Identical HMIs in step7 / wincc

[Pete.S.]

Is there a way to have several HMIs in the same project that are identical in every respect except network address, without having to maintain several identical copies of the HMI configuration (tags, alarms, screens, etc, etc)?

wincc advanced - step7

 

[mk42]

If the HMIs all talk to the same PLC, and are literally identical except their own network info, I think you can set the IP address in the HW config to something like "set at device", instead of hard coding the IP address in the project.

Then when you do your transfer/download, you simply type in the IP address you want to download to, for each HMI down the line. Because the project doesn't have a fixed IP address, it won't overwrite the IP set in the control panel of each HMI.

 

[Pete.S.]

That's interesting, thanks! I'll check it out.

I wonder if it would be possible with profibus HMI's as well.

What I've done in the past is to change the hardware address, recompile and download for each hmi. But some pople get confused when they see a project with only one HMI when there are several in real life.

 

[Manglemender]

I've done this before. I had 4 HMI's configured in the hardware config but only one had a configuration associated with it. I then downloaded that configuration to 4 different IP addresses. Works a treat.

You could do something similar with profibus but you should definitely define them all in hardware to calculate the token rotation time for the bus. I wouldn't advise putting too many HMI's on profibus as it slows things down somewhat: HMI's are class 2 masters on profibus and profibus masters can only speak to their slaves when in posession of "The Token". The token is passed between masters on the bus so adding more masters can really slow down your profibus comms.

Nick

 

[mk42]

I've seen a few projects where they had "dummy" hmis configured, just to get the network looking correct. One of the HMIs was the real one, with the config used for all the panels, and then the other devices simply had empty projects.