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Learning Siemens PLC is not as difficult as imagined. In summary: for beginners, it is sufficient to have a general understanding of PLC hardware composition, programming software, system instructions, and program structure!
Next, let’s explain the key points for learning PLC.
Reason for Recommendation: This starts with the Siemens PLC product family.
Siemens has been making PLCs for over 40 years, and the latest product family is SIMATIC S7.
Siemens has launched different product series to meet various market demands, such as the high-end S7-1500 series, mid-range S7-1200 series, and low-end S7-200 SMART (hereinafter referred to as SMART) series.
For beginners, starting with the SMART series is the most suitable.
SMART is a new generation PLC developed by Siemens for the Chinese market, widely used in packaging, textiles, machine tools, food, subways, and many other fields.
It can effectively enhance equipment performance and reduce costs, offering excellent cost-performance ratio and reliability.
SMART is mainly divided into two series: ST and SR, both of which can be purchased on e-commerce platforms. The main difference between the SR series and the ST series is:
The ST series can receive/output high-speed pulse signals, making it suitable for motion control, common packaging production lines, and currently popular robotic arms.
Generally, these functions are not applicable during the learning phase.
Moreover, there is no difference in programming and usage between ST and SR, and communication between them is also easily achievable.
Within the SR series, I particularly recommend the SR20 for beginners.
Reason 1: High cost-performance ratio, available at Siemens dealers on major e-commerce platforms for just over 600 yuan.
Reason 2: Configuration software is free, resulting in low learning and migration costs.
The configuration software for the SMART series (commonly referred to as the upper computer) is STEP 7-Micro/WIN SMART (abbreviated as Micro/WIN), which can be downloaded and used for free from the official website.
The design concept of Micro/WIN is consistent with the configuration software TIAPortal for the other two high-end PLC series, S7-1200 and S7-1500, and it supports communication between S7-1200 and S7-1500.
If you later need to learn Siemens’ mid-to-high-end PLC product series, the learning and migration costs will be very low.
The True Face of SR20 PLC
Next, let’s take a look at the appearance of the SR20 PLC.
