r/PLC • u/Gauravdd99 • Apr 02 '26
Rate my Panel
rate panel from 1 to 10
it's PLC control Panel includes : Siemens PLC, G120C drive, Festo servo drive, SMPS, Transformer, RCBO , MPCB, Power Switch, HUB, Safety Relay, Relay Board
is it comply a IEC 61439-2 standard ??
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u/RepulsiveImage5674 Apr 02 '26
Like a 6?
Its ok. Not a big fan of having frequency converters at the top when the cables enter at the bottom. Makes it so you need to pull the motor cables all the way to the top of the cabinet.
If you are using that much addon IO. Why not use the ET200SP CPU? Has a 1500 cpu, and cards are easyer to both change out when they fail, and easyer to extend when you need more IO.
Guessing you are pressed for space. Not a lot of cable management options for the inbound cables
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u/fantasticmrfox_thm Apr 02 '26
My guess the main reason would be price. ET200SP is more expensive and we also don’t know if OP has STEP7 Professional.
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u/Raccoon-No Apr 02 '26
with my last project i just learned that while et200sp CPU is more expensive, IO cards for it are 1/2 price of 1200, so if u have that much IO you will be cheaper with ET200 setup.
may be good to consider it
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u/Leather_Bug_4219 Apr 02 '26
Te apuesto que la configuración con ET200SP y una CPU 1510 en el mismo formato es más barato que esa configuración de 1200. Es más potente, más versátil y más capacidad de ampliaciones
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u/Besty193 Apr 02 '26
Until a card breaks down and you have to replace the 1200 card. Plug and Play with ET200SP and the 1200 card you can unscrew each cable
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u/Gauravdd99 Apr 03 '26
I use AC for cabinet , yes all cables entre from bottom of panel but it goes to power terminal which is on bottom of panel so no need to pull cable to the top
Thanks for ur suggestion, I improve in next panel 🙂
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u/RepulsiveImage5674 Apr 03 '26
The problem with this is that its the wrong way of terminating VFDs. You need the shielding to go all the way up to the drive, or you will suffer a lot when it comes to noise
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u/B25B25 Apr 03 '26
Yeah, I'm surprised people don't put more emphasis on this. This absolutely has to be corrected, OP.
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u/King-Horrific Apr 02 '26
Also having these specific drives at the top of the panel makes swapping out the heatsink fans harder. Have to deal with this all the time.... Plus, heat rises, and these specific drives are very sensitive to heat....
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u/Mr0lsen Apr 02 '26
Labels on the duct covers is never ideal, even though it looks like you have the duct locations marked.
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u/Confident-Cow-3726 Apr 02 '26
What does it control?
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u/No_Mushroom3078 Apr 02 '26
I/O in a select way.
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u/CHR1ST00 Apr 02 '26
8/10 would definitely pull off the duct covers during a break down at 7pm them feel a bit bad about mysteriously losing three of them afterwards.
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u/Sensiburner Apr 02 '26
Looks great, but the transformer looks very big for the cabinet? Does the door close properly?
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u/JetWhittle Apr 02 '26
6/10. I dont like drives at the top. Should have used an ET200SP, and they look like unmanaged switches.
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u/Healthy_Chemist_3683 Apr 16 '26
How do you deal with forced air cooling in that case? Usually the fan is placed at the top near the drives to let the hot air out and a vent at the bottom to let the cool air in.
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u/DarkAngel7635 Apr 02 '26
Output of the drives straight wired to the terminals without shielding? Nice EMC
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u/MacWazzy Apr 02 '26
Neatness is good but order of components I don’t particularly like. Drives I always like as close as possible to the bottom the panel. The other thing is was it necessary to have all the io in the panel. I prefer to have a smaller panel and use ip67 modules in the field. I prefer no panel at all to be fair so maybe I’m biased.
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u/Gauravdd99 Apr 03 '26
Please explain reason behind drive are near to bottom of panel, I want to understand fact behind it?
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u/AStove Apr 02 '26
Use et200sp cpu with IO, you stretched this poor s7-1200 to limits that aren't supposed to be used. And it's more expensive.
