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HMI Operator Panel Opinions

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Hi All... Just trying to collect some opinions on HMI touchscreen operator panels. Does anyone recommend a certain brand, model, for ease of use, programming, graphics, colors, etc., etc. I need to replace some operator panels and was considering a new touchscreen HMI. CH PanelMate, AB PanelView, Dayton Easytouch, GEFanuc, etc., etc. Any suggestions or advice would be welcome. Thanks,

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I have used most of the AB Panelview line over the past 18 years. Its like other AB hardware, it's good stuff but can get costly. I have a machine that was transfered hear from another site that has an Automation Direct EA7-T8C color touch screen. It is similar to the Panelviews but at a lower cost I think (haven't bought one yet). It uses a programming software called C More, uses an USB port for programming, has 2 more USB ports which you can output faults or other information to a jump drive, an ethernet port, and a serial port which I am using to connect to an AB Micrologix 1500. I have made some changes to this HMI and it didn't take but a few minutes to get up to speed on how it works. So far I have no complaints with this HMI. I am starting to like it alot more than the Panelviews the more I use it. Just my 2 cents worth.

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Red Lion G3 is my new favorite. The software is free and very powerful. I can't think of anything that a PanelView + can do that a G3 can't do better, faster, and with less hassle. There are some things that you have to learn to do differently with Crimson 3.0, but it is much better stuff. I also have one machine with an EZ-Touch HMI (predecessor to the C-More) and it has been very reliable and the software is very easy to use.

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I will not say what is better, what is not. If it were me, I would go with whatever you have in the rest of the plant. If the PLC's are AB, I would stay with AB. I would also stay with whatever software you are more comfortable with. I have used mostly AB my whole life. We use some Siemens PLC's and HMI's. Do I like them, yes. Do I like them as much as AB. NO. Why? Because I am used to AB. That is what I am afraid this will turn into. People posting on what they use and not knowing anything else. Also, having one point of contact also helps. Instead of the blame game. AB says it isn't us, it is xxxx HMI that isn't communication. xxxx HMI says it isn't them, it is AB. Etc. I also agree, AB gets expensive. I read somewhere and also confirmed it with a guy that works for GM. They have had very good luck using the Siemens HMI with AB ControlLogix. One drawback to Siemens is that WinnCC is NOT backward compatible. Where AB is.

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The AB PanelView Plus are very expensive when compaired to Automation Direct and Red Lion. Automation Direct has a 8" screen that is just the right size for most applications and only cost $999. For a basic HMI, It's really hard to beat. If I need to do any scripting, communications, or advanced functions I go with the Red Lion G3. It's software takes a minute to understand, but is very powerful. If AB cut their prices in Half I'd consider using PV+, otherwise I'm sticking with AD and Red Lion.

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All i have ever used is Allen Bradley Panel View + so im kinda biased but i would recommend them if you have RSView program to make your program in. Also +'s are expensive compared to others, but they handle about everything we can throw at them, and we wash down every night with hot water pressure washers and they hold up very well.

