FTView SE touchscreen touch lockout

Hi all,

Just got a request from a place where I recently installed an FTView SE system to add a "clean screen" button. I started asking about what wasn't displaying properly and why they needed such a button, but they interrupted and said "no, no, everything is displaying fine...but the screen is dirty. We want to clean it."

As they're touchscreens, when they try to clean them, they end up pressing random buttons, which obviously is not ideal. So they want a way to "lock" the screen so that they can wipe it down without pressing buttons.

So two questions: how best to "lock" the screen, and then how to "unlock" it after cleaning? The only idea I've got so far is to use a logout button, so that everything disappears until someone logs back in. I'm quite sure that they won't accidentally log someone in while wiping down the screen. But I'm open to other suggestions. One of the screens is in quite a messy area and I suspect they'll want to wipe it down quite regularly - having to log back in on a touchscreen every time may get annoying, and then they'll just take the chance and wipe it down without locking it and we'll be back where we started.

Perhaps the ideal way to do it would be a screen with just one "return" button that has to be pressed for 3 seconds to activate. Make it harder to accidentally press. But I'm not sure if that's possible...

Any other ideas?

ASF said:

...Perhaps the ideal way to do it would be a screen with just one "return" button that has to be pressed for 3 seconds to activate. Make it harder to accidentally press. But I'm not sure if that's possible...

Any other ideas?

Click to expand...

If you want to avoid powering down, or the slight inconvenience of logging out and then back in again, then your above suggestion is the simplest, and recommended "workaround" to cleaning the display while powered on.

As you have suggested, create a "Clean Display", or similar goto button somewhere in your existing application. This should take you to a blank display with a small return to button with a delay to prevent accidental activation while cleaning. Another option is to just goto a blank display and programmatically timeout the return to, like after 30 or 60 seconds.

You're on the right track

Regards
George

+1 for the timer

ASF said:

Hi all,
Perhaps the ideal way to do it would be a screen with just one "return" button that has to be pressed for 3 seconds to activate. Make it harder to accidentally press. But I'm not sure if that's possible...

Click to expand...

This idea also works - think about using a Jog Button using a repeat command
with the screen page number control in the PLC
I can expand this if you need more help

We have a screen called clean screen located under the maintenance screen and when pressed goes to simplistic screen where the only controls are the 2 return to operation buttons which are setup as anti tiedown with a 2 second delay. Works great and we have it on about 200+ touch screen pc's.

This is a very common request in dirty environments.

I do like the idea of a blank screen with just the one button on it. For now though I've implemented my original logout idea. Just because then when they log back in, it runs the startup macro, so all my navigation panels, headers, alarm panels etc that are docked all around the screen come back. I know I could use the "back" button to load all these displays, but this SE system will eventually be controlling 4 production lines and 8-10 HMI's. And each production line will have it's own startup macro and it's own navigation panels, headers etc, so each of these "return" buttons would need to be different depending on which line it was running on, and all of a sudden I've wasted 4 displays on the same blank screen. As the license is a display-based license, I don't think that's ideal.

The other thing I just thought of is that there's a fair bit of VBA code running in the background doing event logging etc. This code is attached to the navigation panel, because it never closes. So I'll lose all this code while they clean the screen.

I suppose I could leave the navigation panel there but make the buttons invisible...but that seems like a pretty dirty way of doing it...

I use the one button and timer method here. Hold it down for 4 seconds, it goes back to the default interface screen.

And no, you shouldn't have any problems with the VBA code on a background window if you have opened it properly. I open all of my code windows as hidden, always updating, and they work fine.

ASF said:

The other thing I just thought of is that there's a fair bit of VBA code running in the background doing event logging etc. This code is attached to the navigation panel, because it never closes. So I'll lose all this code while they clean the screen.

I suppose I could leave the navigation panel there but make the buttons invisible...but that seems like a pretty dirty way of doing it...

Click to expand...

Another Idea

a blank screen with only one button on it and its "enabled" attribute is set after the screen has been displayed for 5 seconds

You may be able to do something similar with your system - on the page that has the Clean Screen button if they press it all buttons become disabled for say 5 seconds for cleaning

Not safe. Use an active timeout, multi-keypress, or even a numeric entry to close the cleaning display.

MichaelG said:

Another Idea

a blank screen with only one button on it and its "enabled" attribute is set after the screen has been displayed for 5 seconds

You may be able to do something similar with your system - on the page that has the Clean Screen button if they press it all buttons become disabled for say 5 seconds for cleaning

Click to expand...

rdrast said:

I use the one button and timer method here. Hold it down for 4 seconds, it goes back to the default interface screen.

And no, you shouldn't have any problems with the VBA code on a background window if you have opened it properly. I open all of my code windows as hidden, always updating, and they work fine.

Click to expand...

I think that's what I'll go to if they're not happy with the logout method.

I'm still not sure how to tackle this without using a different clean screen for all of the production lines though - all I can think of is to use some VBA code to determine which machine it's on and execute a specific macro accordingly. Because if I understand right, a simple "back" button won't re-open all the docked displayed, correct?

How do you usually implement a "hold for 4 seconds" condition in FTView SE?

How soon after cleaning do you need to use the screen? I think that will guide what solution you choose.
Almost every operator I have met hates login; small waste of time.
If using the clean screen is a pain, they'll clean the screen without it (far worse).

Use a 30 second or 60 timeout that returns to the previous screen, with a setting to adjust the timeout if they really want to. Whoever is cleaning simply walks away when they are done, so it is not important that the screen is immediately available after cleaning.

If someone needs to clean and use right away, go with a multi key sequence.
Ex. they need to press the four buttons in sequence, or it all resets. Touching any other area also resets the sequence. I would still return them to the last screen(s), especially in that case as they are in a hurry.

However you do it, test it well with the people who are actually cleaning the screens.

I use the button on the screen to trigger a bit in my PLC, then time it there. The PLC can either send a screen change command, or enable visibility on another button to switch screens.

Something like this?

http://youtu.be/bF0RacK4jzs

Create button called "Clean Screen" that runs a Macro called MCR_Clean_Screen

Here is what the Macro Does:

Display gfxCleanScreen
Pause 15
Abort gfxCleanScreen

Have the gfxCleanScreen be an ON TOP and FULL SCREEN Window that covers everything else. Have it say something like "you will have 15 seconds to clean the screen" and even display a countdown timer.

Clean, simple, effective. I've seen and implemented this at places with the exact same needs.

Doh! On top display with a close button! Can't believe I didn't think to try that one

They seem to be happy with the logout method for now, but I'll keep that one in the back of my mind for next time

rdrast said:

I use the button on the screen to trigger a bit in my PLC, then time it there. The PLC can either send a screen change command, or enable visibility on another button to switch screens.

Click to expand...

That would work with an ME application, but not an SE client. Or at least, I don't know of a way to have the PLC trigger a screen change on a specific client without getting way into VBA?

ASF said:

Doh! On top display with a close button! Can't believe I didn't think to try that one

They seem to be happy with the logout method for now, but I'll keep that one in the back of my mind for next time



That would work with an ME application, but not an SE client. Or at least, I don't know of a way to have the PLC trigger a screen change on a specific client without getting way into VBA?

Click to expand...

Specific Client screen display popups I usually do with VBA - it's not too difficult. I have a VBAHOST screen that runs for all of my applications in the background I use for client side event popups and whatnot. Works great.