Automation Museum Update for August 18, 2025: SyMax

Shawn Tierney shares an update on the Automation Museum fundraiser, as well as a look at one of the items the community has donated, a Square D SyMax PLC.

For information about donating to the Automation Museum, please click here.

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Read the transcript on The Automation Blog: (automatically generated)

Shawn Tierney (Host): Hey, everybody. Thank you for tuning back in. Shawn Tierney here from Insights, and I wanted to give you an update on the automation museum. So let me go over to the computer screen here, and you can see we’re still stuck at about 7%. We’re at about $200 of our $3,000 goal to get this unit set up, this, you know, new nonprofit set up.

And a couple of things we’re doing to drive attention to this across this video, but we’re also launching a history of automation podcast to try to drive awareness to this goal of actually setting up maybe first a virtual museum and then a physical museum. And I got a ton of stuff I wanna donate to it, and I really would look enjoy having people come in and teaching them what I know, but also learning what they know. And with that in mind, I wanna talk about some of the, samples that have been sent in over the years. And I’ve actually told people to kinda keep things in your attic or in your storage unit because I’m just out of space. And when the town comes in here, they wanna tax everything they see.

You know? It’s hard to explain to them that this is a donation or whatever or it’s personal. Right? So in any case, I wanna share with you this particular unit. Now I did send a very kind gentleman who sent this in a few years ago.

I did send him a message on LinkedIn and, to try to get some backstory and learn a little bit more about it, But, he must be very busy, because I haven’t heard back from him. But this is again, this is not a POC that I, started programming back when I got into the into this business back in the nineties. I gotta make sure I do this correctly here. But this is a really old Symax and, yeah, I’m gonna have to put the glasses on. But, check this thing out.

This is a Symax demo. Have I have no idea how old this is. I have no idea what I’m even looking at, but I think it’s super cool. You know? Square d PLC.

Right? And, if you guys know anything about this, I’d love to have any links or any literature, PDFs, or anything you have. But this is something I could see that we could restore and set up in the nonprofit automation museum and, actually teach people how what this unit used to do, how it used to work, and so on and so forth. But, it is very reminiscent to the PLC five in my opinion or PLC two and, 1771. So, just one of the very cool things that I’ve been sent here over the years that, that I would like to get into a real, physical museum.

And a Cuesta Museum would have, like, computer technology in it. It would have all the other technologies in it. But the focus here is the automation museum and that’s what we’re fundraising for. I think can I go back to the screen here? Yeah.

So, if you look here, this is, give sengo.com/automationmuseum. You can go to also go to automationmuseum.org, and it’ll transfer here. I don’t even have a bank account set up to withdraw the stuff because if, you know, if we can’t reach the goal, then I’ll just return everybody’s money. But, I’m not gonna touch any of this money. It’s gonna go directly into a 5013 c, charity fund, to set up the, to set up the the organization.

So in any case, if you have an extra $20 maybe this week and, you know, you’re you’re doing good at work and you, you know, you’re interested in industrial automatio

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, everybody. Thank you for tuning back in.
Sean Tierney here from Insights, and I wanted
to give you an update on
the automation museum.
So let me go over to
the computer screen here, and you can see
we're still stuck at about 7%. We're at
about $200
of our $3,000
goal
to get this unit set up, this,

(00:21):
you know, new nonprofit set up. And a
couple of things we're doing to drive attention
to this across this video, but we're also
launching a history of automation
podcast to try to drive awareness
to this goal of actually setting up maybe
first a virtual museum and then a physical
museum. And I got a ton of stuff
I wanna donate to it, and I really

(00:42):
would look enjoy having people come in and
teaching them what I know, but also learning
what they know.
And with that in mind, I wanna talk
about some of the,
samples that have been sent in over the
years. And I've actually told people to kinda
keep things in your attic or in your
storage unit because I'm just out of space.
And when the town comes in here, they
wanna tax everything they see. You know? It's
hard to explain to them that this is

(01:03):
a donation or whatever or it's personal. Right?
So in any case,
I wanna share with you this particular unit.
Now I did send a very kind gentleman
who sent this in a few years ago.
I did send him a message on LinkedIn
and, to try to get some backstory and
learn a little bit more about it, But,
he must be very busy, because I haven't
heard back from him. But this is again,

(01:23):
this is not a POC that I, started
programming back when I got into the into
this business back in the nineties.
I gotta make sure I do this correctly
here. But this is a really old Symax
and, yeah, I'm gonna have to put the
glasses on.
But,
check this thing out. This is a Symax
demo.
Have I have no idea how old this
is. I have no idea what I'm even

(01:45):
looking at, but I think it's super cool.
You know? Square d PLC. Right?
And,
if you guys know anything about this, I'd
love to have any links or any literature,
PDFs, or anything you have. But this is
something I could see that we could restore
and set up in the nonprofit automation museum
and, actually teach people how what this unit

(02:07):
used to do, how it used to work,
and so on and so forth. But, it
is very reminiscent to the PLC five in
my opinion or PLC
two and, 1771.
So,
just one of the very cool things that
I've been sent here
over the years
that, that I would like to get into
a real,
physical museum. And a Cuesta Museum would have,

(02:30):
like, computer technology in it. It would have
all the other technologies in it. But the
focus here is the automation museum and that's
what we're fundraising for. I think can I
go back to the screen here?
Yeah. So,
if you look here, this is, give sengo.com/automationmuseum.
You can go to also go to automationmuseum.org,

(02:52):
and it'll transfer here.
I don't even have a bank account set
up to withdraw the stuff because if, you
know,
if we can't reach the goal, then I'll
just return everybody's money. But,
I'm not gonna touch any of this money.
It's gonna go directly into a 5013
c,
charity fund,
to set up the, to set up the
the organization.

(03:12):
So in any case, if you have an
extra $20 maybe this week and, you know,
you're you're doing good at work and you,
you know, you're interested in industrial automation, which
I think you are because you're watching this
channel,
consider, helping us get to that $3,000
so we can actually,
get the five zero one three c set
up and we can start sending when people
send us stuff, we can start sending them

(03:33):
official, you know, tax deduction letters and whatnot.
I know it differs between where you live
and and what you're working on, but, in
any case,
I just wanted to share that with you
and give you a quick update on how
things are going. And keep your eyes out
for the new History of Automation podcast that
I'm working with, couple of other older guys,
and I'm pretty excited to bring that to

(03:54):
you. And I think the the first episode
will be an author who's coming on and
talks about the history of Wonderware and Triconics.
And, then we have somebody coming on and
talking about the history of Allen Bradley. And
then I want you to come on too.
If you're an older folk and you know
some how to use or maybe you're younger,
but you learn how to use some older
stuff, I'd like to get you on, including
everybody who's donated.
You guys, put some great comments in the

(04:16):
donations. We'd love to get you guys on
as well. But with that, I'm gonna wrap
up this week's update on the Automation Museum
Fun Drive.
Really look forward to having you guys, join
us in this journey to preserve
our, automation history. And with that, I wanna
wish you all good health and happiness. And
until next time, my friends.
Peace.