Quickpanel Jr. screen brightness

The brightness/contrast on my Quickpanel Jr. (3" mono screen) has suddenly decided to act up and the panel is very hard to see. Works fine, but I'm concerned I will lose the ability to read it soon. Any thoughts? Separately, I've also run into the programming switch turned off and no way to retrieve the original program. What is involved with rebuilding it based on the machine actions?

I can't help with the second part, but as far as contrast goes, try pressing the top two corners of the screen for a second and releasing. If it's like 5" Quickpanel Jrs, you'll see a grid at the bottom of the screen with different contrast levels. Pick one until the screen is more readable, then touch elsewhere on the screen to save the new contrast setting.

If this doesn't help it could need a new backlight.

I'll try it later tonight. Thanks for the input, I've got my fingers crossed!

The touchscreen is back among the living! Thanks for the help. Now I just need to figure out how to build the pesky backup file from scratch. The touchscreen is the user interface for a spinach packing machine that utilizes approx. 30-36 air cylinders, 7 hydraulic cylinders (2 hyd. pumps) a couple of prox. sensors and 4 conveyor motors. The brains of the thing is Allen Bradley, the user interface has approx. 12 screens, with 2-6 buttons per screen. How difficult is it to reverse engineer the touchscreen if I have a printed layout of the allen Bradley (Rockwell) program?

Is there any way to contact the original manufacturer of the machinery and get a copy of the program sent to you? Maybe they will be nice.

Reverse engineering of the program is not difficult but very time consuming especially if your not familiar with the software.

What is version of the Quickpanel? I believe if there is a ON/OFF switch on the back, there is no way to retreive the program, it is too old. I did that going from the old Smartscreen to a quickpanel, but as was already mentioned a very time consuming process. I did it because the smartscreens were obsolete, not because I didn't have the file.

George

In response to both Vetruss and George- I've had a Quickpanel rep look at the machine and know for certain the program can not be downloaded (due to the settings when it was originally programmed). So, without a magical device that can attach to the Quickpanel and pick up on all the programming data while it's in use, I suspect I'm back to determining how to do it manually. (I'm actually educating myself on how it is done, I don't how the software or the experience to do it myself.)

How does one recreate the program? Once plugged into the Allen Bradley processor, can you pick up the signals coming from the Quickanel? I'm assuming all the real work is done by the Allen Bradley processor and the ladder proram, and the Quickpanel is just an interface. How complex is the programming that goes into the Quickpanel?

My thanks to the people on this site- it is very informative and I appreciate all the feedback. It seems I'm not alone in facing this problem with the Quickpanel. I've used the machine for ten years and never had a problem with the exception of a few "system error" crashes but there will come a time when it stops working for me or for someone else.

I agree with vetruss that you should make the effort to contact the original supplier of the machine and see if they will provide a copy of the Quickpanel program or a replacement Quickpanel with program installed. Even if you don't choose to go that way, you will know what the cost is for comparison to reverse engineering it.

However, if the supplier is no longer in business or can't help you then these are the basic steps I would take:

If the program printout you have is really well documented it may provide you with the information you need. What you are looking for is the PLC addresses of every pushbutton or indicator used on the Quickpanel.

I'm betting though that you will need to be able to go on-line with the PLC and verify some of this information by pressing each button and checking the proper address in the PLC. You can check the indicators by doing the reverse. Put a value in the PLC address and verify the indication on the Quickpanel. I'd do all this checking with the machine locked out and the PLC in program mode. How easy all this is will be directly related to how well documented the program is.

Once you have this data, you create new screens for your new Quickpanel and assign the proper PLC addresses to each pushbutton and indicator. Connect up your new Quickpanel and test it the same way you verified the original. When your new panel acts just like the old one, you're done.

Good luck,

The fabricator of the machine closed up shop about 6 months after our machine was made. I still keep in touch with the programmer of the QP and Allen Bradley but he was not allowed/able to keep copies of these programs when he left shortly before they went out. The documentation and backup on the Allen Bradley came with the machine, but apparently the copy of the backup for the touchscreen vanished during the company shutdown.

So- off to find someone to sit down and do some programming...

Brennan,

Don't have much time to chat, have to go on a service call. But anyway, I had a customer not to long ago that had a Quick Panel that we had programmed. He needed a replacement, problem was they didn't make that panel anymore. I bought a touch panel that was supposed to be a replacement. What a programming nightmare. I won't say what type of panel, but was not happy at all.

Anyway, I sent that panel back and bought a PanelView from AB. I built the program and downloaded it one day. Easy as that, but the customer had to open the hole up a little bit in the enclosure as it was a bit bigger than the quick panel.

Point is I guess, is to keep your options open.