GE Proficy, Dual HMI screens

Hi all, I'm not sure if anyone has seen/done this but I figured this is the best place to ask.

I am programming two different systems (let's call them A and B). A has one HMI screen and B has two HMI screens. The functionality of the second HMI screen of B is to mainly show an overview of system A and system B. Therefore, it will have pages of each panel inside of the HMI.

Now, I will have these systems tied together via Ethernet and I already have the pages programmed into the HMI (not in the field, just on my PC). I read that I need to have shared variables to make this work, which makes since, and I have that done as well.

My main question is...what am I missing? This seems too easy for it to work the way it's described.


GE Rx3i
CPU - IC695CPU315
HMI - IC754VxI12Cxx

Thanks in advance!

From previous experience with two HMIs using shared tags from the same PLC, it works great. Whichever HMI gives the last command wins the game. If #1 gives a START, but #2 gives a STOP a couple miliseconds later, the machine will stop.

I am sharing tags from two different PLCs. A and B. The "extra" HMI is coming out of panel B and will operate as you describe. However, it also needs to be able to see what is going on in panel A. I'm not letting it control panel A it'll be just a reference for that panel. The tags that are currently being shared are the ones from panel A. Make since?

Your second HMI is going to have to have two PLC access drivers, one for each PLC. When you want to display a tag value from PLC A you'll use the access driver for PLC A. When you display a value from PLC B use the access driver for PLC B. The only difference between the two PLC access drivers will be their names and the IP addresses of the PLC they are communicating with.

monkey082506 said:

I'm not letting it control panel A it'll be just a reference for that panel.

Click to expand...

Actually, the same is true for panel B, no? Since everything is connected to the same network, the 'overview' HMI isn't really 'connected' to panel B, it will be talking to both PLCs directly.

Steve's answer is the way to go... :nodi:



-Eric

Steve Bailey said:

Your second HMI is going to have to have two PLC access drivers, one for each PLC. When you want to display a tag value from PLC A you'll use the access driver for PLC A. When you display a value from PLC B use the access driver for PLC B. The only difference between the two PLC access drivers will be their names and the IP addresses of the PLC they are communicating with.

Click to expand...

I knew there had to be something I was missing! I just found the PLC access drivers and I'm going to look into setting that up now. I'm not exactly sure when I'll be able to test this but I will update if I have anymore issues. Thanks for the help Steve.

Eric Nelson said:

Actually, the same is true for panel B, no? Since everything is connected to the same network, the 'overview' HMI isn't really 'connected' to panel B, it will be talking to both PLCs directly.

Steve's answer is the way to go... :nodi:



-Eric

Click to expand...

Yes and no. The placement of this HMI will be in position to effectively control panel B (if need be) and it does have one certain button that will only be placed on this screen for panel B. Basically, the operators will be able to do all functions from this HMI for panel B if required but no control for panel A.

Thanks again.

I highly recommend using either the Native > GE SRTP Driver or better yet use the OPC GE Ethernet Driver, for the PAC stay away from the Native GE TCPIP driver.

Thanks for that and after looking into that's the driver I decided to go with. The TCIP driver doesn't look too promising. That SRTP seems to be able to talk to many different types of PLCs.

Found out if you don't have a device set for your shared variables on your HMI screen you get many errors...about 263 to be exact LOL. Good times, good times.