Suggestion. PLC with multiple touchscreen

Bzzzt · Jun 11, 2008

May sound like I'm aiming too high, but..

For a home-automation purpose. I'm looking for a common plc-type, available at ebay, with the possibility to be controlled by at least two touchscreens.
The cable lenght for the screens may be long.
Ideas?

Have slight experience with simatic software.
Have looked at omron cx-one software which seems to fooer a lot.

averellen · Jun 11, 2008

Pretty much anything that will take ethernet should do more then one HMI.
AB for sure. Never tried Omron, but don't see why not.
It will depend on the number of connections that particular processor will allow.

Stephen Luft · Jun 11, 2008

What would your cable lengths be? How long.

RS232 communication can run up to 50 feet and RS485 can run up to 4000 feet.

With regards to multiple screens on one controller there will be a couple of ways of handling this approach.

Much will depend on the screen you select.

If you select a screen that can network multiple screens then you can connect your additional screen to the other screen. One will be a master to the other being a slave. The PLC would then be a slave to the Master screen.

If the controller you select has two serial ports, you should be able to connect each screen to a separate serial port. I don't know if this will work on other PLCs but I do know that we have done this on both our Smart-PAK PLUS and Elite-2000.

What will be your I/O requirements?

killer · Jun 11, 2008

Consider a RedLion Enhanced Master Controller. You can use the virtual HMI feature on any web browser. I've got one watching my boiler, it works great.

www.redlion.net

danieluy · Jun 12, 2008

Stephen Luft said:
If you select a screen that can network multiple screens then you can connect your additional screen to the other screen. One will be a master to the other being a slave. The PLC would then be a slave to the Master screen.

hmm... for example if HMI has 2 rs485.... can it be connected in series?

PLC<->(Com1)HMI1(Com2)<->(Com1)HMI2(Com2)<->(Com1)HMI3(Com2)...etc

has anyone did this? how long is the propagation delay?

MikeGranby · Jun 12, 2008

We have a feature in the G3 that lets you connect one unit to another via Ethernet and gain access to all the tags it contains. You could connect the first HMI to the PLC, and then the second HMI to the first using our OPC driver to map across the tags. It ought to be pretty fast if you use Ethernet.

Stephen Luft · Jun 12, 2008

danieluy said:
hmm... for example if HMI has 2 rs485.... can it be connected in series?

PLC<->(Com1)HMI1(Com2)<->(Com1)HMI2(Com2)<->(Com1)HMI3(Com2)...etc

has anyone did this? how long is the propagation delay?

That will depend on the screen and the controller. I am merely speaking from our own experience. I believe with an H Series touch screen and our controller, it can be done. We haven't tried that configuration.

DanYost · Jun 13, 2008

danieluy said:
hmm... for example if HMI has 2 rs485.... can it be connected in series?

PLC<->(Com1)HMI1(Com2)<->(Com1)HMI2(Com2)<->(Com1)HMI3(Com2)...etc

has anyone did this? how long is the propagation delay?

This could be done, but the HMI would have to be a master on one port and a slave on the other.

As far as using a serial PLC, I can only think of 2 (I am sure there are more) common serial protocols that support multiple masters. They are Allen Bradley's DH485 (maybe DH+ too, but I have no experience with that) and Siemens' MPI (even though out HMIs do not support this feature).

Like averellen said, most Ethernet PLCs can handle multiple masters.

MikeG gave the suggestion that I would have. Our HMIs can communicate to the tags in each other rather easily, so even if the PLC is serial and can only support 1 master a single HMI can be connected to it, while other HMIs talk to the one that is actually connected to the PLC.

Regards,
Dan

Sparkz · Jun 13, 2008

Hi Bzzt,

Why not consider Ethernet? I recently bought a brand new Siemens S7 CPU315-2PN/DP (v2.6.0) on eBay for €650,-

And instead of HMI's, why not use a small PC with a (very affordable) touchscreen (10,4" on eBay for €187,-), running WinCC Flex Runtime? Less than 8 Runtime PC's should be no problem (better check with Jesper, just to be sure).

BTW, if you add a wireless gateway to the PLC, guess where you can leave all cables?

Hope this helps.

danieluy · Jun 13, 2008

yeah right.. its a good thing Ethernet came to the industry...

PLC<->(Com1)HMI1(Com2)<->(Com1)HMI2(Com2)<->(Com1)HMI3(Com2)...etc
yeah.. but i guess.. there will be a problem if the hmi are operated simultaneously... right?

Bzzzt · Jun 15, 2008

For home-automation, I was thinking of making this unit turn on and off lights by user control or clock. Display temperature, control PIR-detectors and so on.
Possibly make "profiles" for "home", "work", "away" and so on, making various settings.
The drawback of such an idea is the extensive amout of cables needed.
Of course there are more and more wireless actuators coming.

Working as an electrician, I'm mainly working with the exterior of a plc-machine.
So, that's why I ask which hardware is a decent move.
This, along with many other projects, will be a long-term project.
I just thought one day that using touch screens to present data, and make adjustments to things in and aroundthe house would be very handy.
Such a plc-program wouldn't be very demanding, the plc will be idle a lot of time..

danieluy · Jun 15, 2008

hmm.. cool... it its home automation then i would suggest you go for th ethernet.. although it will be more expensive than standard RS485...

but then if you think about the possiblilites...

ethernet... internet... wifi... standard cabling.. many cheap tools.. can use off the shelf routers (i might get flamed for this)... but then again...

bara_hence · Jun 16, 2008

Mitsubishi FX - PLC and Beijer E1000-series HMI..

Or something like this: http://www.horner-apg.com/html/products/XLt/default.asp

beckz · Jun 16, 2008

Aside from ethernet connection, this is also possible by using Keyence's VT3 Touch Screen feature called as the multilink. Configuration example is shown below.

Suggestion. PLC with multiple touchscreen

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