Siemens HMI, TIA portal programming

samvivi7

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Apr 2016
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NJ
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Hey Guys,

To all the Siemens experts. I am tasked with programming a TP1200 HMI. I am new to TIA portal and Siemens HMI programming. Well, i need help and guidance in order to do the following;

1 - I would like to create my push buttons/indicator lights in Photoshop or outside TIA. How do I bring them into TIA?? or is this even possible ??

2 - I would like to make a motor positioning indicator 0 - 360 degree and tie it to the motor encoder. My main question here is, do I need to make an image of each increment for example 1 °, 2 °, 3° and so on (360 images)?? where do I even start?

I would really appreciate if someone could point me in the correct direction.

I will post my progress as I go along.

Thank you,
Sam
 
2 - I would like to make a motor positioning indicator 0 - 360 degree and tie it to the motor encoder. My main question here is, do I need to make an image of each increment for example 1 °, 2 °, 3° and so on (360 images)?? where do I even start?
On number two you start by not doing it.
Animated HMIs are harder to use and in general you want to avoid animating things.

If you want to show that something is rotating, make a circular arrow instead. If you want to show how many degrees, show it in degrees instead.
 
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1) doing the art externally and bringing it in is typical, although Portal does come with a fair bit of art besides the horrible symbol factory stuff. There is an Image object for simply displaying pictures, buttons can show pictures, and i think symbolic IO fields can display graphic lists.

2) Pete is right, in most cases it isn't a good idea to animate rotation on an HMI.

HOWEVER, if you want to, what you suggested is where to start, although every 1 degree is probably a little much. Every fifteen degrees is usually plenty. Then in Portal, you create a graphics list, assigning the range of degrees to the picture.
 
Is the rotating position because you want to make the HMI look "nice", or because the functionality is actually needed ?

If it is the 1st, it is a bad idea to animate something like that. It will not look nice because the tag value that animates the rotation will not update perfectly syncronously. The motion will not be pefectly smooth, and the human eye and brain will interpret it as something is wrong. A lot of effort and you will be disappointed in the end. And btw, the Comfort panels do not support animated GIFs, so that is also a dead end.

If its the latter, then I believe you can use the dial template, and then set max dial position to 360 and minimum dial position to 0. You then have a rotary dial. I havent tried to do this myself so I dont know if there are any gotchas.
 
If you are set on having an animation. I would create max. 3-4 symbols at different degrees. Then use a graphic list to show each of them, with a slow cycle time.
 
In reference to #2: Its possible and we have it on a press here and honestly it works quite well. Even at 45 strokes per minute, it seems to keep up quite well, you're going to set it up at a low speed previous to a run speed, so its probably not a big deal if it were slightly delayed.

I cant say for sure which panel it is workable on though. I consulted siemens for my knowledge and only certain models of HMI will be capable. I know that they told me a TP700 comfort will work, because that's the one I bought. I think in the lower end panels, they don't have the graphic you would need to pull it off. You could also alternatively use a integer readout for displaying position if you wanted to, which would take less time to setup, and probably work just as well.

good luck.
 
In reference to #2: Its possible and we have it on a press here and honestly it works quite well. Even at 45 strokes per minute, it seems to keep up quite well, you're going to set it up at a low speed previous to a run speed, so its probably not a big deal if it were slightly delayed.

I cant say for sure which panel it is workable on though. I consulted siemens for my knowledge and only certain models of HMI will be capable. I know that they told me a TP700 comfort will work, because that's the one I bought. I think in the lower end panels, they don't have the graphic you would need to pull it off. You could also alternatively use a integer readout for displaying position if you wanted to, which would take less time to setup, and probably work just as well.

good luck.
Hey dwoodlock,

I will be running very slow and need it only while positioning. if you don't mind would be able to share how you did it?

thanks
 
You can use the gauge graphic and set the refresh rate for the process tag to the highest refresh rate(100ms). I will say that I'm sure this functionality and how well it works will be dependent on your hardware. Our equipment that uses this has a s7-315F-2dp, along with a SM338 encoder card.

If you are using a different setup then your results are subject to be different.

This is a quick one I played around with.

gauge.jpg
 

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