Sometimes, in the world of electricity, no matter how hard you try, something causes the imaginary smoke to be let out of what you are working on and you have to regroup…
Recently, unexpectedly, and unfortunately the electrical training ALLIANCE was informed that the current PLC textbook Programmable Logic Controllers (S597) will become no longer available once the publisher’s existing inventory is depleted, and subsequently (nearly simultaneously) our requisition of those books depleted their inventory. 
Therefore, our orders exceeded the anticipated availability. As an interim solution, we have built a course based around ATP’s textbook Introduction to Programmable Logic Controllers (S531). In fact several of you, have already received this new textbook. This interim course was listed as part of the upcoming catalog release, and will be used until a complete new training course and system is completed. (More info below)
It is anticipated that the interim replacement LMS course Introduction to Programmable Logic Controllers (J162LM) will be ready in mid-August and at that time, we will be scheduling webinars to review the material and review any changes and questions that you may have. This course will replace the current, Programmable Logic Controllers, Level I (J237LM.J1) and Programmable Logic Controllers, Level II A (J237LM.J2A) training, and will utilize existing Allen-Bradley/ Rockwell Automation SLC 500 processors. These would be the suitcase style PLC trainers and also include many of the processors on your instrumentation trainers, in fact some have asked previously, “How can we use these trainers we still have?” Well this may just be the perfect opportunity.
Additionally, it was anticipated that the select programs which participate in the Programmable Logic Controllers, Level II T (J237LM.J2T) course, would continue to be able to be supported with textbooks and LMS courseware. Unfortunately, this does not appear to now be possible. We sincerely apologize for this unfortunate circumstance. Should you have a critical need to support your tag-based system training please contact Jason Lunardini to discuss a solution.
The bright side to this unfortunate situation is, the electrical training ALLIANCE had already begun investigating and planning the process of updating the overall PLC training course in advance of this issue. The new course is going to based on a newer Allen Bradley product, the Micro 800 series controller, and we believe this will offer a flexible and very cost effective training solution to provide introductory PLC training, as well as grow into more advanced motion control topics. This system will be a wholesale change of not only textbooks and LMS courseware, but also hardware, and offer free software support, all being done in a hands-on lab based format. Look for more information on this in late 2019 and early 2020.
Should you have purchased the existing textbook Programmable Logic Controllers (S597) and companion LMS courses Programmable Logic Controllers, Level I (J237LM.J1), Programmable Logic Controllers, Level II A (J237LM.J2A), Programmable Logic Controllers, Level II T (J237LM.J2T), and would prefer to utilize the interim single course textbook Introduction to Programmable Logic Controllers (S531) and LMS course Introduction to Programmable Logic Controllers (J162LM) please contact Steve Strickland (sstrickland@electricaltrainingalliance.org). Should you have technical questions regarding the interim and future courseware, existing trainers, new ideas or what the weather is like in Pittsburgh, please contact Jason Lunardini (jlunardini@electricaltrainingalliance.org)
Thanks for Reading!