Understanding Siemens S7 Programs

Course overview
Manufacturers are increasingly facing greater pressures to reduce costs and maintain efficiency whilst also maximising output. These problems are further challenged when it comes to arranging shift patterns to release essential production line staff for training.

This problem can be eased, as we now offer you three day courses rather than our more traditional five day courses on Siemens PLCs. Our new three day course enables you to maintain your efficiency levels with the minimum of disruption, whilst also providing focused learning.

This course will equip people to be able to work through and understand existing PLC programs, and be able to add to and modify pre-written PLC code in order to accommodate machine changes.

Target Group
All engineering personnel involved with maintenance and servicing of automated systems controlled by Siemens S7-Programs.

Duration
Courses take place over three days.


Previous knowledge
Delegates should have a good working knowledge of PLC systems, be competent with the use of PCs and Windows as well as S7-300/400 PLCs and STEP 7 software or have attended at least the S7-300/400 PLC First Line Maintenance course.

Syllabus

Understand the Terminology, Structure & Organisation of S7 Programs

• Recap the basic structure of S7 programs
• Recap basic use of the different programming formats (LAD, FBD, STL) & how to monitor simple program code
• Understand the data types that exist within S7
• Gain further experience of reading & interpreting more complex STL program code & know how to monitor & interpret RLO & the additional status bits
• Understand how S7 uses the System Accumulators when decoding logic & determining bit & word status & know how to trace conditions when monitoring a running program
• Understand how S7 handles numeric values (data handling) & the toolkit available for monitoring
• Be aware of status display problems when monitoring STL & how to get around them
• Understand the use of Jump & LBL instructions, how these alter the normal execution of the program, how to know if you are monitoring in such a zone & what happens to status informatio 

Understanding & working with Organisation Blocks (OBs)

• Understand the operation of a range of commonly used OBs
• Understand how adding certain blocks can prevent the CPU from stopping
• Understand how information is passed into these blocks using Local Data
• Understand the operation of OBs that control how the PLC performs on start-up & how this is important when troubleshooting
• Understand the operation of OBs that can interrupt the normal scan cycle of the PLC for other operations to be performed & know how this itself can be the cause of intermittent PLC problems

Understanding & working with Functions & Function Blocks (FCs &FBs)

• Know how to identify the System Blocks (SFCs & SFBs) that are provided & how these are utilised
• Use System Function Blocks that implement IEC functionality
• Understand that some hardware modules require further FBs that are supplied on disk & which need to be loaded for a program to work
• Understand the technique of Parameter Passing between blocks & know how to interpret what is happening

Different ways Analog Signals are handled

• Understand how to configure Analog modules for proper operation
• Know how Analog signals can be read (input) or written (output) & monitored as Peripheral Words
• Understand how the converted Analog signals can be scaled from their native format into user friendly engineering units within the PLC

Understand the use of Data Blocks (DBs) & Data Words (DWs) in S7 programs

• Recap the basic concept & understanding of the purpose of DBs in a program
• Understand typical uses of DBs & DWs in S7 programs
• Know how to identify DBs in a program, how to recognise the different calls to the blocks & how to start to understand how they are being used
• Know how to interpret the structure & format of data stored in DBs
• Understand the difference between Shared Data Blocks & Instance Data Blocks
• Understand how the data held in DBs & DWs is used in programs & how the data can be modified as the program is running
• Understand the concept of User Defined Data Types (UDTs)
• Know how to display & monitor the contents of DBs & DWs

Understand the use of more complex Program Commands

• Understand the concept of Bit & Word Shift instructions & know how to monitor their operation
• Understand the range of Logical Word instructions that are commonly used & know how to decode what is actually happening
• Understand the use of a number of other additional advanced programming instructions & know how to access the complete library
• Understand the concept of Indirect Addressing, know how to recognise its existence & how to trace & monitor its status
• Understand the concept of Bit & Word Shift instructions & know how to monitor their operation

S7 Programming Tips, Tricks & Techniques

• Understand how sometimes simple program modifications can reveal more basic LAD program code which is often easier for maintenance personnel to follow
• Learn how to configure Global Data to pass information between different PLCs within the same project
• Understand how some programmers conceal program code & make it impossible to monitor using ‘Know How Protect’ features
• How to get the most out of STEP7 program documentation facilities
  

Training outcomes:

1. Understand the terminology, structure and organisation of S7 Programs
2. Understand and work with Organisation Blocks (OBs)
3. Understand and work with functions and Function Blocks (FCs andFBs)
4. Understand the different ways analog signals are handled
5. Understand the use of Data Blocks (DBs) and Data Words (DWs) in S7 programs
6. Understand the use of more complex Program Commands
7. Apply S7 Programming tips, tricks and techniques
   
   

Guaranteed results
Our partners INTACS are so confident that we can deliver the right training for your people that we are even prepared to offer a money-back guarantee of satisfaction.



Recommended follow up courses

Siemens S7-300/400 PLC Troubleshooting
The benefit of attending this further 3 day course is that delegates will be able to gain knowledge & practical experience of troubleshooting Siemens S7-300/400 series PLC automation control systems.

Siemens S7-300/400 Networked Systems
The benefit of attending this further 3 day course is that delegates will be able to gain knowledge & practical experience of maintaining & troubleshooting Siemens PLC automation control systems that use MPI, Profibus DP & ASi.  An introduction to Ethernet will also be given.

For more information or to make a booking please call (01604) 667584, or alternatively e-mail business_centre@festo.com.