I want to see the Siemens HMI on my desktop PC at work

Johnbit89

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Join Date
May 2014
Location
Nottingham
Posts
6
Hi there,

I've been working on a manufacturing line as the lead technician for several years now and I need to improve the maintenance.
The main thing i would like to do is display the machine HMI on my Desktop PC.

At the moment the machine has a Siemens HMI which has Windows XP operating system. When the machine starts it loads windows and then the program which is the touch screen HMI.
There is also a wireless router near the machine. In my mind, can I install a usb wireless dongle on the XP operating system (this would not affect the HMI program?) then download to my PC a program off the net which allows me to see a screen of another PC via the wireless Ethernet address? I only need to see the screen not interact with it, I do not want to affect the HMI in anyway. Is this possible?. I can even run an Ethernet cable if it would work better.
I ask because we had a quote back from the company who made the machine and it was through the roof. They also said it was not possible to see the HMI program on a desktop screen, we would need to access a file in the HMI which collects the data, send via Ethernet address and create a program on my desktop which would allow the data to be readable.
I am after a very simple solution which must exist.
 
If it is a standard Windows box, just about any VNC application should work. Something like UltraVNC or RealVNC should work fine for that, and don't have much of a footprint.
 
+1 what rdrast said.
UltraVNC is freeware, also for commercial applications.
Teamviewer gives the additional advantage of giving access via the internet. So you can view the PC from another location for example. If you have a VPN connection to the plant already, then you dont need Teamviewer, just RealVNC or UltraVNC.
If the HMI software is Siemens WinCC Flexible, then Siemens has also a "smartservice" option that gives the same VNC functionality. But I dont see any big advantage to use Smartservice instead of UltraVNC, RealVNC or Teamviewer.

The way the supplier responded, I think they have misunderstood your request, or they have no clue about VNC or similar solutions.
 
Remote Desktop comes free with Windows. Have you considered simply using that?

If you have a telephone line available, you could also use Remote Access Service.
 
Last edited:
Remote Desktop blanks out the screen that you are remotely controlling.
I think that it conflicts with his requirement "I only need to see the screen not interact with it, I do not want to affect the HMI in anyway."
 
Another option would be to install google chrome and google remote desktop on the PC. Its free - you just need a gmail account. It works like VNC, is easy to install, and even has a client that will run from your Android phone.
 
I prefer TightVNC over UltraVNC,

http://filehippo.com/download_tightvnc/

Run the install on the HMI and in the system tray you should see a service/icon for TightVNC. You can double click it to change any settings you want, there's also a setting for View only.

From there you can use any VNC client to connect to it using the IP Address and port that's configured.

A wireless usb dongle should work as long as you can get XP drivers for it. Depending on your office you may want to connect your IT Office about this before hand since it's usually frowned upon to plug just any device into a company network.
 
Think carefully before you connect this machine to your intranet. Windows XP isn't supported anymore, The HMI is likely not running AV(if it was standalone).
Make sure you are using some form of access control to the 'vnc, rdp, whatever' service.

This is a fantastic way to expose your control systems to exploits.
 
Remote Desktop blanks out the screen that you are remotely controlling.
I think that it conflicts with his requirement "I only need to see the screen not interact with it, I do not want to affect the HMI in anyway."


Yes, if there is only one HMI at the facility. I've used Remote Desktop to allow a plant manager to connect to the read-only HMI workstation in his office while he was away from the plant.

Dial-up access works just fine for temporary remote access without affecting the local HMI. It also supports remote PLC programming.
 

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