This is a manuscript for a PLC based control system book that is currently being used for teaching an undergraduate controls course EGR 450 - Manufacturing Controls. The course and book focus on the Allen Bradley family of controllers, thus allowing a deeper topic coverage than is normal in PLC books.

Status

Versions 5.0 and newer of the book are updated to focus on the Allen Bradley ControlLogix controllers. The older book focuses on the PLC-5 and Micrologix platforms and can be found on a copy of the previous page.

A Free Book

Please note that the book is available under the GFDL (GNU Free Document License). This permits copying, distribution, modification, etc. without my permission, within the terms of the license.

Interesting facts

Between May 6 and August 22, 2003 the book was downloaded 88973 times from the main website. This does not include downloads from other websites that have copies of the book. It also does not include copies downloaded over the previous years. On August 21, 2003 the book was downloaded 563 times. In the same time period individual chapters were downloaded in PDF and RTF formats 88086 times. Most interestingly is that the PLC book webpage was only accessed 14001 times. This suggests that people have created links, or are using external links to access the book directly.

Downloads

• Version 5.2 (newest) available at the book web site September 30, 2008
• Version 5.1 PDF (6MB) April 21, 2008
• Version 5.0 PDF (6MB) May 5, 2007
• Version 4.9 PDF (6MB) January 12, 2007
• Version 4.7 PDF (5.4MB) April 14, 2005
• Version 4.6 PDF (5.3MB) December 15, 2004
• Version 4.5 PDF (5MB) May 5, 2004
• Version 4.2 PDF (5MB) April 3, 2003
• Version 4.1 PDF (5.0MB) July 22, 2002
• Version 4.0 PDF (4.9MB) March 31, 2002 (HTML)
• Version 3.1 PDF (4.7MB) November 27, 2001
• Version 3 PDF (4.7MB) July 12, 2001
• Version 2 PDF (4.5MB)

Resources

• Labguide PDF - updated April 21, 2008
• Chapters and Powerpoint slides

Other Stuff

• Links
  • More online books books
  • EGR 450 - A PLC controls course
  • An open source PLC for Linux
  • An online PLC tutorial
  • A general information and discussion site with ladder logic to download
  • A publisher with another PLC book on-line
  • A general information PLC site
  • Tools for analysis of PLC based control systems Tek Supply
  • A site dedicated to communications Data Transfer HQ
  • PLC maintenance and safety - Business Industrial Network

(C) 1996-2008 Hugh Jack, ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY