have you had a chance
to use the Panelview 5,000 at all?
I have. Yes. I used it recently,
first time
on a cookie mixer. Oh. So that yeah.
That one was pretty cool.
That wasn't on my LinkedIn, so that that's
why, no one's really seen it yet.
(16:30):
So Tell us a little bit about that
project. You know, in comparison to the micro
800,
you know, PanelView 800
using that was probably a CompactLogix
or a ControlLogix?
Okay. It was. And so both of them
did they both they kinda both lived in
the same GUI. Right?
Yeah.
Yeah. Pretty much. So how did you find
(16:51):
the Panelview 5,000 as a new user?
A little bit of a small learning curve,
but it wasn't
really that different from, you know, like, a
Panel v plus
environment.
We
I where I kinda struggled a little bit
was,
making a recipe selector.
(17:13):
So that one was pretty interesting. Yeah. Because
you have to use pretty much, like,
indirect
addressing
to really,
go through a list to see your recipes.
Mhmm. So that one was kinda fun to
figure out.
And, of course, you know,
as far as
the rest of the whole programming was for
(17:34):
that line,
I thought it to be very easy, you
know, as far as
there's a lot of,
features to it that, you know, I thought
were pretty cool. So, you know, there's, like,
ways to pretty much like, if you bring
in
a,
like, an image of, an object that's in
there Mhmm.
(17:56):
And I'm sure you probably do this in
the panel view. I just really haven't spent
too much time on it, but,
it it's already preset so that you can
if you wanna make, like, the level indicator
on the tank Yeah. You just put the
tag in there for your level indication, and
it automatically already does, you know, all the,
logic for you, in other words. So, yeah,
(18:17):
definitely a cool environment. You know? It wasn't
too bad other than the recipe stuff. Mhmm.
I find it to be,
pretty
pretty, pretty useful as far as if I
were to consider those,
on another project.
You know, I,
when when they were getting ready to launch
it years ago, I was really excited for
(18:37):
it. Yeah. And and it really it took
a while to come out. There was some
hardware changes. There was a lot of going
on in the industry at that time.
And when they decided to make it Ethernet
only and make
it Logix only,
it's kinda like, well, what what kind of
life can this product have?
(18:58):
You know? And and I've had the product
manager on the show, and we've talked to
him. I think it's a great product.
But for the longest time, it didn't have
some of the basics,
that you think of an HMI having, like
alarming.
Right? And I think that really hurt its
development. Not a Rockwell bought the, ASIM or
ASIM, however you wanna say it, company, and
(19:19):
they had the factory tuck optics. I could
I could definitely see that.
It seems to me that their their focus
is on optics and not on the 5,000.
And quite honestly, again, I'll say it. I'm
sad that we won't have a Panelview Plus
product because
that product is,
you know, a a Panelview Plus, you know,
nine or 10 or 11 or because I
just such a favorite product that has you
(19:40):
know, so many people know how to use
that product
inside and out, you know, parameters
and, you know, just, and and they've you
know, I was just working in version 10.
So one of the things I'm doing is
I'm giving away a free panel view plus
project with my PLC courses.
It's not out yet, but it's coming soon.
So I have a lot of students, and
(20:01):
I I know you have a lot of
stuff in your office. You guys are building
stuff, so you can hook up buttons and
lights and switches if you need to. But
I've had a lot of students over the
years where they're either using an emulator or
a simulator or a VectorTalk echo
or, you know, they just don't have the
physical hardware that when they wanna learn everything
on their laptop,
maybe they're on a plane or or they're
you know, they do it during lunch.
(20:22):
And so,
I'm releasing simulation code that goes with the
the that students can use to simulate the
hardware. So I wrote the code. It's like
a subroutine.
It's like, don't touch this, but this will
simulate what I have in the videos. Right?
And that way, they can write the programs
and test it in whatever. You know, if
you're using a MicroLogix, then it would be
(20:43):
emulate. If you're using the micro 800, it'd
be the simulator that's built in for free,
the CCW. And then if you're using I
actually show how to get Factor Talk Echo.
It's only a thirty day license,
but you can get it for free right
from Rockwell's website. I wish they would do
that with more products because it it really
was easy to get a free thirty day
trial right from their website.
And I'm gonna be the first one I
(21:05):
did just because I know it so well
is the panel view plus. So it's a
a little screen that, you know, with a
bunch of buttons and pilot lights, kinda like
the simulator you would have if you were
in a classroom.
And,
the the thing the reason I did that
one first, of course, I know it first,
but,
also, the, PanelView plus development software, it goes
into a demo mode if you don't have
a license, which is great Yeah. You know,
(21:26):
great for students. But the PanelView five the
the the Studio 5,000, you know
you know, what they call view designer, right,
instead of Logix designer. It is
it comes with if you have a Studio
five thousand's license,
you know, you get that software.
