12 HMI's to a single printer.

Hi guys/gals, at my work location we have 12 steam/ gas cook ovens, all the ovens are identical and each oven has its own controller, HMI and printer.
The controllers are all Micrologix 1500, the HMI’s are HMI500 from Maple Systems. Since the HMI500 line of HMI has been discontinued about two years ago we are upgrading to HMI5000 (HMI 5100N). The new HMI does not support the current HP printers we have, so instead of purchasing a 12 new printers I just wanted to use one for all 12 ovens. Does anyone know of an adapter/bridge the can handle 12 HMI stations?
Thanks.

You might have to get a Printer Server computer to serve as a buffer between 12 HMIs and one printer. The Print Server will save printer outputs from each HMI until that HMIs turn to print. Otherwise some printer outputs could be missed.

If there is not much printer traffic, and if the new printer has Ethernet connectivity, you might get by with an Ehternet hub, feeding 12 inputs in and taking one output to the new printer.

The simplest and least expensive approach would be new USB printers, for which the HMI5100N / MMI6100 support. Data sheets are provided through the link below.

Other scenarios could include either an Ethernet connection to a managed Ethernet Switch or a wireless connection.

In scenario one, you would require the HMI5100T, which is the same as the MMI8100, that we offer. This version provides an Ethernet port. This would then interface to a managed ethernet switch, such as a 16 port switch, which would then interface back to a host PC with your attached printer.

The same thing could be possible using a wireless connection through the serial port, thus allowing you to use the "N" version. Depending on where your screens are located in relation to your host PC, you will likely require a wireless access point for this wireless network.

Links for the above hardware items are listed below:

http://www.eternity-sales.com/KEP/MMI8000.htm
http://www.eternity-sales.com/WirefreeCNC/hardware.htm
http://www.eternity-sales.com/Westermo/mdi100_managed_ethernet_switches.html

If you have any questions, feel free to post or email. Links are provided in signature.

Shalom and God Bless,

Adam,

The challenge you will have is going from EB500 to EB8000. There is a conversion utility in the EB8000 software that is there to convert programs from the EB500 series to the EB8000 series.

My only experience with the conversion utility, revolved around an Entertron controller and conversion of an MMI730 program (HMI500 series from Maple) to the EB8000 format.

It ended up that the program would have to be rewritten. I believe much will depend on the complexity of your program.

Regarding the difference between EZWare and EB8000, they are the same programming packages, but for different resellers. You can download the EB8000 sofware through this link:

http://www.eternity-sales.com/KEP/MMI8000.htm

It is the same software offered by Maple for their HMI5000 units. You can compare yourself. The only difference is the price. The EB8000 software is available, free of charge.

My suggestion, download the software and work with the conversion utility to see if it works for you. I would then try it in the software simulator to see if there are any issues.

If you have any additional questions, feel free to ask.

Shalom and God Bless,