Fastest way to get a HMI going for DH+ (SLC 5/04)

I used to do DH+ a lot but it's been years so I thought I get a quick sanity check here.

So, one of the site got a AB SLC 5/04 hooked up to a Panelview 1400 (2711-T14C8). The PV just decided to call it quits. I'm trying to get them back up ASAP. Had this been a 5/05 I would have a lot of options but this is a 5/04.

I'm also very leery of buying a 1400 off ebay from past experiences.

I do have spare FT ME licenses I can loan them. However, conversion would take some time, is there a Panelview classic to PV+ conversion program? I seem to remember such thing from about 10 years back.

Is the serial port available for use with a replacement HMI?

DH+ is difficult to deal with these days, mainly because it was licensed to so few 3rd party HMI makers. There are some interfaces that can bridge it to Ethernet. The conversion with Rockwell software can be fairly painless or a giant PITA...it just depends on some of the details in the HMI, and coming from a 1400 I think means at least two such conversions...

If the serial port is free and within 50 (cable) feet of the HMI, I would go that route, unless there are multiple devices on this DH+ network that the HMI needs to access.

I know a place that has a stack of Panelview 1200s sitting in the control room (we swapped them for Graphite 15" and serial comms to PLC-5) but I doubt they would suit you since most of the CRTs were barely legible when we pulled them out of service, not to mention the red tape that company would have to go through to legally part with them.

If this is just for point to point and distance is a problem, I would also seriously consider upgrading to a 5/05 and Ethernet HMI. The PLC program conversion will take maybe 5 minutes, but the HMI from scratch will take much longer depending on how complex it is.

https://www.plccable.com/allen-bradley-1747-l551-b-c-frn-11-ethernet-series-c-5-05-slc500-16k/

Mark also has a DH+ bridge, but I have no experience with setting it up...

https://www.plccable.com/ethernet-i...ighway-plus-dh-gateway-converter-ethernet-ip/

I have done so many PV to Red Lion conversions, I know exactly which way I would go...

EDIT: Not a huge fan of their hardware and software, but this one is easy enough to program and has DH+:
https://store.ezautomation.net/product-p/ez3-t10c-eh.htm

Thanks Okie, I'm thinking about the Redlion as well. A Panelview 7 Plus 12" is about $3700 list.. ouch.

Ok, I spoke to the local RA distributor. The FT View ME does have an import utility but I am unable to get it successfully imported. Keep failing on "Fails to open project: xxx.pba"

I can probably find a 5/05 somewhere...



Oh ya, the DB9 is open.

I'm working out of this manual:

https://literature.rockwellautomation.com/idc/groups/literature/documents/um/2711-um014_-en-p.pdf

Chapter 1, page 5. That DB9 is actually just a printer port. This was pretty common in the old panel views. That also means that the com's to upload and download from this thing are going to be exclusively DH+. That is not a good thing.

Now, seems like this is worth a quick check. I've repaired these in the past by replacing the back lights. Do you have a spare one where the touch screen no longer works, or that doesn't power up you can pull the back light out of and do a swap to see if it works? It is very common on these older units. Try that first if at all possible.

Next, shoot me a PM if you want and I'll see if I can't get the program to convert. There is, in fact, a conversion utility. It isn't perfect, but it is what it is.

Now, no matter how they go about this, it is going to cost them a nice chunk of change. I consider myself great at cobbling together stuff to make it work. There isn't much you can do in this instance, other than check the backlight or any obvious parts you may be able to salvage from another unit. ASAP just isn't going to happen.

Now, you can get PV+ models with a DH+ comms module to work with your 5/04. You can also get a DH+ to RS232 DF1 converter and go with a normal panel view. Both of these will take time. You can upgrade to a 5/05 (strongly suggested) and just use serial or ethernet on another type of HMI they may have lying around.

Perhaps now would be a time to talk them into having their HMI's rewritten on a more cost-effective platform if they are worried about cost.

How complex is the HMI, such as approximately how many screens and how many tags?

I meant the serial port on the 5/04...is it free? and within 50 cable feet of the HMI location? If so, I would definitely redesign with Crimson and whatever your favorite model is. We got a good break on a handful of Graphite 15" models. Less than your price for the PV+

So if possible then you keep the 5/04 and just abandon the DH+ port. You could postpone the upgrade of the CPU and just deal with the HMI in this phase.

The newest CR3000 models (plastic housings) are quite a bit less expensive and program with Crimson 3.1 which is so similar to Crimson 3.0 it is a painless transition (except for the lack of emulator which I will always mention in hopes that Red Lion techs keep seeing this as a prod and get that added).

I can't get the backlights from those Panelview 1200s. They belong to a good customer who is a large multinational corporation that has "rules and stuff..."

A long time ago I saw a thread with some details on how to replace the CRT monitor with a LCD monitor and put it all back together. The results were nice and weighed a lot less, but I don't know how feasible that is. Those older applications were usually pretty straightforward, so instead of spending a day or two hunting down instructions and parts to try to fix the antique, I'd just redevelop the graphics in Crimson and be done with it. If you can open the graphics in the original software and see the tag list, pages and graphics, then that makes it even easier to match.

Thanks Okie.

A bit of news, I was able to import the panelbuilder file into FTView ME Studio now. Somehow the import won't work right unless the source file is local (not on networked drive). So, at this point my plan is to use a spare PC to run ME Station for a week or two until we can get a Panelview + onsite. We also found a 5/05 from a different site so we will convert to Ethernet for comm.

I would lobby for RedLion if the this conversion couldn't work but at this point considering the labor cost it's a wash.

Cheers,