Panasonic Hmi-plc

Anyone have experience with the Panasonic FPX and/or GP11 HMI??

Yes. I have experience with FPX, FPSigma, and GT30. What do you want to know?

PaulB.

If you mean GT11 then I have longtime and good experience with them.
What would you like to know?

I am retro-fitting a manual punch press. I would like to add an automatic in-feed to the system. I am an advanced A/B programmer and have never used any of the panasonic automation equipment. Typically I have the ability to choose my own products but the customer would like to furnish the materials.To make a long story short... I need to use a panasonic FPX 14 I/O w/ transistor outs to create a pulse output to an "animatics smart motor" (Servo). The touchscreen will be used as an interface to enter "cut length" and "cut quantity". The system is very basic. I will use RS232 for comms to the touchscreen/plc and pulse output/input to the servo. The problem is that I have absolutely no experience with this equipment and my turn around time has to be farily quick ounce a start this project. I have read some sample code and most of what I have seen is in function block format. My biggest questions are: interfacing with the HMI to the PLC data tables/registers and getting the pulse output functions working properly. I have tries to contact Panasonic about the situation for tech support and I wasnt pleased with the service. I am just looking for someone with some experience basically get me started on the right foot. I am a programmer.. just no experience with this equipment. any advice/help/sample code would help! Thanks Guys!

If you are familiar with AB Panelview 550 monochrome touchscreen only display, then GT11 is something very close to it.
Major differences in GT11 are:
- Possibility to configure project for vertical (portrait) orientation of the screen.
- 3 selectable colors of backlit, flashing backlit and backlit off may be controlled from PLC.
- Embedded buzzer controllable from PLC (not loud enough for industrial shop though).
- Possibility to choose between keyboard screen or popup keyboard in the current screen.
- There is no separate Tag Editor. Double-click any object and all the PLC reference and format setup is right there.
- There are no global objects. Any object may be duplicated as many times as necessary in the same or other screens.
- There is no screen password protection, but any screen object including screen selection button may be set subject to certain condition.
- Better than in PV choice of screen fonts and their size.
- Graphics may be used equally with text in multistate message object states.
- Partial up/download by screens is possible.
- Many brands of PLC are supported, some of them with limited access only to bits and data registers.
- Transparent for PC communication with Aromat/NAIS/Panasonic PLC.
- After you buy the software you may upgrade it from their website for free.

You would need to have appropriate software for programming of HMI (GTWIN) and PLC (FPWINpro, and to get yourself familiar with programming manuals. Manuals are available at the Panasonic web site.
To program pulse output you would use High Speed Counter Special instructions F171_SPDH and F172_PLSH. They are described fairly well in the manual and help file. Also examples are seems written for your application.
I have used pulse output some what differently. I had to trigger strobe light proportionally to the line speed of the machine. I have calculated speed of the machine in terms of frequency and pass this number to F172_PLSH instruction. It provided pulse train output with frequency proportional to the speed of the machine.
Read manual/help file about what info you need to provide to these instructions in order for them generate required pulse output.

PaulB.

Thank You

Hey guys I really appreciate all teh info. I had added both of you to my buddy list for future reference in case I get stuck. It seems as though you are both familiar with the products which is good for me. Thank you both for your time and knowledge.

Best Regards,
Travis

Anyone can help me with "background" info about Panasonic GT32?