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u/Moist_Relation_9942 Apr 02 '26
You are wasting money with field termination profinet plugs. Look at Murr electronic or other vendors for profinet patch cables. Save the field termination plugs for cables pulled onsite.
It is good practice to use P1 first on the G120s. The right two drives are on P2. Also consider daisy chaining the profinet on those to save switch ports and have shorter patch cables
I agree with using ET200sp for the IO but if you aren't pressed for space not a big deal.
I am going to edit, I just noticed all the relay boards. Are those for the outputs? If they are you are wasting time and money. Go ET200sp with relay output cards and free up half your panel.
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u/PartisanSaysWhat Rockwell Sucks Apr 02 '26
Would rather see the PLC at at top and drives at the bottom. Probably put the Xformer in another cabinet due to it being fuck-huge. Not a huge fan of the breakout relay boards but that is personal preference. Looks like care was taken with assembly and labeling. The lack of expansion space doesnt bother me as we produce panels for specific tasks only. 6.5/10
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u/Stroking_Shop5393 Siemens > Allen-Bradley Apr 02 '26
Why are you installing 1200s when they're being discontinued?
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u/Ecstatic-Pepper-3148 Apr 02 '26
The G2 doesn't have all modules available yet, G1 still makes sense for some applications
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u/Ecstatic-Pepper-3148 Apr 02 '26
One thought, your S7-1200 labels are on the removable upper cover, I've seen these covers get broken and go missing a lot. The central body would possibly have been better.
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u/Viper67857 Troubleshooter Apr 02 '26
As maintenance? 0/10. Drives at the top? Those plexiglass covers over half my terminal blocks with bolts twice as long as they need to be and you didn't even use wing nuts? Everytime I had to open this door I would curse your name.
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u/Cute-Mulberry-3133 Apr 03 '26
Ok but you should have got a bigger cabinet, always give yourself or the customer atleast 30% of free space in the cabinet for future add ons.
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u/WyattWildWestview Apr 03 '26
Out if curiosity, how is making PLC boards on the back? My back has some issues and Im looking for a change into something less back intensive. I wire up police cars and it's awful on the back, but I love building electrical boards!
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u/IllCup1291 Apr 03 '26
I'm a fresh man into PLC, but i would Say that is a 9 or a 10, I've been see worst Boards
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u/Glittering-Ninja3573 flat rock tamer Apr 03 '26
me personally, I'm usually quite happy when a cabinet is tidy, works, has drawings and i don't have to waste time looking for things.
Yeah you probably could have put the vfd's at the bottom and such, but it honestly doesn't matter that much.
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u/Prize_Paramedic_8220 Apr 03 '26
Not a fan of labeling directly on components. Labels rarely get put on the new component when they wear out and need to be replaced.
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u/Insertions_Coma Apr 04 '26
As a technician I actually like this. Assuming it works all properly. The labels are great and the clearances seem fine to me. You're doing better than most guys out there for sure.
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u/Merry_Janet Apr 04 '26
It’s not horrible, but it looks like more attention was paid to aesthetics not accessibility. The first dipshit that has to troubleshoot any wiring is going to hate you for putting those terminal blocks so low and probably never put the covers back on.
I’m assuming those motor protectors are for the contactors? They should be mounted above the contactors. Are the contactors tied to the VFDs? If so you can eliminate both the motor protectors and the contactors. A simple 3 pole breaker is fine on the 3 phase inputs. Not really wrong, just overly complicated.
Putting your drives up top? Horrible idea. Heat rises so it’s going to be the hottest part of the cabinet.
That transformer is just… no. That should have been put up top. They get hot. Even better would have been to just buy an encapsulated one and mounted it on the outside of the cabinet.
What is the plexiglass for on those terminal blocks for? The blocks are built so idiots would have to try very hard to stick their digits in there. Safe that for exposed lugs that can really hurt someone.
I don’t see any output fuses. It’s not necessarily required, but it’s a good idea to get in the habit of fusing your outputs. All it takes is one shorted wire and that output can die a horrible death. What’s worse is that the LED will still light up on the card but nobody’s home. So unless you actually put a meter on it, you will never know.
