Multi Panelview Plus with one app

[witho]

Hi,
I have one HMI application written in RSViewME and it is going to be downloaded onto three Panelview Plus HMIs. Depending on which HMI it is installed on the software will act differently.

What I want to know is, is it possible for the application to automatically know which HMI it has been downloaded onto. ie by looking at the IP address or computer name of the HMI.

I want to avoid having to configure the software following a download.

Thanks

[russrmartin]

I am confused, but I'll try and explain my confusion. The application does nothing, it is the PV who determines everything, therefore, no, there is no way for the application to know anything about where it is running.

I don't understand what you mean when you say it will act differently, or what you are trying to achieve. Be more specific please. If you want only one PV to have control at one time, or you want the same button on a PV terminal to have a separate address from another PV terminal, that is possible, but again, I'm not sure what it is you are trying to accomplish.

[witho]

There are three HMIs that are dedicated to three particular areas of plant. An HMI is able to control equipment in it's specific area, such as manually starting and stopping a motor. And is also able to view the other areas of plant, but not control.

With the one application I can write conditions that will allow control for each plant area dependant on which HMI it is resident on. What I'm not sure about is if it is possible to configure the application to automatically know which area of plant it has control access to.

I want to avoid having an engineering access page that allows a user to tell the HMI which one it is. Ideally I would like the application to look at a setting in the HMI such as the IP address.

I hope that helps the confusion.

[rdrast]

That is really not a practical approach with a Panelview+. There really are no good ways to disable writes, or even enable/disable things based on any of the terminal parameters. You don't even have VBA to work with.

About the only way to accompish your desire, is to extensively use the 'CurrentUserHasCode()' or 'CurrentUserName()' functions to enable visability of objects. Of course, then you also need to set up a security system, so the users would have to log in. You can't have the system auto-login to a unique user on different terminals, as they don't know which they are.

Simplest route? Make one absolutely complete (everything) application, copy it over to three others based on location, then edit those three to remove the controls that you don't want available.

[russrmartin]

I concur with rddrast.

[kamenges]

I think someone around here is doing something similar. He has a machine with seven section in a line. There is a PV+ on each section running a common application. Any PV+ can control the section it is on in addition to the sections immediately upstream and downstream of itself. I think he is using the IP address of the PV+ to determine which one it is.

This guy isn't here right now. I'll ask him on Monday. but I'm pretty sure something like what you want to do is possible.


Keith

[MartB]

I've done something similar in the past but it was set up using a different set of parameter files for each HMI which in turn selected which screens each HMI could display (even though they all contained the same set of screens).
Basically each HMI could control its own area in addition to one upstream and one downstream area. The down side to this is that each HMI has it's own runtime file due to the changes in parameter files.
We could not find a way to enable the HMI to 'auto select' which set of screens it would use based on it's IP address or name etc.
In reflection we would have been better off using something else like RSView SE or programming each HMI idividually, and it is our concensus that we will not do anything like this again (it was a customer request). Mainly because we lost so much time during debug but also because we found a problem with screens 'locking up' for short periods if the same screen was open on more than one HMI (although there is now a firmware fix for this I'm told).

I totally agree with the other posts and recommend that you use a seperate setup on each panelview, it will be much easier to maintain and update etc as you go through debug.
I understand what you are trying to do but trust me when I tell you (from personal experience) that using RSView ME is not the easiest way to do this. We are currently looking into the costs involved in going back to our customer and reprogramming each HMI indiviually as a result (at cost to us).