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jazzplayermark

Looking for PanelView suggestions

8 posts in this topic

I have a customer that insists on me using a panelview for his project and I have basically no experience with them. I have been using another brand exclusively for many years so I'm well versed in how to use an HMI, just not Allen Bradley.

I'm hoping to get some advice about which unit to use. The system is a simple waste water facility and the controller will likely be a micrologix 1400. The customer wants something in the 15" range. Looking on the AB website I see Plus 6 & Plus 7 both seem to give me that size. Are major differences that I should know about?

thanks

  

 

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If it’s likely to get water spray and these are the choices, I would choose the 6. The display is replaceable while keeping the logic module. I've replaced several screens in a washdown environment. A logic module hasn’t failed yet. A display swap is quick and easy.

I would choose the 7 for a dry or damp area. The plastic cam locks seal the unit to the panel well enough, but I don’t perceive it as secure as the screw clamps of the 6. It’s the current model and cheaper. A backup of the application on a USB stick can be copied to a new unit, provided the firmware version matches.

If you’re new to FactoryTalk View for this, I expect you to quickly develop a strong dislike for it. I’m getting used to it now but it really makes me appreciate others.

Consider proposing a PV800 as an additional cheaper choice to the customer, especially if using a ML1400. I like it as a simpler cheaper alternative to 6/7 where it can be used. It’s developed with free CCW. Unfortunately the largest size is 10.4”. It doesn’t have all the features like parameter passing but for simple I/O interface I think it’s great.

Know how you want to connect, serial or ethernet when ordering. Either works fine.

Second guessing myself...the 6 doesn’t withstand direct spray very well. Maybe the 7 would be better?

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I've never worked in a washdown environment but we do have our own wastewater treatment system. It's kind of a mess with multiple partial upgrades over the years. Overall control is by a CompactLogix with a Schneider Magellis HMI (not our pick, the subcontractor brought it in without in-plant automation folks having any say or warning ahead of time). There are also 3 MicroLogix 1100 PLCs and a 6" Red Lion G3 HMI, all communicating over Ethernet/IP. The Red Lion and one of the ML1100s are in a cabinet that controls the addition of caustic solution and both have been taken out by caustic that leaked into the cabinet. We were very impressed that the PLC and HMI both still worked for at least 6 months after having caustic in them (we bought new ones to have programmed and ready when they did finally fail since we couldn't get a production window to change them out until they died).

With all that said, I will echo what 5618 said about the learning curve with FT View Studio. I developed a STRONG dislike for it on my first project 8 years ago that hasn't fully gone away. There are still "gotcha" bugs and unexplainable software crashes. My early experience with that software crashing and failing is what pushed me to use virtual machines. Other software packages have since reinforced that need, but FTView Studio (RSView Studio back then) was the first one. To be fair, I've had fewer issues since upgrading to v6 a few years ago (we're on 8.2 right now) but there are still issues.

I would ask if the customer has a preference for which line of PanelViews; there are several. If the customer asks for a PanelView+, I would suggest the PV+7, just because it's their current product of that class. I generally prefer the screw-type clamps over the cam-types but we haven't had any trouble with the PV+ HMIs with cam clamps. We don't have a lot of PV+7s in service (just a handful, mostly smaller with one 10" and one 9") but they have done well so far. We have 15 or 20 PV+6s in service that have been bullet proof as long as no-one slams a wrench or broom handle into them. I can't say the same for the SIemens MP HMIs...

I can't speak to the PV800 line, but if they're anything at all like the PV+ Compacts that were initially released with the MicroLogix 800 PLCs, I would avoid them. We bought a few different versions of the PV Compact as an experiment back then and we were not impressed.

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Thanks to both of you. I think the PV+7 is going to be the winner.  I'm the loser :)...

 

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One other question please. This system will have 2 micrologix controllers. One will just be used as an IO device. The other will do all the processing and needs to be able to read from the first controller. Does the Panelview support passing tags from one controller to the other?

thanks

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The base model does not. If you get the PV+7, go with the "Performance" model to connect to 2 PLCs at the same time. I've never used a PV+ to transfer data from one PLC to another, so I can't help you get that working (or if it will).

Do you need the HMI to talk to both at the same time other than passing information back and forth? If not, the ML1400 supports messaging between the PLCs directly. If you just need more I/O, you can get I/O expansions modules to add to the ML1400. If the additional I/O is in a remote location, however, that won't work since the ML series doesn't support distributed I/O.

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Sorry it took me a couple days to get back to this. Yes I'm going to use one of the ml1400s just to handle a bunch of analog io. I'm just going to msg that data every few seconds to the other unit.

thanks

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If you can get away with the HMI only talking to one of the PLCs (which I would think you could since they're using MSG instructions to get the analog information from one to the other) stick with the "standard" PV+7. A 15" Standard lists for about $4300 while the Performance version lists for about $6200.

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