Remote HMI solution.

Hi all,
We usually use Red Lion HMIs in our projects. Then, in addition to the HMIs themselves, we use our phones or tablets to remotely access the HMIs while in the plant (WiFi access).
The problem with this approach is that the person operating the HMI from their phone is actually moving screens on the physical HMI, making it difficult for 2 people sharing the same HMI (one standing by the unit, one using a phone somewhere in the plant).
We would like to have an independent remote access, not interfering with the operator using the HMI.
I would use AdvancedHMI if it ran on a phone or internet browser, but I'm afraid it only works on a computer.
I'm looking for a free, cheap or good cost/benefit remote HMI, suitable for a phone or tablet.

Any ideas?

Thank you!

Elcan said:

I would use AdvancedHMI if it ran on a phone or internet browser, but I'm afraid it only works on a computer.
I'm looking for a free, cheap or good cost/benefit remote HMI, suitable for a phone or tablet.

Click to expand...

AdvancedHMI will run on a tablet with Windows 10 (or 8), such as these:

http://www.amazon.com/Windows-Andro...11,p_n_condition-type:6461716011&s=pc&sr=1-24

http://www.amazon.com/Vulcan-Journe...ting_system_browse-bin:3077595011&s=pc&sr=1-2

http://www.amazon.com/TOSHIBA-WT8-B...:7817235011|7817236011|7817237011&s=pc&sr=1-3



AdvancedHMI is extremely efficient, so it takes very little CPU to run which allows it to run on very low end hardware. I recently ran a test on a 1.33GHz Atom processor with AdvancedHMI running at max com rate of 5ms screen refresh. It only used 5% of the CPU

Archie said:

AdvancedHMI will run on a tablet with Windows 10 (or 8)

Click to expand...

Good to know. However, most of the phones and tablets are Android or Macs...
Those tablets are really affordable, though.

The newer models of PanelVew Plus have that built in (with version 8.2 software)
They support HTML5, so will work on all kinds of mobile devices.
http://www.rockwellautomation.com/rockwellsoftware/products/factorytalk-viewpoint.page?#latest-releases

Of course the PanelView Plus is not free/cheap. It is the only HMI panel (that I know) which includes a web server; completely independent remote access.
The mobile phone does not interfere with the local operator.

Opto22 Groov has a wireless box to give you remote access, designed for mobile devices.
Same thing there, not free/cheap and you need to add another device.http://groov.com/


But screen resolutions are different between the HMI and mobile devices; one of them always looks like junk.

remote access

You could use one of many remote utils to connect to the pc via your phone or tablet.
We use Remote Utils, Team Viewer, and Mocha Light (vnc, local only) for this.

ganutenator said:

You could use one of many remote utils to connect to the pc via your phone or tablet.

Click to expand...

A good point that I always forget about. I once demoed using the Microsoft Remote Desktop app on the iPhone to connect to a headless PC running AdvancedHMI. It was done with a low cost ($120) headless PC on the network with the PLC running an AdvancedHMI application. Using Remote Desktop (RDP) on my iPhone I was able to connect to the PC, then monitor and control the machine.

It looks like the Remote Desktop app is available for Android also.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/microsoft-remote-desktop/id714464092?mt=8

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.rdc.android&hl=en&gl=us

Was working in the lab today, so I thought I would put this demo back together. I have a PLC5 and a CompactLogix on the network. Then a microPC with Windows 10 Pro on the wireless and with remote desktop enabled. On that PC is a very simple AdvancedHMI application.

Using my iPhone with Microsoft Remote Desktop I connected to the microPC.

I don't have a camera to take picture of the iPhone itself, but I did a screen shot on the iPhone and attached is what I see on my phone showing live data and controlling bits with buttons.

Archie what microPC are you using ? how much $$ ??

joaco1993 said:

Archie what microPC are you using ? how much $$ ??

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This just happened to be the one I used for the testing today, except i did the Windows 10 Pro upgrade:

http://www.amazon.com/Vensmile®-qua...s=p_n_operating_system_browse-bin:12566246011

I only ever use it for testing because I don't like the fact that it doesn't have an Ethernet port, only wireless. I don't even think it has Bluetooth.

I found this one last week that looks promising, but remember for remote desktop it must have Win10 Pro

http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-3050-micro-desktop/pd

Archie said:

Was working in the lab today, so I thought I would put this demo back together. I have a PLC5 and a CompactLogix on the network. Then a microPC with Windows 10 Pro on the wireless and with remote desktop enabled. On that PC is a very simple AdvancedHMI application.

Using my iPhone with Microsoft Remote Desktop I connected to the microPC.

Click to expand...

But only one user accessing the microPC at at a time, right?

Elcan said:

But only one user accessing the microPC at at a time, right?

Click to expand...

How many people would operate the machine simultaneously? You have one on the Red Lion and multiple on phones/tablets?

By default Windows 10 only allows a single RDP connection. There is a piece of software called RDPWrapper that supposedly makes multiple connections possible, but I never used it.

There is also the option of installing Windows Server on the PC and enabling Terminal Services that will allow many remote desktop connections.

At about $100 each, it would be cheap (relative to all the other hardware on the machine) to install multiple of these microPCs. It sounds like this is a secondary source of machine operation and its not mission critical, so cheap PCs would have no impact if 1 failed.