looking to set up monitors to plc

hello everyone nice site. well i'm trying to figure out if i can tie 11 remote lcd monitors to a plc control also using 20 touch pads need 20" monitors using them as more or less like an anuciator. what system would u reccomemd

Specs?

Joe,
Could you give us specifics? What kind of plc? What kind of lcd monitors and touch pads? What kind of comms do they support?
What's the distance between each and the longest run from the plc?
What did you mean by "need 20" monitors?

If you could give some details we might be able to offer some solutions.

well i don't have anything as of yet what i'm trying to acomplish is an anuciator system for a doctors office they have a 5 light system from each exam room to the panels . they want to upgrade and add annc. panels 11 of them . i thought that it would look better if they had monitors instead of 100 pilots on a anuciator. the longest run would be 200' don't know which plc system would best suit the application.


have 20 exam rms with 5 dif colors

have 11 annuciators for the 20 rms w/ 5 dif colors

can this be done . what would you sugest

thank you joe

Early stage of development!

Joe,
As croakus pointed out, you need to make some basic decisions and then build on those to get where you are trying to be. If you do not have the expertise, you might consider a consultant. But, lets take one step. Any major brand of PLC including but not limited to, Automation Direct, GE, Modicon, Allen-Bradley, etc, will certainly have a processor and associated I/O to do your job. There are networked systems using LAN protocols, equipment specific networks such as ProfiBus, ControlNet, etc that will allow communication to all sorts of stuff. Then on the annunciator end, there are lots of options including PanelView from AB and similar ones from other mfg's. So, if this suggests some direction, then that is good. If it does not, you may want to consider a systems house/consultant to help you over the hump. We try and help any way we can here but to design a complete system is a little outside our normal scope. But keep coming here and check out the search option, you may find threads that address part of all of your concerns.

great i just wanted to know if it can be done i will have my vender / consultatant set it up thank you can u use regular computer monitors reason i seen some nice 20" lcds for $1100 cheaper than running 100+wires between annciators. 100 led pilots at $30 each {3,000}

thanks again

joe

what are you planning on using to drive those monitors?

PLCs don't typically have graphics cards, even if they did, your distances are limiting.

You could set up a PC running a HMI program at each monitor, and use some sort of communications network to tie the whole thing together, but as you can guess, this gets pretty expensive, pretty fast.

The project description leaves out a lot, but here is the best way I know to have multiple monitors/annuciators on a single controller:

You might consider placing a small, cheap, low-power PC ($600-$800 max) in each location where you need an annunciator. You wouldn't even need a keyboard, unless the users have to respond. Connect these together with your controller to an Ethernet switch.

You could then write a simple HMI-type annunciator program (Visual Basic would work; other programming tools also) to reside on each PC. Your controller (could be a PLC or even another PC) could set data points that the annunciators would subsequently display as needed.

I agree this would be MUCH better than lights. PLUS... they will begin to think of new ideas on how to utilize their new tools. Could keep you in work for many months!

I aggree with Foghorn.
Just set up a PC network.
Nurse checks BP Says "Wow you should be dead"! logs values into the Computer. Computer flashes on th screen "Wow this guy should be dead!" Doctor comes in looks at BP reading on computer screen says "Wow this guy should be dead"!

VB front end runs your annunciator lights on top portion of screen all the while.
Good luck.