TwinCAT 3 Visualization without mouse/keyboard.

Hi everyone,

I'm working on a pretty simple HMI that amounts to a menu, with a few different sub-directory pages that give the user access to some settable parameters.

The display was originally supposed to incorporate a touchscreen, but at the last minute, it was decided that the expected users wouldn't vibe with that approach.

Thus far, I have a TwinCAT visualization that works halfway decently, but I need to find an easy way to change from mouse/keyboard control, to a sort of a "tab through, then button press to emulate a click" approach. TwinCAT seems to completely default to mouse and keyboard functionality though. Is there a simple way to add this functionality?

I believe I can think of a way to possibly do it, but it seems utterly disgusting at the moment.

Here's the approach I was thinking, but would prefer not to implement.

Set an encoder to control which item on the menu is selected, by hooking it up to an array where the index of the cells correspond to a variable controlling the proper menu item.
This would require implementing colored "boxes" that appear and disappear based on which cell in the array is selected in order to show the user what they have selected, and would be "clicked" if the button gets pushed. This would require having a variable for each item, that gets set and unset as the array is scrolled through.

My only issue with this, is I still don't know how to make a button press replace a mouse click in the visualization, but I imagine there's a way to hack it together somewhere I haven't found yet.

If anyone can think of a simpler solution that is hidden in a menu somewhere or just a simpler solution AT ALL, please let me know.

Thanks in advance.

Hi

I do not know if you consider HTML5 technology simple.

https://github.com/tomcx/tame4

I am using this library to make some pretty simple and pretty advanced things with standard HTML and Javascript.

The benefit is that the server is already running for the Beckhoff controllers and pretty simple to setup IIS on windows.

I contributed with the SVG example seen here.

https://github.com/tomcx/tame4/blob/master/examples/tamex/svg/Beckhoff_Car_SVG.gif

I really like this approach as it can be used on a touch screen HMI only running a browser or a browser from any other computer.

It might not be what you are interested in but it gives you some food for thought.

Thanks, I'll have to look into this as a possible option. This current implementation is sort of a quick fix for a project I'm working on right. HTML5 has the potential for me to use on the long term implementation.

I'm still hoping that there is a way to emulate clicks in the Beckhoff software though

I think it is also important to note that I am using a Beckhoff C6015-0010 That runs Windows CE 7. I know this limits some of the alternate options. I am still very interested in alternate options though, but have had a tough time knowing "what works".