Monitor
Available nowRun the logic and watch it move.
Take any program you have saved, run it at scan speed, force the inputs and watch the tags change. A bench test you can do before anybody books the panel shop.
Open MonitorIn short
How can I test PLC logic before the panel is built?
LADX Monitor runs any program you have saved at scan speed, lets you force inputs and watch every tag change, and records what happened. It is a bench test you can do before anybody books the panel shop, using the same scan engine the ladder editor simulates with rather than a separate model of it.
The problem
Between writing the logic and standing at the panel there is nothing. The first time most programs run is the first time they run on real hardware, in front of the customer.
What it does
It runs the same engine the editor does
The same output image, the same edge memory, the same millisecond timers. What you see here is what the simulator in Ladder does, not a second implementation that can disagree with it.
Force an input and watch the consequence
Toggle a digital input, drive an analogue value, and follow the outputs. Outputs are listed first, because they are what a test is judged on.
A log of what changed
Every transition is timestamped as it happens, so a sequence can be read back afterwards rather than watched once and remembered.
Any program on any project
The list comes from your saved programs rather than from browser storage, so something written on one machine runs on another and stays attached to the job it belongs to.
What it doesn't do
Listed because you would find out anyway, and finding out later is worse.
- It never connects to a controller. It is a simulation of your logic, not a view of a running plant.
- It proves the logic does what the logic says. It cannot know the encoder is wired backwards.
- A passing run here is evidence for a FAT, not a substitute for one.
Questions
- Can I test PLC logic without a PLC?
- Yes. Monitor runs the program on a scan accurate engine, so timers, edges and the output image behave as they would on a controller. It will not find a wiring fault or a wrong device, and it will find the logic errors, which are most of what gets found at a FAT.
- Can I force inputs like an online PLC session?
- Yes. Inputs are forceable and buttons spring back the way a real one does, so a momentary press is momentary. Every force and its effect is recorded in a sequence log, which is what makes a test repeatable rather than a memory.
- Can the test be saved as a record?
- Yes. A run can be saved against the project, which turns a bench test into something that can be attached to a factory acceptance test rather than described in a meeting.