OpenPLC Programming Handbook

Turn a $35 board into a real PLC. OpenPLC puts industrial-grade control on hardware you already own. With nothing more than a Raspberry Pi, an Arduino, or a Wi-Fi-capable ESP32, you can program in the same IEC 61131-3 languages that run refineries and factory floors, and watch it work on your own bench.

This fully illustrated, ladder-first handbook takes you from your first contact and coil to a complete, running controller. Install the OpenPLC v4 toolchain, master timers, counters, and memory addressing across a dozen different boards, build and debug a real application, then look inside the runtime to understand exactly how it turns your rungs into deterministic control.

From there you reach the techniques professionals actually use: Sequential Function Charts (and how to make one run), reusable function blocks, and PID control. Deploy across platforms from bare microcontrollers to industrial hardware, test your logic against a free copy of Ignition Maker before a single wire is landed, and secure your system the way real industrial sites do. Fully revised for OpenPLC's move to Autonomy Logic and the Version 4 runtime, this second edition is the practical, current guide for makers, students, technicians, and engineers who learn automation by doing it. Write it. Run it. Hold it in your hand.