Getting into HMI work

I'm fixing to do some big projects involving various HMI's. I will be using PB32 for some older stuff we have that needs modified, RSView Studio both SE and ME. SE will be metrics collections for the whole plant while ME will be HMI for a portion of the plant. Also, I will be doing some major work with iFix and WonderWare. We have a pretty eclectic and piecemeal plant, but it cannot be helped. The good thing is I will get time to do work on a variety of platforms and I have a pretty good understanding of Windows computers and strong networking skills.

That aside, I have several questions as I have been contemplating some stuff before I begin undertaking this work next month.

1. The first of which is how do I go about installing this stuff and using it in parallel to what is currently being used? For instance, I will be upgrading our iFix systems like 4 versions ahead and will have several issues to work through before it is ready to be put into service. It would be nice to be able to testbench it first, though I will have the older systems and graphics to go off of, which will be nice. This is probably my biggest single issue, as if I can do this without interrupting production I will have time and safety to figure stuff out.

2. The next one involves testing out a FTView ME application before placing the PV into service (well there are 4 of them to be exact). How would I go about setting up the runtime environment networking so I can perform and test the modifications before a download?

Other than that the design considerations I have though through have been to match current HMI color schemes and logical layouts and going for clarity and simplicity above all to make this as easy to use as possible.

Unfortunately our networks are poorly thought out and mapped, but I have spent the last two weeks and will probably spend this week and next week finishing up plant-wide HMI, PLC and networking device configuration backups and making sure I know "what is talking to what and the point of their conversation."

This is pretty huge for me and will be my first delve into it (other than transferring the programs to a new HMI) and would like to have a good plant of attack for such a monstrous job.

As always I appreciate the information and experience you all bring to the table!

With Factory Talk View ME, you can similate the project, and if you are connected to the plc through the right path in rslinx the data will update as needed. great way i found for testing my applications before uploading them into the HMI

DwSoFt said:

With Factory Talk View ME, you can similate the project, and if you are connected to the plc through the right path in rslinx the data will update as needed. great way i found for testing my applications before uploading them into the HMI

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I don't think you are "Simulating" your project that way in ME.

You are "Testing" your project.
It will be a live and active HMI on your PC, same as if you loaded it to the Panelview.



BCS

Haha. very good point. but testing before implementation is what the OP wants.

That would be correct . I want to be able to pull the data from the PLC and see what is going to happen. I'm pretty excited about this whole deal to be honest.

The PanelView Plus (gray plastic) can store multiple project files.
That's different than your old PanelView (black plastic) which only stores 1 project.

So, when you are ready to download to the PVP just use a different file name.
If you need the old project for any reason during your testing, just power cycle and load up the old one.

After all your changes are done /tested then I would delete the old project from the PVP.

What about with iFix? I know we use the RSLinx comms driver.

sparkie said:

What about with iFix? I know we use the RSLinx comms driver.

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Could you be more specific about this? For instance, we use the IGS driver to communicate between our AB plc's and our iFix database. There are other "drivers" available.

When you upgrade your iFix, your sales rep would be a good resource to talk to about this as you will have to purchase the drivers if you don't already have them.

sgrave9 said:

Could you be more specific about this? For instance, we use the IGS driver to communicate between our AB plc's and our iFix database. There are other "drivers" available.

When you upgrade your iFix, your sales rep would be a good resource to talk to about this as you will have to purchase the drivers if you don't already have them.

Click to expand...

My main question is more about performing the upgrade while leaving the current system intact. It should be no problem to have both of them polling the PLC for the same information, correct?

No shouldn't be an issue. What version of ifix are you upgrading to/from? That would be the main concern.

We are upgrading from 2.5 and 2.6 systems to whatever their latest version is. I will have to speak with a rep or you guys to get more information. I'm sure I won't be able to keep the program. There are also some VBS scripts involved. I can update the scripts/ocx controls and the trends aren't mission critical, so if we loose them it is no big deal. Communications have been documented.

I have not yet gotten a quote. I will do that this week. I'm going to try one system first and then the rest. I should mention I also have a listing of all the data the controls on the HMI interact with, and I should be able to import the graphics. If that is the case I can design the rest of the system without too much difficulty I believe. I'm open to any input on this subject as well though.

You mentioned the idea of configuring your computer with all the software. It might be wise to use VMWare Player to separate some of the software titles. With FTVME, there was a database change at V6 that presents some problems with working with older Panelview+ firmware and 64-bit windows. Also, I have never used Panelbuilder32 in Windows 7. Is it compatible? Maybe using a few virtual machines might improve your chances of avoiding compatibility problems.

I do stuff like this all the time, you can have multiple HMI's connected to the same PLC over ethernet. Just leave the original HMI alone and setup another HMI with a IP address that's on the same network as the original HMI and PLC. When your ready to test the HMI program download it to your new test HMI and test the features.

CAUTION: The new HMI will be LIVE, if you hit the STOP button on your test HMI and the button is tagged appropriately it will STOP whatever it is controlling. It is not a real test environment but if your careful you can use actual PLC data and work out most or all of the kinks before you install the new HMI.

If you need to test animations, like tank filling or trends just setup some timers and counters in the PLC with a couple of start and stop buttons and use those for testing.

I almost always setup a test environment when I'm working on HMI programs. It works great for testing features and it also works great for layout and design because some graphics look great on your computer but are hard to see or touch on an HMI.

All of our PanelView+ that I would be doing any editing on are version 7, so I don't think that will be an issue. Also, the old PB32 stuff I would be doing is mostly converting the terminals over to PV+ terminals.

As far as testing, I appreciate the info on how to test animations. Sounds like a good idea. As far as stops and starts being live, I suppose I'll know if it worked when I hear a radio call :nodi:

I got tied up with some production equipment down, so I'll probably end up adding another couple weeks to when I start these projects.