Panelviews

Hello everyone. I have a question concerning AB Panelviews. On a machine I have a SLC 50/4 with a 10" Panelview connected via DH+. What I would like to do is put another Panelview on the other end of the machine but it will have to be a smaller one, probably 9". So my question is can I just copy the screens from the 10" Panelview and load them into the 9" one, adjusting for the smaller screen size of course? This Panelview is reading and writing registers from the SLC, will I have to do any additional programming in the SLC or will the two Panelviews act as parallel buttons with changes on one screen automatically displayed on the other? They gave me some old Mapleview and told me to interface it to the SLC but I'd rather go with another Panelview, cost is a factor of course.

G'day Tom,

What model Panelview are you using & software?? Going from a 1400e to something like a 600 will require a different software package.. and a complete new program.
Changing from a 550 to a 600 is easier as they both use the same software.
I've found that the Panelviews tend to write to registers once only, so the last value written will be the valid value - minimal programming changes (if any) will be required at the slc.

I'll second what Ian said about the PV families; if your existing unit is a "1000e" Enhanced terminal then you will have to re-write the whole application in PanelBuilder32. If it's a standard PV1000, then the conversion is simple as pie.

I'll add a couple of things to be aware of:

1. Unless you already have one, don't try to buy a 9" PanelView terminal. A-B obsoleted the monochrome ones three years ago, and they're going to stop making the 900C soon because 9" LCD screens are getting hard to find. The cutout really isn't that much smaller; I'd go with a PV600 if you need a smaller footprint.

2. There's a selection in PanelBuilder comms setup which is a checkbox for "write to controller on startup". You will have to be very careful about which terminal is writing values to the SLC from data entry objects. There's another selection that lets you choose between using the last user entry or the original downloaded values on some data entry objects. Take some time to figure out the intent of the original terminal programmer with data entries.

good luck !

Thanks for the information guys, I appreciate it. What I have is a PV1000 color screen, touch only and the screens were developed with PanelBuilder32. It is setup for the last user entry to be used on power up. The screens are used basically for the operator to input how many parts to produce, how many have been produced and what, if any, faults occur. I tried talking them into another identical PanelView but that's not going to happen. So if I could convince them to purchase a PV600 would I be able to copy the screens from the PV1000 and simply adjust the size of the screen objects to fit the smaller srcreen size? What if the PV600 is monochrome, will that make any difference in the programming? And last but not least is there any chance that what is displayed on one screen will be different from what is displayed on the other?

would I be able to copy the screens from the PV1000 and simply adjust the size of the screen objects to fit the smaller srcreen size?

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Well, The PV1000 is full VGA or 640x480 pixels while the PV600 is 1/4 VGA or 320 x 240 (or close to that... ). If all the graphics on the screens on the PV1000 are contained in one corner of the display then no problem... but that's not going to be the case . I just did a test copy from a PV1000 to a PV600 and it 'tried' to shrink the objects but it stacked them all on top of one another and most things with inner text had to be resized so the full text was visible. Plain and simple, the PV1000 has 4 times the real estate as the PV600!

Then there is the fact that the PV1000 has 16 function keys and the PV600 only has 10 function keys. If any one screen used more than 10 F-keys then it will have to be done differently on the PV600. In the test, function keys 1-10 mapped OK but higher numbers all mapped to the first free key (and will give an error when the app. is validated unless a specific key is picked...but then you run out after 10 utoh.

Basically, you will have to manually massage every single item on each and every screen. You will have to split screens with more than 10 f-keys into two screens or do the input another way.

... from your first post...

cost is a factor of course.

Click to expand...

You/they need to consider the cost of your time to massage the existing app. into something readable/usable on the smaller or other brand screen. Also there is the not insignificant issue of confusing the operator into making erroneous input if the systems are not identical.... So many times we spend a dollar to save a dime ;-)

I guess if you have only a couple screens with not much info on them it shouldn't be that bad. If you have many screens (...more than 10 maybe...) with some jammed with info I think it would be cheaper to buy the PV1000.
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Hope this helps