Which HMI?

I've been tasked with upgrading several of our in-house designed/built machines. We'll be fitting them with Mitsubishi FX3 PLCs (I'm confident with that, having used most of the FX series at some time) and HMI touchscreens - of which I'm not confident; I've never used HMI panels and have no idea where to start!
We've already got two similar machines bought from Taiwan, one uses a Hakko HMI, the other a Hitech. We think it might be beneficial to use one of these on our upgrades so we'd have some compatability BUT, I'm not impressed with the service/advice/support I've been getting when dealing with either of the agents for these panels (one's MMI Solutions, the other Beijer in Sweden(!)).
Because I'm starting from scratch and faced with learning new software packages I'd ideally like something easy-to-learn and interface (cheap would be nice as well); would I be better off going for say a Mitsubishi HMI?, despite its vast cost disadvantage over the Taiwanese ones, I expect they'd have a much better UK support network.
OR are there any other easy-to-use panels with good UK support that anyone could recomend?
Dave

Check pro-face. I have experience for over 12 years with it. Good screens, not very expensive, good software.

The new range of Mitsubishi's E series (read Beijers) are excellent, they are not cheap but the support will be easy to get through Mitsi distributors or direct from Mitsi, i have done lots of projects with the old E range and recently ported one to the E1101 and was very impressed

The new version of software is easy to get to grips with and the drivers allow direct addressing to Mitsi PLC's (not that others HMI's wont of course)

Well worth a look at the very least

Hmi / Mitsubishi

Dave,
I work for a machine builder in Washington, we use Mits plc's regularly. The Mitsubishi (Beijers) E1000 series interface nicely to the FX3U. You ned E Designer to program the E1000 series. I was told that the software for the Mitsubishi GOT range is much more difficult to use than E Designer.
I presume you buy through LC Automation, they could arrange a demo, if not Mitsubishi should be able to.
I have found the E1000 easy to use as the software is just a development of the version used to program the old MAC and E100 to E900 range (also by Beijers, badged as Mits). The software does have its quirks but generally it is fine. To can create macro's to run from a keypress, setup recipies,they have an alarm page ready to use, you can setup passwords and protect pages quite easily.
If you are using GX IEC developer, you can export namelists and import directly to E Designer. I am not sure about GX Dev. though.
I can't comment on others as i have only used the ones mentioned above.
Tech support from LC Auto is usually pretty good.
If you have any other questions i'm happy to help.

tragically1969 said:

The new range of Mitsubishi's E series (read Beijers) are excellent

Click to expand...

Ten years ago I spent a few months working for Mitsubishi Electric. The help desk guys always recommended E-series before anything else. I have been using them ever since and have no compaints. The HMIs are reliable and the software is easy to use. The smaller one have their limitations, especially the E50 which is write-only (you can't extract the program you have downloaded). Pick one which supports transparent mode so you can program the PLC through it and you'll be fine. You can even extract a certain ammount of process data from the more well-featured versions using a package called HMI tools.

I havent used the Mitsi HMIs so cannot comment on them or there pricing or software, but you may want to take a look at the redlion G3 series.

The Software is free along with firmware updates and the tech support is excellent. I cannot fault the product or pricing compared to siemens and ab here in the uk.

I have used a G303 and G308 on 485 and 232 talking to FX2N's without any problems.

The tech support redlion offer on email has astounded me, many other manufacturers could learn a lot from them.

Mitsubishi also offers their own line of HMI, the GOT. GOT1000 screens are available in all kinds of types and sizes, from 3.8" up to 15". Some are incredibly cheap. When I have priced them against a comparable size E1000, the GOT is always cheaper. In the old 800 and 900 series GOT, there were some features lacking. But the GOT1000 line offers a greal selection of features, including multi-vendor drivers on the GT15 series.

I admit the GOT's are good but the original software has got to be some of the most unfriendly out there, even the Mitsubishi UK guys admit to it being pretty poor

The new version has gone a long way to improving it but it still has its major flaws and long winded ways round what is esentially an easy task in E-Designer (alarm handling and scaling to mention a few)

I use Nais HMI with FX PLC . Take a look at Panasonic HMI (former Nais). http://www.mew.co.jp/ac/e/fasys/hmi/ They are not expensive(GT11 around 500$) and I never had a problem with these HMI .