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You may want to add CTC Parker to that list as well. In terms of ease of use, it's as good as Red Lion and in some applications (supervisor remote monitoring), even better, and it can scale up to a full blown client/server system if you have the need in the future. You need to ask yourself up front about an implementation detail. AB Panelview plus's, GE Cimplicity ME, and CTC Parker (among others) are really Windows CE PC's with canned software installed on top of them. The others are "bare metal" implementations where even if there's a separate operating system, you can't get access to it anyway. If you go down the PC route, the software tends to be much more powerful. To give you an idea of what you can do with it, head on over to Inductive Automation and download their "Ignition' software. You can get free standalone (HMI panel) licenses for their software. It's on par with the higher end SCADA packages and very slick with what it can do, but there is a learning curve if you are used to anyone else's panels because the software is designed around a slightly different GUI paradigm. One huge advantage of this software is that you can run it on Linux, so you can dispense with one of the major weaknesses of AB Panelview Plus for instance (no Windows crashes). If you do go that route, you can always buy industrial PC's and put your own software on it. For instance, you can buy a touch screen from Stealth PC or Nematron (I prefer Nematron) and a diskless/fanless PC from say Advantech (their UNO PC's can be reasonably priced). Put the two together with software and you've got a large screen HMI (say 21") for about the same price as a 10" or 12" unit from AB or GE Fanuc. You can buy standalone AB Panelview Plus software only (it's called "Station ME)"), Wonderware, or Cimplicity PE, or even CTC Parker's software for instance. All of these can easily be installed on your own PC. Some require Windows (strongly suggest you use Windows 7 Starter Edition if it's compatible, or Windows XP Embedded otherwise) so that's another $150+ cost if you use a Windows-based HMI platform. From experience exercising various options if you can go client/server, go that route all the way...use thin clients instead of regular PC's. There's a big learning curve and some pain but the end result is well worth it. If you need standalone HMI's (your description sounds like it), then go for the "middle" route...standalone industrialized PC's and touch panels of your own choosing if you need fairly large displays and such. If you need very simple and not very big displays (10" or less), then go with either Red Lion or CTC Parker. I've had nothing but good things with them. Less so with any of the others. One thing I like about both of these (other than price) is that they are nearly bullet-proof. Can't say that about any of the other HMI's out there in rough (foundry, mining) environments. As to GE Fanuc, stay away from GE Fanuc. When you mention them, you are really talking about 3 different products: 1. Intellution IFix 2. Cimplicity PE. 3. Cimplicity ME. They bought Intellution, mostly for their Historian, and have virtually stopped development on it. The iFix HMI looks really cool at first because it's built 100% out of the ActiveX concept but quickly falls down because of the inherent slowness of ActiveX and the fact that Microsoft has obsoleted ActiveX systems. Conversion to any other platform can't really be done mechanically so it looks like this is a dead end product at this point. Cimplicity PE and Cimplicity ME are two totally different products that share the name only. Cimplicity ME is very irritating. It's slightly better than Panelbuilder32 (the old AB Panelview software) but only marginally so. Under the hood, a Cimplicity ME box is similar to Panelview Plus...it's a Windows CE PC. But the software will drive you up the wall in terms of it's limitations and quirky hardware interfacing. Cimplicity PE on the other hand is a high end HMI/SCADA system. You can run it standalone but it's designed as a client-server system for a large plant. It's probably the most powerful version of that I've seen, on par with Citect. If you are pushing a LOT of data points on a screen (water treatment folks tend to do this) I've been told that it scales better than others. However that being said, with any of these products, you get the legendary GE tech support. That alone is well worth the reason to stay as far away as possible. I simply can't stress this enough.
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The Red Lion G3 is by far my favorite. Competitively priced, free software, flexible, and the best tech support you could ask for. I will disagree with Paul on this one about the Parker CTC. In general Parker still has no long term support for their products. They change products like Windows changes OS. When you run into real issues their support folds. I could go on and on, but I'll just leave it at that the CTC has never fit in with my long term needs.

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Thanks a Bunch ....and ALL are good points..!!

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Does it support tag addressing? Edited by Sergei Troizky

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Yes, it supports Logix5K native tags if that's what you were asking. It allows you to import an RSLogix5000 L5K file. It imports all of the tags, though, so what I have done, is create a dummy file in RSLogix5000 and delete all but the HMI tags before exporting to L5k. I believe their newest build offers some improvements in the area of Logix native tags.

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Yes, this is what I was asking. One more question: does the programming software allow comparing the display content with PC project file? Strangely enough, some brands/models do not (e.g. Beijer H-series). Edited by Sergei Troizky

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I wish I had seen this post a year ago. I have to agree with all your opinions.

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Yes, Crimson 3.0 has an item in the Link menu called Verify, that will tell you if your offline project matches the HMI.

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For the combination of cost and functionality I like the panasonic GT series. A 6" full color sceen runs about 600.00 bucks, software is cheap and upgrades can be downloaded for free. They have drivers to talk to a whole slew of PLCs including Allen Bradley, Omron, Mits, Modbus.

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Avoid the AB PV+. It is a headache generating machine. It is the impetus that drove me out of the AB camp and over to Automation Direct. The C-more software is infinitely easier to use and I haven’t run into the sort of gotcha bugs* that seem to dominate the PV+ platform. * And for a few thousand dollars a year, Rockwell Software will help you work around those bugs! What a deal ....

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Nextion touch screen may be more suitable for you, it has a low price, and it also provide a free editor, Nextion editor has mass components such as button, text, progress bar, slider, instrument panel etc. to enrich the interface design. Furthermore, the drag-and-drop function ensures that users spend less time in programming, which will reduce 99% of their development workloads.   so you can quick create your owner GUI. you download it from here https://nextion.itead.cc/resource/download/nextion-editor/

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You can find all the HMI accessories of all brands in the world on the VICPAS website www.vicpas.com. This is a dedicated HMI accessories center, all products are brand new and have a one year warranty.

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