So Yeah. There's that about it. And I
do like like you said, all of they
have all these canned objects that are smart
(21:48):
objects,
like the tank. You put it in there.
You just put level into it and boom.
You don't even have to do the animation.
So I I really like that.
Did you use any of, like, the direct
to PLC push buttons?
They have, like, some high speed push buttons
you can integrate directly to the PLC.
No. I did not. Okay. No. Yeah. So
(22:08):
we just had a couple,
you know, just regular momentary push buttons on
the screen Mhmm. And, a recipe selector. So
it was very, very basic. Mhmm. But definitely,
it was,
you know, I know I noticed there was
a couple other things that kind of, got
me a little curious to pretty much test
it when I had a chance. Was it
a customer request for the 5,000, BMW 5,000?
(22:31):
It was. Yeah. They actually That's interesting. Yeah.
Yeah. They have a 5,000
on their,
laminator line. So I guess the operators are
already used to that kind of environment and,
you know, they didn't wanna really teach anyone
a new, like,
I guess, a new platform. I tried to
explain the customer. I was like, you know,
Amity plus isn't gonna be too far off
(22:52):
away from what the 5,000 looks like.
But, you know, they just wanted to standardize
on just having Totally. You know? Right. So
that will not all do. Right? Especially if
you can have just one spare or one
platform to teach people on. So Right. You
know, I know I know you're a busy
guy. I don't wanna take up too much
of your time. I do appreciate you coming
on the show. Was there anything
else that you've used that you wanna share
(23:14):
your experience with, maybe to the other students
or to any of the people listening to
the podcast,
any of the products you've run into, any
any insight you can share with us?
You know what, Sean? I just started getting
into IO Link. First time I ever cut
my teeth into IO IO Link. And,
I have sent off this
(23:36):
Yes.
Little IO Link of Oh, yeah. That's a
small one. It looks like an eight port
or six port. The four port. Yeah. Four
port. Yeah. Yeah. Power, Ethernet, and then four
ports. How did you like integrating that? You
use the, they have add on blocks for
that, add on instructions?
They do. You know what? They have pretty
much
all the AOIs for
(23:56):
every almost every sensor
that IFM has to offer that's, that works
on IO Link. So it was totally awesome.
Just I mean, I I was only integrating
a a a little laser photo eye, but
it was very cool, all the data that
you can actually get and grab from all
the sensors. So,
you know, and and I see this as
(24:16):
something very innovative in the aspect that, you
know, it cuts your labor costs. Right? You
know, guys like me, we're looking to, you
know, try to
do as least less physical work as far
as pulling cables and having to have a
contractor come in to run conduit
Yep. And all these sorts of things. Right?
(24:38):
So this is, like, something that I feel
like is is gonna be a a a
very good platform to use for for guys
like us
that, you know, all you need is communication,
some power,
and, you know, you just run-in all your
sensors into the the hub and, you know,
you pull all your data from them. Right?
And,
yeah, we we I pretty much got the
(24:59):
starter kit
for testing purposes. Mhmm. And I was able
to finally use it at a bakery.
Okay. So we finally used it in a
real world application where we installed,
three humidity sensors
inside a proof box,
and they were in different zones. And it
was awesome. You know, we had
(25:21):
a contractor come in just, you know, run
a small three quarter inch pipe
with, you know, a a shielded CAT six
and then some 24 volt
power on the hub master, and then all
the humidity sensors go into the, the hub.
And,
integration time, I did it in about two
(25:41):
days.
So it was very, very easy as far
as, you know, bringing in all the data,
setting up the AOIs,
and, you know, installing the EDS files for,
RS links. And, I I personally think it
was awesome. You know? It was very cool.
Like I said, I'm very recent to IO
Link, so I'm definitely
(26:01):
yeah. I don't have any expertise there yet,
but it's definitely something that
I feel like a lot of people have
been talking about, and it's definitely very innovative.
You know, I glad I'm glad you brought
that up. IFM, I worked with them a
lot,
especially early in the company's,
history and,
just a great company.
I'm I am adding, like, the unit you
(26:22):
have, I have two two different units that
will be added as lessons. They're actually sitting
in my garage on the workbench
being mounted to a demo board, so I
can actually add those lessons to all of
the courses that I can add it to.
So the the the problem I have with
the micro 800 is the Ethernet IP capabilities
of that. It's,
(26:44):
I believe we've, find that it's explicit on
implicit.
