HMI - ladder display

[BOWILLY]

As a maintenance tech - as opposed to a programmer - I've never delved too deep into the functionality of the HMIs I've encountered. While working in a Japanese auto plant, I saw GOT HMIs that could display the processor's ladder logic (in a "read-only" I believe) . Is this common to many HMIs? It seems it would certainly aid in troubleshooting and save the need of lugging a laptop around "just in case".
If you could point mee to different types and "how to" instructions, it would be appreciated.
Thanks

 

[cardosocea]

[wiseass]Didn't know Game Of Thrones launched a series of HMI's... [/wiseass]

I've seen sequences displayed in HMI's before (with Siemens PCS7). If your process has a sequence programmed with an SFC it has an interface to display the SFC for the operator as it is trundling along.

Other than that, I have seen logic displayed in the HMI's on custom made controls by a Norwegian weapons and maritime behemoth of a company. You could click on any object of the HMI and choose to see logic and it would display (view only) the logic in an FBD format with a capability of digging into the logic blocks in some functions. It was pretty cool although to be fair we rarely needed to look into it as the HMI itself was clear as to what the problem was.

 

[Bratt]

Siemens has offered display of LAD logic for errors and display of graph sequences on HMIs for many many years. The old addon for Protool/Wincc Flexible and WinCC was called ProAgent. For TIA they call it Prodiag. It is not commonly used but i have seen it used by large automotive manufacturers.