About TryPLC
Free, hands-on training for the next generation of automation engineers.
Our mission
TryPLC exists to make PLC programming and industrial automation training accessible to everyone — no expensive licenses, no proprietary hardware, no paywalls. Just a browser, a simulator, and a curriculum that teaches the way real plants actually run.
Our niche
We focus on the three pillars that every modern automation engineer needs:
- Structured Text & IEC 61131-3 — write real ST code, not toy snippets, against a virtual PLC scan cycle.
- Industrial robots — ABB RAPID, KUKA KRL, FANUC KAREL, Mitsubishi MELFA, Universal Robots URScript, Yaskawa, Kawasaki.
- Communication protocols — Modbus RTU/TCP, Profinet, EtherNet/IP, EtherCAT, OPC UA, IO-Link, CANopen, HART.
What you will find here
- Interactive lessons on networking, industrial protocols, hardware and function blocks, written as short screens where you change something and watch the result.
- A browser-based Structured Text editor and PLC simulator, plus a ladder logic editor and an SFC / GRAFCET editor.
- A free book of more than fifty thousand words, and a blog of practical articles.
- Reference material: a Structured Text reference, robot-language guides, and calculators and converters for the arithmetic that comes up on every commissioning job.
How the simulator works — and where it stops
The Structured Text engine is written for this site; it is not a wrapper around a vendor compiler. It runs your program in a repeating scan cycle — read inputs, execute the logic, write outputs — which is the model every PLC follows, and it implements the core of IEC 61131-3 including timers, counters, function blocks and user-defined types.
It is a teaching tool, and we say so plainly. Real controllers differ in timing, memory handling and vendor extensions, and the simulator does not replace the manufacturer's own software for commissioning a machine. It must never be relied on for a safety-related decision.
How we write and check the content
Lessons are written to explain one idea at a time and to let you test your understanding before the answer is shown. Where a lesson contains a Structured Text example, the example is run by the same engine you use in the editor, and many of our lessons replay their program scan by scan so that what you see is what the code actually does, not a drawing of what it should do.
Product and company names such as ABB, KUKA, FANUC, Siemens and Rockwell Automation are trademarks of their owners. We use them to describe the equipment our lessons are about; TryPLC is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them.
If you find a mistake, tell us — we would rather fix the page than leave an error standing. You can reach us on the contact page.
How TryPLC is funded
TryPLC is free to use. To cover hosting and development it shows advertising served by Google on article and reference pages. Ads are never placed on the editors, simulators or games, and the advertisers are chosen by Google's ad auction, not by us. Our privacy policy explains what that involves and how to opt out of personalised ads.
Founder
TryPLC was founded by Ali Harirrou, an automation engineer who wanted a faster, friendlier on-ramp into the PLC world. After years of watching newcomers struggle with €5,000 software licenses just to write their first rung of ladder logic, he built the simulator he wished he'd had.
Reach out anytime: ali.harirrou@tryplc.com