Looking for a simple non-programmable message display

I'm working on a fairly simple project where I need the ability to display some basic fault messages. The scope of this project does not justify an HMI--not so much for cost reasons but just to keep things simple. So, I'm looking for some kind of panel-mounted device that would just display a couple lines of text. Most importantly, I want be able to transmit those messages to the device from my PLC and display them *without* needing to make any kind of separate HMI program. My reasoning is (a) I don't want the hassle of one more thing to program, and (b) when someone hits it with a forklift at 3am, our Maintenance guys can just swap it out without any worries about configuration, i.e. "where's the program file", "which laptop has the software", etc.

My PLC is Beckhoff and the two protocols I have available are EtherCAT and IO-Link, but I could easily add Modbus or some type of serial if necessary. So far I've found the following:
Beckhoff EP6090 - I like this option but it's out of stock until August.
IFM E30391 - I have one of these and it's my best option at this point, but the display is super tiny and refresh is slow.

Any ideas? Google gives me lots of results with hobbyist-level serial LCD displays and such, but I need something suitable for an industrial environment.

By non-programmable do you mean it has a fixed stable of messages and you set a line high or low, or send it a code, and it displays the corresponding message?

If so, it sounds like an Under-Monitor Display (UMD) from the broadcast industry would do the job, but I think they hardly exist any more.

drbitboy said:

By non-programmable do you mean it has a fixed stable of messages and you set a line high or low, or send it a code, and it displays the corresponding message?

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No, what I mean is that the PLC will send the actual text of the message to be displayed via some communication protocol. If there was some cache of messages stored in the display to select from, then that would require some pre-programming which is what I want to avoid.

Would having the PLC send an Email/SMS message out?

Rob... said:

Would having the PLC send an Email/SMS message out?

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Thanks but I'm not sure what that has to do with my question. I'm not looking for email or SMS capability. I'm looking for a small display that I can mount to my machine that will accept message text from my PLC.

kolyur said:

Thanks but I'm not sure what that has to do with my question. I'm not looking for email or SMS capability. I'm looking for a small display that I can mount to my machine that will accept message text from my PLC.

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Because you could display the SMS/Email message it sends on a display located on your machine, or to maintenance personnel.

My suggestion would be to bite the bullet and install a small, cheap HMI.

Even with the way you are suggesting you will still have some programming involved. Any kind of device I can think of that is capable of displaying messages is going to have some kind of "configuration" involved. If damage is a concern, then download the application to the spare units, ahead of time. JMO.

kolyur said:

No, what I mean is that the PLC will send the actual text of the message to be displayed via some communication protocol.

Click to expand...

UMDs can do that too, usually via a trivial ASCII serial protocol terminated by carriage return and line feed, with RS-485 communications. Not too different from Modbus ASCII in some ways but one-way comms and not hexadecimal. There are all sorts of bells and whistles, like color and flashing, that you can ignore of course.

UMD multi-drop baud rates and address IDs are usually set by DIP switch packs, so the maintenance personnel would have to look at the old one when swapping and duplicate the DIP settings, or you could set the spares up beforehand. I dunno if that violates the no-pre-programming spec, but if you use the default baud rate, there is sometimes a broadcast address so maybe touching the DIP switches will not be required at all.

EZ Marquee
https://www.ezautomation.net/ezmarquee/ezmarquee-family.php

Here and here.




Sample protocol here.

aarnolmi said:

EZ Marquee
https://www.ezautomation.net/ezmarquee/ezmarquee-family.php

Click to expand...

Bingo, this is it. Same as UMDs but for industry.

https://www.redlion.net/product/4-6-digit-led-serial-slave-display-rs-232rs-485

accepts and displays ascii through rs232 or rs485... may not get much simpler.

Thanks for the suggestions. The UMDs you mentioned are pretty much what I'm looking for--but waaaaay too big. I'm thinking something the size of... say a 4" HMI. I guess that's what I'll probably end up using. It seems that the type of product I'm picturing in my head likely doesn't exist.

I'm almost sure it does exist.


how many characters do you want to display in those 4"?