Punched In Touch Screen

My plant has recently acquired some new machinery with Siemens control equipment.
Today one of our operators felt the need to punch out and destroy our Siemens touch screen HMI.
The HMI is Siemens Panel TP270 Part #6AV-0CA10-0AX0
I have a new panel on order for early AM delivery but am completely unfamiliar with the more technical issue of getting the interface program installed and running.
The unit has what appears to be a flash memory card mounted in a slot on the upper right side looking from the back.
Can I simple place the flash memory card in the new display?
Could the program reside on the inertial memory and the flash card used for some thing else?
Do I need software to effect this change?
The current broken display is stilled powered and the background graphic (an alarm window in this case) is still active waiting on interaction from the broken touch screen...

Thanks For the help

Michael

The flash card can be used just to archive alarms, but more than likely its got the program in it too.

The only other things that you will have to make sure is that the dipswitches on the back of the new unit are set the same as the old unit (they configure the 1F1B port) and that the new unit has the same communications settings. These can be found in the Windows CE control panel.

Can you get the Windows CE Control panel displayed on the old unit? There's usually some sort of Exit or Exit RT button on one of the screens that will close the HMI applcation and display a box that gives access to the control panel. Look for the S7 Transfer settings icon and see 1) what node address is for the panel, 2) what protocol (MPI, or Profibus) 3) Network speed. Make sure to set these in the new panel, set the dipswitches, install the card and turn it on. (I may be missing a step, I haven't used the flash cards much for programs and can't remember if there is a setting on the panel to reload from the card or not).

mrdegold said:

Today one of our operators felt the need to punch out and destroy our Siemens touch screen HMI.

Click to expand...

Wait, like with his FIST? The guy just lost his temper and got into a fistfight with a touch panel? This actually happens in real life?

Really? Do you have a photo? Did he break his hand?

I've just never heard of such a thing and I'd like to know what sort of safeguards I may have to put into my new control panels.

This has happened on my plant in the past too. Although on our plant "nobody did it".
Must have done itself. Hmm.

Thanks for the help

I spoke to Siemens support and the gentleman I spoke to was as fantastically helpful.
He told me I could connect a USB mouse to the unit and bypass the touch screen. Although I could not clear the machine alarms He walk me through a procedure for creating a backup that defaults to the flash memory. I am expecting to simple restore the backup on the new display.

I will e-mail support in the morning and ask about the need to set up the S7 Transfer settings in the control panel or if they will download with the restore of the backup.

It is also amazing that nobody seem to be the one to punch out the HMI in my plant either. No one has a broken hand or any injury that would prove guilt.

I do have pictures of the broken display and will post a couple in the morning.

Thanks for the quick replies and all the help

Michael

Gazzr said:

This has happened on my plant in the past too. Although on our plant "nobody did it".
Must have done itself. Hmm.

Click to expand...

We have had 2 touch screens in the past 8 years that were punched. One we know who did it (big strong hands he had) and he got at least 3 days off and probably on probation for a long time. Cheap punishment for a $5k screen. That was the first one. The most recent was a "oh, my look at that" at shift start. No one tried to find out what happened.

So here it is, the moment when I really start to miss RSDoran.

He would have howled with laughter at this.

One plant I service had to replace 2 or 3 touchscreens per year out of 12. I was curious about it because I had 50 installed and NEVER had to replace one. $2K a piece.

They where trying to find which guy was damaging the screens with a screwdriver.

So one night I was there and the night supervisor walks by and stops at a screen. He was taking readings for the daily production charts.

He was of course writing down the data with a pen ... and using it to switch screens ...

Now, I never sold one to them in 5 years

MASEngr said:

Wait, like with his FIST? The guy just lost his temper and got into a fistfight with a touch panel? This actually happens in real life?

Really? Do you have a photo? Did he break his hand?

I've just never heard of such a thing and I'd like to know what sort of safeguards I may have to put into my new control panels.

Click to expand...

I've seen guys use screw drivers, pens, sharp metal objcets and gorilla sized knuckles on touch screens. I think its time for touch screens to employ the same reactive type techonolgy tanks use. If a threat tries to penetrate the surface, a reactive explosive in the opposite direction is enagaged. That way the guy guilty of smashing the touch screen is probably missing a few fingers and easily identified.

I get asked a few times a year of the PV+ can be made with plastic or "unbreakable glass". The manufacturing realities of TFT screens make tempered glass the only practical material for touchscreens.

As I understand them, the US OSHA safety rules for glass touchscreens just require that the glass be retained inside a membrane if shattered. A co-worker's 2-year-old just dropped his iPhone, and that's exactly what it did. I've seen the same on PV+ terminals that met the concrete floor with enthusiasm (though never punched).

I needed to instal a PanelView + in an area where corrosion could occur, so I placed the PV in a sealed panel, with a hinged clear poly carbonate lid, and provided a USB optical mouse as a sacrificial item.

The way the touch screen PV remained looking like new, and have not yet needed to replace the USB mouse, I would always install them this way again, the resolution of mouse movement is far superior to using finger touch.

It also gives them a mouse to smash instead of a PV.

There should be a plastic overlay for the Siemens touchscreens. This to make them more resistant to "heavy use". It doesnt make them invulnerable of course. And the overlay may be slightly irritating.
Dont know the part number.

MASEngr said:

Wait, like with his FIST? The guy just lost his temper and got into a fistfight with a touch panel? This actually happens in real life?

Really? Do you have a photo? Did he break his hand?

I've just never heard of such a thing and I'd like to know what sort of safeguards I may have to put into my new control panels.

Click to expand...

I have put a brand new Panelview 1400e in at a plant on a Friday to be phoned on a Monday to be told it doesn't work anymore, when i arrived on site the keypad had been stabbed several times with a knife causing some F buttons (that were used in the app) to fail!!

Pictures as promised

I took these pictures before calling support yesterday.
Thanks again for the help. I am the only "controls guy" in my plant and it's great to have a place to turn for help now and then.
Michael

504bloke said:

I have put a brand new Panelview 1400e in at a plant on a Friday to be phoned on a Monday to be told it doesn't work anymore, when i arrived on site the keypad had been stabbed several times with a knife causing some F buttons (that were used in the app) to fail!!

Click to expand...

Yep i had exactly the same problem installed a HMI (siemems i think) just to have the screen stabbed/slashed within a week! Wonder what goes through some peoples heads at times!

Lee