Earn Continuing Education credits with online PLC course
Our partner in PLC training, Doug Bell at Interconnecting Automation, is offering his latest continuing education course focused on PLCs; this is a “true” online curriculum with continuing education credits. With over 70 online-study videos, each lasts an average of six minutes; the course includes quizzes, progress testing plus a final comprehensive exam. The course uses AutomationDirect’s DirectLOGIC PLCs and the free version of the programming software to cover topics such as I/O addressing, creating and editing ladder logic program rungs, specific programming instructions and more. If you are completely unfamiliar with PLCs, this course also includes Doug’s “Introduction to PLCs 101” videos, which offer instruction on topics such as switches, sensors, and the basics of logic used to create programs.
PLC hardware is not a requirement for the course. However, to get hands-on experience, once enrolled, you will be offered a discount of $20 and free shipping on a DirectLogic PLC hardware trainer. You can use the trainer to test the projects you create; whether you have hardware or not, you will upload all programs you create for the course and the trainer will test them for successful operation.
Each student is allowed 120 days to complete the course of study. Upon satisfactory completion of the course, you will receive three hours of continuing education (CEU) credits plus the ability to print out a Certificate of Completion on your printer. This course is offered for a “limited time” for $195.00.
For more information and to register for this course, go to Doug Bell’s site at www.interconnectingautomation.com. For the complete list of topics and to view sample videos, go to: http://bit.ly/14CbRtb.
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Forsyth Alliance shines at the FIRST Robotics Peachtree Regional
– AutomationDirect has sponsored Forsyth County schools’ robotics involvement for the past eight years, facilitating participation in the FIRST, VEX, BEST and MATE competitions. This season, in FIRST’s FRC division, the newly-added rookie team from Forsyth Central High (Team 1746) competed at Atlanta’s Peachtree Regional and finished 9th overall after 90 qualification rounds. Several times throughout the competition, the team was ranked between 1st and 2nd.
While the Alliance was knocked out in the Championship rounds, the judges awarded the team the Regional’s Creativity Award for the dynamic pneumatically operated center-of-gravity solution to the technical challenge. Their robot was the only one in the field of 60 that succeeded in climbing the game field’s tower to the third level, quite a feat for a 109-pound machine, particularly considering that no motors were used for the operation! The entire climbing mechanism and dynamic CG (center of gravity) were comprised of AutomationDirect’s pneumatic cylinders, push-to-connect fittings, tubing, flow control valves; the robot even used a digital pressure gauge so the team could manage the air pressure remotely. Watch the video at http://bit.ly/13Ad1ks to see this incredible accomplishment!