On average, I answer about two questions a day which are answered in this lecture. And after I do, most people feel silly for having asked. :-) So, please read through. If you don't:
- you will not be able to read the text on the screen
- you will not understand why your program won't run on the emulator
- you will not understand why Emulate throws an error every time you run it
I'm always quick and happy to answer any question as you'll see if you read through the reviews students have left on the course. But, answering the same questions over and over again wastes a lot of time. So, if you do get stuck with this stuff or anything else - email me, message me - whatever. I'll get you back on track! No worries. Just keep lecture 2 in mind before you do. ;-) Okay, moving on...
Additionally, as this is my third PLC course, it builds upon the first (and second) which means I won't be revisiting what was taught in those courses. This is ALL NEW stuff, and quite impossible stuff if you haven't taken at least my first course (or spent a few years programming).
Blurry Videos / Can't Read Text: There is a button toward the bottom of your player window which allows you to change the resolution. Make sure you're watching on 720p resolution, and you'll be able to read everything quite nicely. If not, you might want to make an appointment with your optometrist or clean some of the butter off your screen. :-)
Course Reviews: During this course, you'll be prompted to rate the quality of the materials and instruction you're receiving. And by all means be HONEST! Obviously the rating of this course is important to me as the instructor, but it should also be very important to you as a student. Let me explain why... Upon completion of this course, you'll receive a Certificate of Completion with your name on it and a weblink potential employers can use to verify your certificate. Assuming they care enough to look at the course to see what training you received, would you rather they see you've had five-star training, or three-star training? Personally, I would assume that three-star training yields three-star programmers. That being said, it's in everybody's best interest that you give the course a fair and accurate rating when you're prompted to evaluate. :-)
The Software:
Because there is SO MUCH software covered in this course, there are TWO options on how to get your software. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND THE FIRST!
Option #1 is that you download the virtual machine I have assembled for this course and run it on VMWare. VMWare requires x64 Windows. Later on in the course, I'll give you download links and teach you how to do this. The file is HUGE. We're talking more than 10gb. But this is going to provide you with a ready-to-run Windows 10 environment that is already set up and configured properly and has all the software you'll need installed plus the demo programs and most of the course resources right there on the Desktop. That means after you finish the download, you can be up and programming in about TWO MINUTES!
Now, before you start talking about software piracy or thinking you're getting free / illegal software, let me be clear about something: ALL of the software provided is unregistered, unhacked, unlicensed and etc.. That being said, it is YOUR responsibility to review the licensing for each of the programs provided to ensure that you are using it in accordance with all applicable laws. But the same is true of ANY software you download, buy, or otherwise acquire, so that's nothing special.
First, download VMWare Player (free) for your operating system and install it.
Second, download WinRAR for free to extract the VM archive you'll be downloading in the following step.
Third, download the Virtual Machine. Your best option is to use JDownloader to download either this directory or this directory and then use WinRAR to extract it. The 15 files on the mirrors ARE interchangeable, so feel free to download from both at the same time - no problem!
You will be taught how to install and use VMWare and the VM in Section 4.
Option #2 involves you downloading each individual piece of software covered in Section 4 separately and installing them all on your own environment. Because there are several issues of compatibility between certain packages required (you can't use Visual Studio 2015 with AdvancedHMI, so you have to install 2013, some things aren't 64-bit compatible, and etc.), I WILL NOT BE SUPPORTING THIS OPTION. Meaning, if you decide to install all of this on your own Windows, you are probably going to struggle, and I am not going to be providing tech support (on individual package installations), so you'll need to contact the distributors of the various apps or go to the forums for answers. I DO show the installation and configuration of ALL of this software in Section 4, however providing one-on-one support for this is not an option. If I helped people through all of this installation, I wouldn't have time to be an instructor anymore. Yes, it really is that painful, so please go with option #1 if at all possible. :-)
DO NOT download these if you downloaded the VM. There is no reason to.
AdvancedHMI Mirror 1, Mirror 2
EasyBuilder5000 Mirror 1, Mirror 2
PLC Program Mirror 1, Mirror 2
* You will also want to download and install Visual Studio Community 2013 (NOT a later version!) and SQL Server Express + Management Studio from Microsoft
Running the PLC Program (in case you forgot):
Start RSLinx.
Start Emulate.
