Control Freak
Member
- Join Date
- Jul 2004
- Posts
- 44
This is narcissistically long, forgive me...
I had a vendor stop in here (don't you just love a cold-call, sheesh)and showed me a Parker/CTC HMI. Presently, I have standardized on a 6" QuickPanel w/ a serial interface (unless of course I need to incorporate E-net which nearly doubles the price). They're inexpensive, stable, and I've got a bunch of screens that I can start with and simply change my bit addresses where needed.
Now, ordinarily I have no interest in changing over products because I might save a little money here or there: it's not worth my time learning new software, redesigning my panels, going through the trouble of learning all the quirks and short-comings of a new product. Most vendors seem to forget that Engineering time is not free. But in this case, I'm considering it in the future.
According to the vendor (so consider the source), each unit some standard with E-net, serial, and Compact flash capabilities and costs about $20 more than my 6" QuickPanel with only serial communications. In fact, a 10" costs about what a 6" QuickPanel w/ E-net does.
A DVT camera can display it's image right on the screen instead of having to incorporate a PC on the machine to display the image. (if it could do Cognex too, that would be awesome)
And, on his demo, he actually had a touch-slider incorporated to set values. I guess this HMI isn't limited by a grid of touch cells to input data. I think, you can actually set a value (analog?) for timers, etc by sliding your finger along the slider. Nice feature.
The graphics looked great, I think its a TFT display, definately a step up from my current QPJ's STN display. The pictures on the display were definately much higher quality than the crude looking bitmaps on my QPJ, and the demo was only a 5".
So my question is, has anyone used these before? Is it worth the trouble? Typically I use SLC's when I can, Omron's when I should, and GE 90-30's if I must. All are very common, so I'm assuming the drivers are already designed for them. Anyone have any input?
John
I had a vendor stop in here (don't you just love a cold-call, sheesh)and showed me a Parker/CTC HMI. Presently, I have standardized on a 6" QuickPanel w/ a serial interface (unless of course I need to incorporate E-net which nearly doubles the price). They're inexpensive, stable, and I've got a bunch of screens that I can start with and simply change my bit addresses where needed.
Now, ordinarily I have no interest in changing over products because I might save a little money here or there: it's not worth my time learning new software, redesigning my panels, going through the trouble of learning all the quirks and short-comings of a new product. Most vendors seem to forget that Engineering time is not free. But in this case, I'm considering it in the future.
According to the vendor (so consider the source), each unit some standard with E-net, serial, and Compact flash capabilities and costs about $20 more than my 6" QuickPanel with only serial communications. In fact, a 10" costs about what a 6" QuickPanel w/ E-net does.
A DVT camera can display it's image right on the screen instead of having to incorporate a PC on the machine to display the image. (if it could do Cognex too, that would be awesome)
And, on his demo, he actually had a touch-slider incorporated to set values. I guess this HMI isn't limited by a grid of touch cells to input data. I think, you can actually set a value (analog?) for timers, etc by sliding your finger along the slider. Nice feature.
The graphics looked great, I think its a TFT display, definately a step up from my current QPJ's STN display. The pictures on the display were definately much higher quality than the crude looking bitmaps on my QPJ, and the demo was only a 5".
So my question is, has anyone used these before? Is it worth the trouble? Typically I use SLC's when I can, Omron's when I should, and GE 90-30's if I must. All are very common, so I'm assuming the drivers are already designed for them. Anyone have any input?
John