has anyone used the proface gp4000 series

a salesman came by and I was intrigued by the modular design and also the price. I have experience with the older quickpanel/totalcontral/pro-face line, but not any of the newer proface stuff. Is the GP Pro software worth a ****?

The GP-PROEX isn't bad very Oriental based. Similar to omron and Mitsubishi. I have done a few systems with them not bad.

diat150 said:

Is the GP Pro software worth a ****?

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Every little bit of it. I don't want to start a culture war here but I think GP-Pro EX software is on par with any major player in the field. And I don't think there are many brands out there that can beat G3000/4000 series slim form factor. And not many other brands can boast such large range of supported PLCs and other devices to communicate with.

If you are currently at QuickPanel/Total Control stage, go for Pro-face and never look back. There will be some quirks and thing to learn but in the end you will appreciate it.

LadderLogic said:

Every little bit of it. I don't want to start a culture war here but I think GP-Pro EX software is on par with any major player in the field. And I don't think there are many brands out there that can beat G3000/4000 series slim form factor. And not many other brands can boast such large range of supported PLCs and other devices to communicate with.

If you are currently at QuickPanel/Total Control stage, go for Pro-face and never look back. There will be some quirks and thing to learn but in the end you will appreciate it.

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does the proface support internal tags? like if I wanted to store changeable text in the panel instead of in the plc? I should have asked the salesman yesterday but I was really busy when he came by.

Yes it does tags. I did a few multistate text alarms. It worked out well. The memory layout us a little odd coming from an AB &redlion background.
They have good support guys. There are at least 2 that I can think of. Al and Felix. There is also a technical sales guy that covers my area named Aaron. He spent an hour or better doing a web training class with me. He went over the some of the oddities that new users get hung up on.

I would also look at the RedLion G3 series HMI.
I have 2 goto HMIs 1st Redlion & 2nd Proface. If I need to do I/O control I use Proface. They have ladder logic and structure text (they call it Scripting).

diat150 said:

does the proface support internal tags? like if I wanted to store changeable text in the panel instead of in the plc? I should have asked the salesman yesterday but I was really busy when he came by.

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Yes, it allows that as well as some scripting, although I have to admit its scripting capabilities are much weaker than, for example, Red Lion's.

LL I remember thinking it was cryptic compared to other scripting.

JeffKiper said:

LL I remember thinking it was cryptic compared to other scripting.

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I have to admit: I just don't use any scripting features So if scripting is a must, this may not be the choice.

However, the units have bright crisp graphics and the comm. drivers seem to be much faster than Red Lion's. Tough choice.

I really dont have any need(so far) for scripting in a operator interface

diat150 said:

I really dont have any need(so far) for scripting in a operator interface

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Have you ever needed to bridge data between 2 different protocols? Modbus TCP and Ethernet I/P. In the Proface I had use scripting to say 41006 was equal to Tag_xx. It wasn't that bad until I got to anything over an integer. Then you had to do some weird scripting.

If you get into doing any kind of protocol conversions you will have to use scripting as well. Old school ASCII devices that only talked to their own software. Now you have to integrate them into an existing system or a new system. We have all seen how ugly ASCII can be in ladder logic. (No disrespect intended LadderLogic).I have seen guys spend days trying to get some ASCII to talk over the serial port of a PLC and 1 small bug takes the system down. If you ever have to go back and troubleshoot this system you will more than likely hate yourself for doing it in LL.

JeffKiper said:

Yes it does tags. I did a few multistate text alarms. It worked out well. The memory layout us a little odd coming from an AB &redlion background.

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Sorry for Reviving an old thread, but i need to do something like this, i just started a thread here: http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?t=106015

GP Pro is very good software and for your variable question you can create variables with any name you want