Useful HMI buttons...

Greetings everyone,

We recently received an OEM piece of equipment which uses a touchscreen interface. The programmer of the touchscreen incorporated a button I have never seen; I thought it was creative. The button is labeled "clean screen", on the main menu. When you press the "clean screen" button the screen blanks for 30 seconds and deactivates all touch inputs, thus allowing someone to physically clean the screen. It's a simple idea, I'd never seen it before and I thought it was creative AND useful.

Another one of our OEM's is very diligent about having very elaborate help menus on each screen. This is nice. The problem is that when others start making programming changes to the HMI, the help screens are often not updated, which I'm sure is a common problem.

I'd like to hear from others who have come up with creative AND useful HMI graphcis, functions, or actions which aren't common.

Greg

I have just added it to one of my projects - Excellent Idea!

Ya, I thought so too. It is so simple, yet I had never thought of it nor had I ever seen it.


Greg

We'll occasionally add a 'Help' screen with an embedded media player. We'll use desktop capture (ie. SnagIt or equiv.) to create short movies depicting how to complete common tasks within the HMI.

For example, some machines have different config requirements for different parts of the sequence - (set this to 'auto', set that to 'manual', choose a recipe and then engage widget X, etc).

The idea is really just to provide a quick reference for new operators or even experienced operators just back from 4 weeks at the beach!


-Trevor

The Cutler-Hammer PanelMate HMIs have had the screen cleaning feature for years. The operator just needs to know how to get to the administrative menu to lock the panel. Once it is locked there are prompts to touch four areas in the proper order to unlock it again.

The HMI from Siemens already have that function for many years. When you start a new project based on a standard application for that HMI model they already include the "Clear Screen" button, "Adjust Time" button "Sound" volume button, "Brightness" button etc.

I incorporate a screen that has a picture of the equipment showing valves, switches, sensors, etc. The operator can touch any component and a description of the part as well as a part number will be displayed. Just saves time looking for the manual.