The people behind 25 years of LOGO! – Pamela Pacheco
Whether in the industrial sector, home-automation, or hobbyist LOGO! is the perfect solution for fast and uncomplicated control tasks. This year, the logic module is celebrating its 25th anniversary! I took advantage of the occasion to speak to various friends of LOGO!. Pamela Pacheco, Marketing Manager for SIMATIC S7-1200 and LOGO!, agreed to be the seventh– and final– interviewee in the series.
Compared to my earlier interviewees who accompanied LOGO! from the very beginning or for many years, Pamela Pacheco represents a new and younger generation. But this mechanical engineer, originally from Mexico, is no less excited about LOGO! than her older colleagues and is looking forward to many more years of working with the popular microcontroller.
Ms. Pacheco, when did your history with LOGO! begin?
Pamela Pacheco: In 2012, I started teaching PLC programming courses at Siemens in Mexico through Sitrain. It should be noted that this didn’t include LOGO! because there was very little demand for paid courses on using this extremely economical and easy-to-program controller. When LOGO! 0BA8 was launched in 2014, I became the Regional Marketing and Product Manager for LOGO!, among other products. Three years later, I came to the head office in Nuremberg, Germany, as a Marketing Manager. In this position, I continue to promote LOGO! worldwide.
Let’s start by reviewing your years in Mexico. What was your job there?
Mexico and Central America are important markets for LOGO!. As Marketing and Product Manager, I was also responsible for the practical, technological side of the logic module, unlike now. I traveled all around the country and gave workshops to customers and sales personnel in which I presented innovations like the web server and its possibilities. I supported machine builders, distributors as an additional customer group and, as a third group, students participating in the “Siemens Automation Cooperates with Education (SCE)” program. I gave tips on how to use LOGO! and especially the new features and I gave demonstrations at workshops on things like the numerous ways in which LOGO! can communicate with other devices. It was challenging at the beginning, because most of the technicians who were typically using LOGO! at the time still knew very little about IP addresses or how to use them and were initially skeptical.
But that changed…
I remember one customer who worked in building automation and had hardly used LOGO! up until that point. What really got him excited about LOGO! was the options for communicating via a building’s Internet, and how easy it was, for example, to control lighting or temperature via a PC or iPad.
What new features would you like to highlight?
There’s a lot! I think it’s fantastic that LOGO! continues to offer so many new programming options and features at the same low price, including mathematical operations, PI controllers, and even an astronomical clock. Their usefulness has already been proven in many applications. For example, plants in greenhouses are flourishing, there are blinds that open when the sun comes up and close when it goes down. The exact times change over the course of the year and also depending on the location. Thanks to the astronomical clock, I only have to enter my current location and LOGO! automatically adapts the opening and closing times.
And this LOGO! 8 functionality has also been helpful, for example, for a Franconian farmer’s transportable chicken coops, known as “chicken mobiles.” Every morning and evening, LOGO! automatically opens and closes the flaps for the chickens and switches the lights on and off as a function of the sunrise and sunset. This ensures that the chickens also get enough light in the winter.
Let’s get back to Mexico. Do you have a favorite project that you like to remember?
In 2016, I organized a university competition to promote the new LOGO! generation. A lot of creative building applications were submitted but I especially liked one large-scale application designed by three students from northern Mexico. LOGO! was intended to remotely control the lighting, temperature, and feeding of several animals in a zoo as well as some of the security functions. It would also count the cars in the parking lot, for example, and close the lot when it was full. But the best part was that the project was inspired by an actual zoo in Sinaloa and the zoo’s management then hired the students to actually implement it.
What do you think makes LOGO! so special?
Its flexibility! The logic module is small and affordable, while at the same time permitting such a wide variety of applications with so many programming and communication options! Monitoring critical values on LOGO!’s own multicolor display, for example, is just as possible as performing predictive maintenance and service, thanks to data processing in the cloud. It’s this flexibility that has made LOGO! one of the top controllers on the market.
So if you could choose three adjectives to describe LOGO!, flexible would be one of them?
Absolutely, even KNX communication is possible, which allows us to collaborate with our partners at Building Technologies. My second adjective would be “scalable” – how easily it can be expanded for larger applications. And the third, which I consider to be especially important, is “disruptive.” This was true from the very beginning. LOGO! was never part of a product family like SIMATIC, but was a brand-new device that was also extremely economical and compact. LOGO! combined devices like timers and counters with simple controller functions, simplified wiring, wasn’t a relay, and wasn’t even considered a controller at the time. And now, having since been recognized as a controller, LOGO! is again disruptive because the logic module now has a cloud connection, which enables brand-new solutions. At the same time, it has remained easy to program and wire.
Were there already plans for a cloud connection when you started working with LOGO! ?
That was a total surprise. Nor did I think it would happen so quickly. LOGO! was already off and running while the large controllers were moving along one step at a time.
What’s your job in Germany today?
I now work at the head office in Nuremberg and no longer travel. With a view to the global market, I develop marketing assets that can be used in all countries. I make sure that our products are clearly explained on the websites, I develop campaigns and videos, and I monitor the market to see what feature is most in demand on the global market that could potentially be part of LOGO! in the future. Previous to and during the launch of LOGO! 8.3 last year, I studied the development process in depth. I also do a little programming myself in order to familiarize myself with the new features in actual practice.
What is your wish for LOGO! on its anniversary?
All the best. And a long life! I look forward to my next 25 years with LOGO! – as a success story, naturally!
Where do you see LOGO! in five years?
Fully integrated into the digital world. It will have its place in the Internet of Things (IOT) and – as disruptive as ever – will connect different types of device with innovative communications protocols. Besides Amazon Web Services (AWS), we will have enabled LOGO! for additional cloud platforms. And I hope I’ll continue to be responsible for LOGO!, because no other controller lets you be so free and creative. I like that!