Link Systems HMI screen shot question

[Chris Elston 79]

A reader e-mailed: I am a photographer working with a plc safety equipment manufacturer. they have asked me to get photographs of the screens on their console. This seems counter intuitive to me as a Mac user. Grabbing a still frame of the control interface graphics seems like something that could be done with a computer not a camera. But this PLC stuff is quite foreign to me. (I.E. it doesn\'t have a mouse.) Could you tell me, please if there is a non camera method of recording the interface screen from a sheet metal press controler. Getting a full size, 72 dpi jpg image of the screen is the objective. Your thoughfulness is appreciated in advance. -Rob Stack (I asked what brand HMI, it's a Link Systems. I never heard of it...) Anyone else know if this HMI has a screen shot function or Smart Media port or something to get some screen shots from?

[Guest JorgeR]

I'm not familiar with the software for that HMI, but the software that I am familiar with allows you to see what the screen will look like (sort of) on your computer as you program it. If it were me, I would pull the program up on my computer and get a screen shot of the panel in question and save it as a JPG. This should look almost just like the actual panel, although any data that should be on the screen will probably not be there or will show up as 1234. I'm not expirienced with JPG's enough to know what kind of reselution you would get. Some HMI's also have a print screen function with a printer connected to the HMI. Hope this helps.

[Jay Anthony 118]

Guest_Rob_Stack: Please register at MrPLC.com and join the MRPLC.com community Register at MrPLC.com Looking at the manual, the Omni Link 5000 HMI is not using a PC-based system. Rather it looks like an industrial terminal which includes fixed firmware to drive an onboard LCD. Unless I missed something, I don't see a memory card function or VGA port available on this terminal. The best source for your screenshots will be the original design software used to program this screen. Ask Link Systems if they have the design software for this industrial terminal. The design software will run on a PC based sytem and from there, you should be able to make your screen shots. I agree that shooting the LCD will be less than desireable for photo opportunities. Also their website show several good screenshots of their existing software although the quick tour is merely a powerpoint presentation. Omni Link 5000 HMI Specifications Omni Link 5000 HMI Manual

[Guest Robert Stack]

Thank you for the responses. Since that post I have spoken with the engineer who wrote the original logic code. He works in a small office surrounded by the innerds of such mechanisms as it is they make at Link Systems - light curtains to keep die presses from stroking when your hand or some obect that is not supposed to be is under the die. They also make control devices that tell a machine operator that the raw material is going where and when it is supposed to go. Th engineer confirms what you say - there is no common input/output device on these gizmos. He says it could be done by writing a script to capture the screen and adding a serial port to the mechanism. He suggested too that that was not likely to happen this decade. As for the shots of the monitors already in existence, they do look good so long as they are no more than two inches wide. The problem with photographing the monitor is an isidious moire pattern. The monitor is an iluminated grid. The camera's image processor is also a grid. The lens, however, is just the opposite. It adds slight curvilinear perspective distortion - thus, a persistant moire pattern on the image. Compounding things further is looking at the image on my own flat monitor - yet another very fine grid. We have concluded to scan the monitor on a flatbed scanner. Still, though - having a way to "tune in" to some big metal stamping device's controls seems like a good idea to me. Thanks again. -R.

[Jay Anthony 118]

Well, I never understood why the moire pattern emerged on my own photographs. Thanks for explaining the technical on that phenomenon. It's always good to have specialists in their own field lend their expertise on this forum.