Industrial automation Q&A on the skills shift every controls team is feeling, plus a cautionary Rockwell quality story, a TIA Portal version trap, and honest career advice. This episode answers five of the most upvoted questions from the r/PLC community.
Vladimir Romanov, founder of Joltek, answers each one as someone who has hired, mentored, and built automation teams. If you manage engineers or you are growing your own career, subscribe for breakdowns that connect the technical work to the business decisions behind it.
The lead question is the one most managers are quietly navigating: have PLC programmers become accidental network engineers? The answer is yes, and it is worth understanding why. Over the last decade the field migrated off contained fieldbuses like DeviceNet, ControlNet, and SERCOS onto Ethernet based protocols, EtherNet/IP on the Rockwell side and PROFINET on the Siemens side, with OPC UA carrying data up to other systems. The push to make plants ready for AI only accelerates it, because every AI ambition starts with collecting more plant floor data. The practical result is that your controls people now spend real time on managed switches, IP addressing, VLANs, and duplicate IP troubleshooting, usually alongside the IT department. For a manager, that is a training and hiring signal, not a footnote. Joltek publishes a full OT networking fundamentals course for free, which is a low cost way to close that gap on your team.
The second question is a useful reminder that incoming inspection still matters, even on premium hardware. A practitioner received a Rockwell ControlLogix L915 safety controller, a roughly $20,000 piece of equipment for use with PlantPAx, with a misaligned and improperly seated RJ45 port and missing faceplate markings. It is heading back on an RMA. Lower volume safety processors get produced in smaller runs, which is exactly where a defect can slip through, so it is worth checking expensive hardware before it goes into a chassis.
The third question is a version standardization trap. A new machine arrived with a Siemens S7-1200 G2, and older TIA Portal versions 14 and 17 cannot go online with it. You need version 20, ideally version 21, and the Gen2 I/O is not backward compatible without a PROFINET bridge. The broader lesson for a plant is to standardize your engineering software versions before a mix of V14, V17, V20, and V21 turns every service call into a licensing scramble.
The episode closes with two human questions: whether controls people are genuinely into broader technology, and whether you can get into automation without an engineering degree. On the degree question the honest answer is that it is possible but harder, because large employers often filter by degree, and the no degree path can take far longer than the four year shortcut.
Learn more at Joltek:
- Free OT Networking Fundamentals course:
https://www.joltek.com/education/ot-networking-fundamentals- IT and OT Architecture Integration:
https://www.joltek.com/services/service-details-it-ot-architecture-integration- Modern Plant Network Requirements in Manufacturing:
https://www.joltek.com/blog/modern-plant-network-requirements-manufacturing- Workforce Development and Education:
https://www.joltek.com/services/service-details-workforce-development-educationTimestamps
0:00 Intro and How This Q&A Works
1:00 Have PLC Programmers Become Accidental Network Engineers
4:45 Who Is Joltek
5:20 A Defective $20,000 ControlLogix L915 Safety Controller
11:20 Which TIA Portal Version You Need for the S7-1200 G2
15:35 Are Controls Engineers Actually Into Tech
21:25 Getting Into Automation Without an Engineering Degree
28:50 Closing and How to Reach Out
If you are weighing a skills investment, a hire, or a hardware standard, send a note on LinkedIn or leave a comment. Vladimir reads and responds.