Siemens, 2 HMI on 1 PLC Profibus

Hi There
I have a requirment to have 2 hmi's, probably MP370 on a profibus link to a 315-2DP PLC.
I have not done this before. (not 2 screens) so looking for advice.
Not bought any kit yet, still in concept stage.

I remember there is a package to mimic HMI1 onto HMI2. Could i not simply have 2 HMI with same project apart from network address?

There is a requirment to 'lock' the opposing HMI functionality if someone has logged onto the other which i dont believe would work with that package.

I am thinking of scripting a PLC bit within the MP370 to turn on/off an HMI enable bit

What about security / passord settings?

Sorry if a bit disjointed it is 1am as i write this

Looking for tips and advice

Cheers

Im sure there are better ways but you could use Siemens Smart Access. You could have one panel running the project then the second would have a connection to the first. So you would be working off the first but the second can access and control the first.

I saw a Siemens demo where they had a large panel and a small panel. One of the screens on the large panel was the connection to the small panel. So you could make changes on the small panel from the larger one.

http://www.automation.siemens.com/hmi/html_76/products/software/wincc-flexible-optionen/wincc-flex-smartaccess.htm

Do a PC477 with second Monitor. All done.

Nick

One way to do this.

Hi

I am working on a project with the same setup as your project and have made 1 project earlier on the same concept.

My solution for this problem is to have 2 panels with the same screens, tags, users and passwords.
The data from the panels is going to 2 different datablocks in the PLC, so the panels are not using the same dataset.
The operator is taking control on the plant by pressing a button on the panel he want to control the plant from. When the control button is pressed on a panel all the buttons on the other panels is invisible, but operators can still navigate between the screens and see status on this panel.

After controlling the plant the operator is releasing the control from the panel or I have a timeout to do this, if the operator forgets to do it.

In the PLC I use the control bit from the panels to decide witch dataset from the panels I have to use for controlling the plants. All status data form the PLC I am mapping out to statusblock for the panel and here I also have 2 datablocks.

A simple solution where you make a panel and copy this to the other panel, where you change the tag for making the buttons invisible and some indication for that the control is taken from the other panel.

All the requirements can be done easily, except for the log-on blocking part.

Have the Protool/WinCC Flexible project integrated in STEP7.
Copy-paste the existing HMI project into a new HMI project in the same STEP7 project.
Open the hardware configuration of the new HMI, set the desired Profibus address.
Open the new HMI project and verify the online connection to the PLC.
Open NetPro and save-and-compile.
Done.

You cannot block someone from logging into one HMI, but you can make it so that when someone logs into HMI 1, a bit is set in the PLC that forces a log-off on HMI 2, and vice-versa. Maybe that is acceptable for you.

And the password list is unique on each HMI.
You can setup to export the passwords from one HMI to a flash card, and import the list into the other HMI, but it takes some manual steps. It wont happen fully automatically.

Thanks Guys for the feedback. I think I will use jespers approach but will also consider what Jera said about 2 DB's.

The HMI's are on different floors (levels) of a building so dont know if a dual monitor setup would work with the distances.

Cheers

Yes for distances like that Jasper's solution is best. Mine is just quick and dirty for with 30m.


Nick