PV800 - Can I have a VNC connection *NOT* be a mirror image of screen?

[MikeBriggs]

Scenario: This is for a system that has a PV800 user interface (connected to a Micro850 PLC) programmed with CCW. There are various control screens we want the user/customer to have access to. But, I also have made a few "manager" screens that we want to only let us have access to, since they are intended for controlling things that wouldn't be safe to let the user/customer have direct control of (meaning they could damage equipment through some direct control). So, I have those screens access restricted to a user account that only we will know the password to. These devices will be at hospitals around the world, and we want to be able to remotely connect to them through VNC. All good so far. Here's the issue: As far as I know, the VNC connection has to be a mirror image of what's on the actual screen. So, if we connect and login with our user account, now anyone with direct access to the PV800 screen is effectively logged in with that account, and will have access to the management screens that we don't want them to have access to.

What I would like is for us to be able to go into those screens remotely via VNC *without* the PV800 display going to those screens (or being logged in to our user account). Is that possible?

 

[hardaysknight]

Not on PanelViews at least. I think UltraVNC has that ability through a separate plugin for Windows PCs, but that doesn't help you in this case.

 

[Ken Roach]

That's a great question, but I don't think you can get what you want from VNC. The point of having VNC on HMI terminals is to "see what the user sees".

VNC is, for better or for worse, just screen and input device sharing. It's not a separate desktop session on the operating system, and to my knowledge there is no "black screen the local host" feature like there is with Microsoft Remote Desktop protocol.

What is your remote connection like ? Can you just connect CCW to the Micro 850 to get to the variables you want to modify ?

 

[MikeBriggs]

That's a great question, but I don't think you can get what you want from VNC. The point of having VNC on HMI terminals is to "see what the user sees".

VNC is, for better or for worse, just screen and input device sharing. It's not a separate desktop session on the operating system, and to my knowledge there is no "black screen the local host" feature like there is with Microsoft Remote Desktop protocol.

What is your remote connection like ? Can you just connect CCW to the Micro 850 to get to the variables you want to modify ?

Yeah, we could just connect to it through CCW to more directly monitor what's happening. I'm the main person in our small company who's familiar with CCW though, so for anyone else it would be far simpler to be able to use the manager screens.

The goal though is to get these systems working smoothly enough that they don't need us to monitor them remotely, in which case this wouldn't be an issue. For now we'll just plan on monitoring through CCW if we need to monitor a system remotely *while* a user is operating it.

Thanks!

 

[plvlce]

Not as familiar with the Micro line, any reason you couldn't basically build a cheap secondary HMI, say AdvancedHMI or the like?

 

[ASF]

Not as familiar with the Micro line, any reason you couldn't basically build a cheap secondary HMI, say AdvancedHMI or the like?

+1 for this. Set yourself up an "OEM" HMI, which resides with your company, and a VPN connection so that when required you can connect that HMI to a remote controller and control it as needed. If you have the right sort of VPN connection, there's no reason you couldn't just use a physical HMI exactly the same as what's on your machines, with the same code in it. As long as your VPN connection is up, the HMI doesn't know or care whether it's bolted to the machine or balanced on a coffee mug on your desk across the country.

Or, as plvlce suggests, build just a basic "OEM controls" PC-based application that you can run up when required. AdvancedHMI is free, or you could look at Ignition Edge - it has an infinitely resettable two hour trial timer, so you could develop and test for no cost, and then if you decide it's a good solution the licensing cost is quite reasonable for a single session.

Either solution gets you a "human friendly" interface rather than using CCW, and keeps the visualisation away from the customer.

 

[MikeBriggs]

+1 for this. Set yourself up an "OEM" HMI, which resides with your company, and a VPN connection so that when required you can connect that HMI to a remote controller and control it as needed. If you have the right sort of VPN connection, there's no reason you couldn't just use a physical HMI exactly the same as what's on your machines, with the same code in it. As long as your VPN connection is up, the HMI doesn't know or care whether it's bolted to the machine or balanced on a coffee mug on your desk across the country.

Or, as plvlce suggests, build just a basic "OEM controls" PC-based application that you can run up when required. AdvancedHMI is free, or you could look at Ignition Edge - it has an infinitely resettable two hour trial timer, so you could develop and test for no cost, and then if you decide it's a good solution the licensing cost is quite reasonable for a single session.

Either solution gets you a "human friendly" interface rather than using CCW, and keeps the visualisation away from the customer.

I love this idea! Thank you to you both!