So, you know, with logic, she just add
it to the IO tree, and it's easy
peasy. Right? So may not come to the
micro 800
lessons right away unless I could find an
easy how to to do that. But,
you know, I I think I think,
you know, IO Link just keeps growing. And
(27:04):
you may not know this because I didn't
tell you. But next week, I'm recording an
episode of the podcast with the folks who
are, who who are in charge of IO
Link, the marketing
group for IO Link. So they're coming on,
and they're actually having hands on IO you
know, for first time users, hands on IO
Link sessions throughout the country.
(27:25):
So that's gonna be pretty exciting to to
get that out there. So anybody interested in
IO Link? If you haven't used it yet,
check out that, upcoming episode. But what I
would say is,
you know, I really feel like your feedback
is excellent because I've gotten the same feedback
from some people I know personally in this
area. And not only about IFM being easy
to use and having great added instructions,
(27:46):
but also about how much they like IO
link and how much wiring it saves them,
especially people I think people like it for
stack lights because,
you know, you think about if you don't
have a stack like on a network, then
you got a bunch of signal wires you're
gonna send to it. Right? So it's painful.
And now now the stack lights do, like,
you know, bazillion different colors. Right? So,
(28:07):
really cool stuff you could do with those
and,
and excellent. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that.
So
if there was one tip you could share
with the audience
on using
IO Link or using that IFM starter pack,
what would it be?
Definitely,
sometimes the,
the manuals are a little clunky as far
(28:29):
as, the setup goes. Mhmm. So I would
just really recommend,
you know, just
using them to their their you know, like,
as best as you can.
But, really,
you know, this the setup is is very
easy to the point where you can probably
avoid the manuals on certain things.
(28:50):
But,
yeah, definitely, there's a couple things that I
feel like the manual missed out as far
as the setup goes for, you know, things
like,
the,
sensor
AOIs Mhmm. As far as setting them up.
So So that would be the only thing
that, I would just kinda look out for.
That that's probably the only thing. Did you
salvage just through trial and error, or did
(29:11):
you have to get in touch with them?
I had to get in touch with them
for the,
yes, the the radar. Sorry. Not the radar.
The, laser photo eye because it I wasn't
really reading any, distance from it. So,
I told them, hey. You know, I I
didn't see this on the manual, and they're
like, oh, we haven't updated the with the
(29:32):
new
the new, edited version of the new manual.
So I was like, oh, okay. Could you
send it out? And sure enough, you know,
I got it sent out. And Yes. So,
really, I would just watch out for the
versions of the manual. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Could
be some updated ones that aren't there yet.
But But you did find you found them
helpful, though? They were responsive?
Oh, yeah. IFM's
customer support is
(29:53):
probably the most awesomest customer support I've dealt
with. So That's awesome. Yeah. I've heard that
too.
Yeah. They're very, very good. You know, any
questions that, pretty much you need answered, they
there's always someone there as long as it's
in, between the the hours that they're operating.
Right? So open hours. Well, that's awesome. I've
heard that from so many people too, so
it's good to hear it from somebody else.
(30:15):
Else. Well, I don't wanna take up your
whole day. Anything else you wanna, you wanna
say to the show? You wanna tell them
a little bit, how to get in, contact
with your company if they need some, if
they need some of your expertise?
Sure. If you guys wanna reach out,
you could go to ww.gmautomationandcontrols.com.
Okay.
We service pretty much all of California.
(30:37):
K. So,
of course, we have some travel work here
and there. I just recently posted this. I'm
sure you saw it.
We're kind of expanding over there to Omaha.
So that's that's been pretty good. Yeah. So
we're trying to move over a little bit
over there, as far as, you know, we
know the area a little bit. I actually
lived there for about a year and a
half,
(30:58):
with a couple cousins, a couple family members
that were out there. And, you know, it
was it was it was pretty nice to
be out there, and now I'm trying to
expand the company over there. So, definitely, if
you guys need help, just reach out. Yeah.
And just for the video audience, he's really
not 16.
I know he's clean shaven, and he looks
like he's only 16. Yeah. But he's he
(31:18):
has a lot of experience under his belt.
He's not a he's not a teenager.
Yeah. Yeah. I get that a lot. I
go to sites and then they look at
me and they're like, how old are you?
Can you be in here? I'm like, I
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. So,
in any case, it's a blessing to look
young.
And,
and so that's good. That's good. And, you
know, you got a great company, and I
(31:39):
just wanna thank you for coming on the
show and sharing your experiences.
And we just kinda pulled this together last
minute. It was like, hey. Let's chat. And,
you know, I think I learned some things,
and hopefully, the audience enjoyed it too. So,
Giovanni, thank you again for coming on the
show. Thank you, Sean. I appreciate you having
me here.
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