Close any open projects. Open the project you want to run.
Reopen RSLogix.
Load your program.
Go online.
Troubleshooting:
1) When I run RSLogix I get a "Server Busy" error from Windows. Something you can try is navigating to C:\Program Files (x86)\Rockwell Software\RSCommon and deleting Harmony.hrc and Harmony.rsh. Restart your computer and then try it one more time. This MAY allow RSLogix to 'reacclimate' to your current network landscape.
2) When I run Emulate I get an error saying "Unable to update system registry." Your Windows security settings are preventing the programs from running correctly. Run BOTH RSLogix and RSLinx as Administrator and this problem will go away.
3) Dude, where is FactoryTalk View Studio? It is not free and there is no trial version, therefore, it is not included in the software downloads for this course or on the VM. If you happen to have or buy a copy (for $2000), you're welcome to follow along with me. Otherwise, just watch and learn...
4) When I try to go online with a project, it says "Unable to open COM2!" You probably have multiple projects open in Emulate at the same time. That totally sucks. So - close them. Go into Emulate, select your projects from the dropdown on the toolbar and File -> Close them one by one. Note: you must halt (HLT) your programs before closing them. They won't close in RUN mode! Once they're all closed, load up the one you actually want to work with and try again. I bet it works now!
5) "When I try to watch lecture X, the video freezes or won't play" About 2% of the time when there's problems with a video playing, the server is having a problem. 98% of the time, the problem is with your web browser. Try a different browser or device. If it works, obviously you need to clean up your browser and fix your problem. Easy. If the video won't play on two different devices, send Udemy Support an email and let them know so they can look into it.
6) "VMWare is throwing up errors about something called CredentialGuard in Windows 10 Home" For a system with windows 10 Home:
Open Registry Editor by typing regedit in search box,
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceGuard.
Add a new DWORD value named EnableVirtualizationBasedSecurity and set it to 0 to disable it.
Next Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\LSA.
Add a new DWORD value named LsaCfgFlags and set it to 0 to disable it.
Open command prompt as a administrator and type the following commands bcdedit /create {0cb3b571-2f2e-4343-a879-d86a476d7215} /d "DebugTool" /application osloader Then copy paste the rest below and press enter
bcdedit /set {0cb3b571-2f2e-4343-a879-d86a476d7215} path "\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\SecConfig.efi" bcdedit /set {bootmgr} bootsequence {0cb3b571-2f2e-4343-a879-d86a476d7215} bcdedit /set {0cb3b571-2f2e-4343-a879-d86a476d7215} loadoptions DISABLE-LSA-ISO,DISABLE-VBS bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off
Now, Restart your system
7) "VMWare is throwing up errors about something called CredentialGuard in Windows 10 Pro" In search box type "gpedit" then Goto - Computer Configuration - Administrative Templates - System - Device Guard - Turn on Virtualization Based Security. Now Double click that and "Disable" 2. In search box, type Turn Windows features on or off, now uncheck Hyper-V and restart system.
8) "I'm getting COM2 errors from Emulate" You probably have multiple projects open and running in Emulate. Use the dropdown on the toolbar (in Emulate obviously) to select a project. Click HLT to stop the project. Then click File -> Close to close the project. Repeat this process until all of the projects are gone. Now, load the one you actually WANT to work with and you should be good from there.
9) "I tried to download the VM and I have 15 PLCIII.rar files that I don't know how to install" Since you're new at using computers, I can give you some pointers. Sometimes files are compressed and packaged together into something called "archives." Examples of these are .zip and .rar files. Before archived files can be used, they have to be "extracted." Think of it like trying to wear a pair of new shoes - you have to take them out of the box first, right? So download and install WinRAR to extract your archives, and if you can't figure it out, there's a famous little website called YouTube where you can search video tutorials of different IT tasks. As much as I'd love to teach everybody how to use their computers, this is a PLC course - not a "How to Turn on a Computer" course. I might teach that one next, who knows!
"Hey, man - didn't you used to offer students $10 coupons for all of your courses?"
On 10-10-2019, Udemy effectively eliminated instructor coupons in a move to keep more of the revenues generated by course sales for themselves. In response, I've begun evaluating alternative markets to offer my courses to include putting up my own training site. It's not convenient, but if I'm being choked out, what choice do I have? Sorry about the inconvenience to all of you.