C-more HMI's from AutomationDirect..any feedback?

Skidood

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Join Date
Oct 2016
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Ontario
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Hi, just wondering if any of you have any experience with the C-more panels.....They offer a 6 inch touchscreen (currently on backorder) with 5 F keys for 300 USD. Wow. I know they are made in China. They have an LED backlight which is good and the specs look fine. I am looking at using 5 of them on an upcoming project.

Any feedback? Thx in advance.
 
Hi, just wondering if any of you have any experience with the C-more panels.....They offer a 6 inch touchscreen (currently on backorder) with 5 F keys for 300 USD. Wow. I know they are made in China. They have an LED backlight which is good and the specs look fine. I am looking at using 5 of them on an upcoming project.

Any feedback? Thx in advance.

I have no complaints. That said, I've only used them with AD PLCs.
 
The hardware isn't bad. The software is ok. It depends on how you plan on using them. You get what you pay for, so you can't expect high end graphics and feature sets.

But adding buttons and status is quick and easy. It has ok alarming. Last time I used it there was no search and replace, you couldn't copy to clipboard and paste into another project, to me simple things that they missed.

What PLCs?
 
Great

I've used the AD Cmore HMI and the Panel View AB HMI.

I love them both, but overall, I think I actually prefer the AD Cmore because they're so much simpler and also dealing with the program/project is so much easier to understand for everyone.

I highly recommend it. They're just as easy to implement, if not easier than the Panel View pluses.
 
Reliability

We have also not had any issues at all with reliability. I cannot say the same for the AB PV+ HMI we used. I know we've replaced about 1 per year.

AD Cmore has been flawless so far.



Also, I just want to add.. Maybe I've just been lucky over the years, but Automation Direct stuff has never failed me bad. It gets a bad rep because it's so cheap, but they really do work well.
 
I used one C-More as required by a customer and the only real complaint I had was the trending was pretty much useless. It looks like a holdover from EZAutomation panel trending. Aside from that and getting used to the software it worked fine.
 
Thanks so much for the replies. it is not a complex application. 4 screens, the PLC has about 20 pages of ladder logic with only a few digital inputs and 3 relay outputs..5 timer.s....no analog stuff, no counters, trending, servos, pretty basic. I am using an AB MicroLogix 1100, mainly since I am already familiar with RSLogix 500. I could have easily used a Micro 800 but I hate the Rockwell CCW software and already have RSLogix 500.

I also have experience (not programming) with the PanelView Plus 600 and am not impressed with it in terms of response speed in my existing applications and reliability. And there is no way I am going to purchase the required programming software and learn it from scratch.
 
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Used many of the C-More panels with both AD PLC and AB PLC. Reliability has been great and like the ease of use with the software. I'm currently working at a plant with 150+ PV's and looking to bring some C-More HMI"s for smaller projects off the main lines.
 
I much prefer the C-More panels to most anything else currently.
They are simple to program, with just about any PLC, and for the cost are very reliable. I used to use a lot of Red Lion panels, but with the annoying method of defining Logix tags, and the idiotic problems with Windows 10, I've quit with them.
PanelView+ terminals still go on our "Show Lines", but aren't my first choice ever.
 
I prefer C-more because of cost, the ease of transferring/retrieving programs and the boot time. I find them much quicker to commission than PV+.
 
We use C-More almost all the time. Very easy to use. You can even do some basic protocol conversion in them. Comes in handy once in awhile

đź“š
 
I have used several from 6" to 15" mostly with AD PLC's. My last project 3 years ago before I retired was a 15" C-more and 10 AB ML1400's on a DH485 1600' long line. It only had a couple quirky things like if one PLC was off line there wasn't a straight way to indicate a com loss. I got around it.
It does do trending but that is also quirky. It isn't a chart recorder (a so-so display) though it will data log.
Ease of use is better than the AB PV.
Seem to be durable.
 
We have used C-More and AutomationDirect HMI's paired to Wago PLC's for about 8 years. Marine application and have had great reliability. I believe we have around 500 units in service on a variety of hydraulic power units across a couple of hundred vessels. The only hardware failures I know of have been caused by gross negligence, a lightning strike and physical damage due to mishandling of the equipment during installation by the shipyard. As mentioned above, the graphics are quite dated and limited in customization but the C-more software is easy and super robust.
 

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