When you are first learning PLC programming, it can be hard to understand what the logic in your PLC is actually doing.
Sure, you can see outputs turning on, but it can be hard to understand how those digital signals actually control a process.
It can also be challenging to test your PLC software when it depends on feedback from physical devices like limit switches and sensors.
Luckily, Factory IO provides a solution to these problems.
Watch the video below to learn more about this topic in a clear and easy way.
What is Factory IO
Factory IO is a 3D factory simulation that can be used to learn PLC programming.
Using Factory IO, you can assemble a bespoke virtual factory from a library of common industrial parts like conveyors, sensors, pick and place units, and more.
If you don’t want to build your own virtual factory, you can use one of the pre-built scenes that ship with Factory IO.
There are currently more than 20 pre-built scenes available that you can use to practice programming.
Factory IO scenes
The pre-built scenes in Factory IO are designed to help you learn PLC programming by challenging you to write the logic to control increasingly complex industrial automation scenarios.
The early scenes allow you to practice basic PLC programming by writing simple logic using common Ladder Diagram instructions like Examine On, Examine Off, Output Energize, Output Latch, and Output Unlatch.
As you progress, the scenarios become more complex and challenge you to master using more complex instructions like timers, counters, and mathematical operators.
Later scenes let you apply everything you have learned to develop full PLC projects that control virtual machines based on real-world industrial automation applications.
These scenes include assembly machines, automated warehouses, tanks controlled by PID loops, and material handling systems that use weighing scales and vision sensors to sort items by weight and color.
If you work your way through the full set of scenes, you will have built a portfolio of projects that cover a variety of different machine and process control applications and demonstrate your abilities as a PLC programmer.
Factory IO drivers
Factory IO includes a built-in soft PLC and code editor. You can use this editor to build logic for a Factory IO scene in a programming language that looks and feels similar to a Function Block diagram.
Once the logic is built, you can run the scene to see how this logic would control physical equipment.
This built-in system is great, but the real value of Factory IO is the fact that it includes communication drivers for many different types of PLCs. Using these drivers, you can connect PLCs from different manufacturers to a Factory IO scene.
These communication drivers make Factory IO an excellent learning tool to see how the projects that you develop in a development environment like Connected Components Workbench would control real-life hardware.
Factory IO for learning PLC programming
With Factory IO, you can learn PLC programming and see how your logic would control a physical machine or process without buying any expensive hardware.
To do this, you can build a project in a development environment like Connected Components Workbench, download the project to a simulated controller, and connect this emulated controller to Factory IO using the Allen-Bradley Micro800 communication driver.
Once the connection is established, you can test your logic using a simulated factory to see how your software would work and what might happen in common failure scenarios.
At RealPars, we like Factory IO so much that we feature it in our PLC Programming from Scratch course series, where you’ll learn how to program Micro800 PLCs using Connected Components Workbench.
Factory IO licenses
One thing to note is that Factory IO is not a free product. To use Factory IO, you have to buy a license.
There are different licenses available that let you connect to different PLCs and different ways to buy licenses, including monthly, yearly, and one-time.
The good news is that a Factory IO license is not expensive. Currently, a Factory IO license that includes the Allen-Bradley communication driver is only 17 euros per month.
If you are not sure that you are ready to purchase a Factory IO license, there is a 30-day trial available so that you can test the software and decide if it is useful for you.
You download Factory IO and start your 30-day trial using this link.
Wrap-Up
In this article, I introduced you to Factory IO, a 3D simulation environment used for PLC training.
I also explained that Factory IO ships with a set of pre-built scenes that you can use to learn PLC programming and communication drivers that lets you connect a Factory IO scene to PLCs from different manufacturers.
