PV+ vs PV+CE

We are looking into getting our PV+ with conformal coating. We found that those with conformal coating and the CE (open windows CE OS) are less expensive than the normal PV+ with conformal coating.

Are there any drawbacks to having the Panelview Plus CE instead of the normal PV+?

Thanks in advance,
Paul

Paul

All i buy here is pv+ CE because with the open ce i can use vnc to control and view the panel remotly and i have fixed a few problems from home vs coming in and got paid the same amount of time. You also have the autocad,pdf and a few other viewers that you can use. I don't know of any drawbacks.

Why do you use the conformal coating? do you see it make your equipment last longer? What is your enviroment?

We use a couple hundred thousand gallons of water every night to wash down all of our meat processing equipment...Then we spray everything with bleach among other sanitizing chemicals, and rinse it off...

So, we get a lot of wet panels, condensation, and corrosion.

The higher ups have been asking what we can do to help with the life expectancy. They already "bag" most panels, but sometimes that just makes it worse.

I could not think of any drawbacks either, but I am still a novice with the PV+, so I wanted to get some input.

Thanks for the feedback. I hadn't thought about using VNC...we already do that to access our desktops and PC based HMI systems. It would certainly be helpful to access the panelviews as well.

Hoffman i thought made something like this http://cache.automation.siemens.com/dnl/DQ0Njg5OQAA_12391908_FAQ/installation_e.pdf that helps but i can't seem to find the number in my records.

Bakery i worked weekend shift for had the same issues and i put all the hmi on pendant mounts and had quick disconnect type knuckles made of 316 stainless at the local machine shop and the hmi panels could be removed easily and placed in a dry location. Ethernet cables had to be replaced but it was cheaper and easier than the panelview because the ethernet port was on the bottom of the cabinet so that helped shed water and it was an ip67 connector.

Worked like a charm though as all wiring on our panels came in the bottom to combat water entrance.

Sanitation gets carried away with those high psi hoses sometimes don't they.

Hi Okie
I can relate to the problem with moisture,condensation and chemicals just as any one elese who works for a meat processing plant, where wash down is an everyday thing, and start up is a every day problem. Mostly just as you do we bag all our HMI(pv,pv+). Its almost the only thing we can do to prevent water damage,unless you remove them from the room like The Plc Kid did. We also place sislica bags inside the HMI enclosure and change them out every so often, it helps out a lot. So far so good, we havent had to change an Hmi in about four years now.Also a good sanitation manager will make all the differance in the world not only with Hmi's being soked.

We do seal them as good as we can, and use desiccant packets inside the panels. Most of them are in places where they can't be made removable though, and that would be another nightmare at this plant...

What we really need is an IP69k touchscreen, but none exist that I could find, except for a few custom ones that are used on our metal detectors.

We have a pretty sharp guy managing the sanitation crew right now, but he is likely to get promoted...and the hose monkeys are not easily trained and have a high turnover rate...

At my previous job in the tire industry, we used conformal coated PanelMates with great success resisting dust, so I thought it would be worth trying here to battle the corrosive atmosphere and moisture. Plus, since most of our HMIs are Panelview Plus and Standard, the migration would be less painful to stick with a/b products.

We are also considering Red Lion, but I had some problems with C3 (I bricked a G303K)...so that did not help the likelihood that we'd go that route, and I have no evidence they'd survive any better than the rockwell stuff...

> We are also considering Red Lion, but I had some problems with
> C3 (I bricked a G303K)...so that did not help the likelihood
> that we'd go that route,

Yeah, sorry about that. The boot loader upgrade process is always a little bit vulnerable, as the unit is without any code at all for part of the conversion, and if something goes wrong, you're hosed. It's only ever done when upgrading an old unit from the C2 boot loader to the C3 one, though, so don't let it reflect on the stability of the rest of the product range and/or the C3 code-base. Re conformal coatings, I'll find out what the hardware guys have to say when I get back in on Monday. I know we've done it before for some customers, but not sure about on which products.