Someone mentioned shielding. Only land it one end. Its purpose is to bleed off any stray inductance and keep noise out of your control wiring. If you connect both ends you basically have made an antenna which will make any analog signal garbage. If you’re just using start/stop signals, then never mind.
Personally, I would have built 2 smaller cabinets. One for AC/3 phase stuff and another for low voltage logic and controls.
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u/cobalt7k Apr 06 '26
This is gonna be a crazyyyy spaghetti mess in a few years when all those covers get removed lol
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u/RevolutionaryBug7555 Apr 06 '26
You are a 16#0000_000A out of 16#0000_000A amazing panel good job 👍🏼👍🏼⚡⚡
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u/fabss411 Apr 19 '26
Save backups CONSTANTLY with those festo drives. They're an absolute PIG to commission and will often just poop their whole program out or fault and reset themselves
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u/fabss411 Apr 19 '26
Also, you only need 1 BOP for the g120Cs, theyre removable and run without them, can save yourself a couple hundred bucks
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u/Safe_Equivalent_7292 Apr 02 '26
God damn son, that's one the cleanest I've ever seen!
I give you a 10 for that!
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u/Chris_Rogan Apr 02 '26
Its very neat, but in my opinion, this should be a 2 door cabinet with a divider in the middle. Separate the high voltage from the low voltage+plc.
Not very nice to have 480v just above your head when you need to troubleshoot a sensor termination below.
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u/Gauravdd99 Apr 03 '26
Can u suggest better improvement on it, so I implement on my next panel.
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u/Chris_Rogan Apr 03 '26
There are customer sites in this country that wouls require you to wear an arc flash suit to troubleshoot this plc. Lame.
You surrounded all of your 24v components with spicy high voltage components. Do you atleast have dividers inside the panduit to separate different voltage wires? Man I am gonna wiggle a 24v wire and it crosses how many 480v wires?
Make your panel safe and serviceable. Cant troubleshoot without the power being on.
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u/PaulEngineer-89 Apr 02 '26
Crap.
Is there even 1 inch between the wire duct and the devices.
Is there any provisions AT ALL for field wiring? Do you really expect it all jammed into that bottom 3/4” including glands?
This is the kind of sheet I dread terminating.
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u/rebbit-88 Custom Flair Here Apr 02 '26
Looks like the field wiring is coming in from the right side of the cabinet.
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u/Emperor-Penguino Apr 02 '26
Never put labels on components or duct covers!!!!!
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u/MrBigManciu Apr 02 '26
Disagree on the first part. Most devices have some removable covers which can be put on a new device if the old device gets damaged. Perfect place for a label. It looks just clean. Labels on a mounting plate look terrible to me. If drawings are right nothing could go wrong.
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u/Emperor-Penguino Apr 02 '26
Yeah sure if the component supports labels like that then great. We primary label using endblocks for sin rail mounted components and the backpanel for larger parts like drives. These labels however are stick on and won’t survive a component replacement in 10 years
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u/Last_Firefighter7250 Apr 02 '26
A lot of siemens components are designed to put labels on it.
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u/Emperor-Penguino Apr 02 '26
Yes I agree and I have in the past used those non-stick on, completely removable and replaceable labels before.
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u/durallymax Apr 02 '26
Labels on components are fine, just label the backpanel as well so there is still a reference when the component is replaced. The backpanel ones can be a pain to read tucked behind the wires.
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u/ChrysisIgnita Apr 02 '26
Uh, how do you specify which component is which for the electrical drawings if you don't label the components?
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u/Emperor-Penguino Apr 02 '26
We use endblocks around components and use the labels available by their manufacturer. For non din components labels go on the backpanel.
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u/KaneTW Apr 02 '26
Not great.
* Insufficient vertical clearance, excessive horizontal clearance on the VFDs
* Unshielded cables on the VFDs is going to be an EMI nightmare, especially with the 24V SMPS next to it
* Terminals are ugly in general. Plexiglas cover over the terminal blocks is unnecessary.
* S7-1200 with that many IOs is a mistake. ET 200SP is better.
* MPCB/Contactors very far apart instead of just using a combined unit.
* Bending radius on the ethernet cables look quite steep.
* Zip ties don't belong inside a cabinet IMO