General ? on 550 PanelView

When the numeric entry key pad is displayed can you mask the numbers that are displayed??

No, not the standard numeric entry object.

If you really needed it badly, you could use an ascii entry object, which does have the masking option, and then convert the value in the PLC.

----ascii entry object----
Never used that so I don't have a clue???

I don't know how the ASCII keyboard looks and works on a 550, but if you use an ASCII entry object, it is just a way for the operator to use all the characters in the alphabet to enter text (like a password), including numbers and symbols. There should be some sort of pop-up keypad or possible way to use the arrow keys on non-touchscreen units to select characters to enter in the field, but I have only used these objects with larger panelviews.

This object can be masked with a simple checkbox at design time.

The Panelview then moves that data through the PV tag into a string file address in the PLC, for example, ST25:0

This string file type in the SLC, can contain up to 256 (ST25:0 through ST25:255)character arrays which can each be up to 82 characters long.

So in the PLC instaed of using EQU to check for a matching number (password entry), you use the ASR instruction in the SLC (String Compare).

The Panelview tag will need to be formatted as ST25:0.1 (since the first two bytes of the String element are its length) and the type as Character Array, with the Array Size set to the number of characters.

There is a little more to this than comparing simple integers but not much really.

I do appreciate that info......Thanks Terry