RMA
Member
As usual, last week's visit to the customer produced the usual collection of mods and "can we have"s. On the Wish-List this time, amongst other things, is a Laptop to be used as a second OS as well as for maintenance and commissioning purposes. In both cases communication with the PLC is to be via the existing Ethernet LAN.
As far as the commissioning aspect is concerned, I reckon this can be handled adequately using XP's inbuilt remote control facility, (how to implement that is probably the subject of another Thread!), since the only part of the HMI S/W which is necessary is the Module Test page, which can be scaled to fit on the Laptop screen OK. I assume that for this, I can use the OnBoard Ethernet Interface - is this a correct assumption?
For the second OS, however, they will need the full HMI capabilities. Doing this via remote control of the main HMI PC is a non-starter, because the ProTool screens are all designed for 1280 x 1024 so they wouldn't fit on the Laptop screen and the Operator would have to be continually scrolling to access the Buttons. The only alternative seems to be to design a subset of the main HMI system adapted to the Laptop's resolution of 1024 x 768. This wouldn't be too much of a problem, because this OS would only be working with 2 of the 21 Modules, so a lot of unnecessary junk could be left out. As far as I can see, ProTool can only communicate with the PLC via a CP - in this case presumably a CP1512. Am I right in this assumption, or is there some way of getting ProTool to work with the Onboard Ethernet interface?
In either case, are there any peculiarities or pitfalls to watch out for when running ProTool on a Laptop (apart from abysmal performance due to typically weak Laptop graphics card)?
As far as the commissioning aspect is concerned, I reckon this can be handled adequately using XP's inbuilt remote control facility, (how to implement that is probably the subject of another Thread!), since the only part of the HMI S/W which is necessary is the Module Test page, which can be scaled to fit on the Laptop screen OK. I assume that for this, I can use the OnBoard Ethernet Interface - is this a correct assumption?
For the second OS, however, they will need the full HMI capabilities. Doing this via remote control of the main HMI PC is a non-starter, because the ProTool screens are all designed for 1280 x 1024 so they wouldn't fit on the Laptop screen and the Operator would have to be continually scrolling to access the Buttons. The only alternative seems to be to design a subset of the main HMI system adapted to the Laptop's resolution of 1024 x 768. This wouldn't be too much of a problem, because this OS would only be working with 2 of the 21 Modules, so a lot of unnecessary junk could be left out. As far as I can see, ProTool can only communicate with the PLC via a CP - in this case presumably a CP1512. Am I right in this assumption, or is there some way of getting ProTool to work with the Onboard Ethernet interface?
In either case, are there any peculiarities or pitfalls to watch out for when running ProTool on a Laptop (apart from abysmal performance due to typically weak Laptop graphics card)?