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I Thought we were going with a simplified pilot vessel in the end? This is a great thread. A bit "in the know" and daunting looking for us lesser experienced types though.

We have old Yaskawa Progic8 plc's linked with Yaskawa Servopacks contolling Positioners here in this plant and we had an issue with Comms Timing out continually mid download or mid monitoring. The issue seems to be a windows issue as we fixed it by providing a few dual boot, W2K <-> DOS, Laptops. Seeing as the Progic 8 software is DOS based, It can run under the DOS Environment and Have Yet to have a Download failure or Timeout using the Dos boot in the new Laptops. Not Sure if it's Relevant but Might put you on the right road or give you Ideas?

What's it used for? If it's going to be used as a user friendly method of Debgging a PLC Program (Or the likes of) while Building or something that isn't going to be used long term, and all you need is a user front end (I.E, You already have the IO Server) then You could Use Microsoft Excel and it's embedded VBA. I Used it once or twice with a CTI-2572 IO Server communicating with a TI-555 PLC and it's fine. Once the IO Server is set up right, you can use DDE commands to read and write (DDEpoke) to the PLC and if you've the time make a pretty nice little application!

I don't like the Ideas of Stylus' on a touchscreen. The Factory I work in had stylus' attached to the screens that went missing, then were tied to the touchscreens but still went missing and operators resorted to using Pens which blotted ink over the screen. The only positive of a stylus I can think if is that if Humidity is the problem then a stylus should be a way around any issues with Clammy fingers!

I used it in College as an example for PC based control. Not the most pleasant tool to work with but I suppose at the moment, I'm using APT to program a Siemens TI555 PLC which isn't much better, Each to his own I suppose! You've a question about it I take it or just a query as to how many people use it?

Doesn't quite seem to be the LCD but the Touch interface that's the problem. I agree with pDl that anything about any temperature sensitive operations should be in the user manual. I often get the same with the touchpanel on my Laptop, that when you drag the cursor, it pops back to it's original position once you lift your finger but that's more a humidity based problem than a temperature based one. it could be humidity and not temperature that's the source of the problem.

In My Experience (Limited as it is), Electrical engineers are deemed better however again I have to agree with TERdON that Electronic Engineers are better. Particularly those with Microprocessor experience as the thinking and tools are often paralelled with Controls/Automation tools. One Interesting point though is What makes a good programmer? Often if a program works (and well) it's good enough for the programmer to earn appraisal from management but if ease of understanding / development / Maintainance was the goal and focus then other Engineers are where the kudos are from. On a bit of a Tangent here but what makes a good programmer? Spanner