I am currently doing a major project for a large corporation who, like so many U.S. companies, has Allen Bradley tattooed across their foreheads. This project entails the use of 13 touchscreens and the customer insists they be A-B. I cannot begin to assess the countless lost hours we have swallowed talking to Techconnect to make the software work. Endless activation issues, trying to get the View Studio to access the PLC's tag file, etc. And the way A-B sells their touchscreens by touting "seamless integration" with the PLC? That to me is a cruel joke on their part! But by far, the lost time in developing the application on the machine due to the incredibly long time it takes (around 5 minutes) for each download. Oh, and did I forget to mention the incredibly hostile file manipulation system? You have to close down View Studio (and sometimes even reboot the computer) in order to backup or restore a file! We use a lot of Red Lion and Maple touchscreens on our machines and I gotta tell you, development time is light years faster than an A-B touchscreen project! We are actually now telling customers that we need to charge significantly extra if they demand an A-B touchscreen to cover our development costs. Oh, and did I mention that Red Lion software is free and Maple software is dirt cheap? Or that both Red Lion and Maple have excellent free telephone support? I do not in fact hold a grudge against A-B in general. In fact I really love their PLCs and programming software, but when it comes to touchscreens, A-B has really, really missed the boat.
