Panelview Plus Compact

[Chris Elston 79]

I am considering purchasing a bunch of Panelview Plus Compact for some EthernetI/P demo cases. This model here: 2711PC-T6C20D http://literature.rockwellautomation.com/idc/groups/literature/documents/pp/2711pc-pp001_-en-p.pdf I haven't used any of these yet. What are your opinions of these? Basically all I want to do is stuff a Compact L1 PLC with a PanelView Plus. I want to control a single axis robot controller via EthernetI/P very simple salesman tools. I shouldn't exceed the 25 screen limit or the 200 alarm limit, but I am most concerned about any limits in screen development. Did Allen Bradley take away an tools you can't do in a compact panelview plus verses a full blown version? Like I can still make an custom screen I like and animate images etc I assume right? Those are the pitfalls I am most interested in hearing about, if there are hidden "hand-cuffs" you have discovered. Thank you.

[pcmccartney1 141]

I used several PV+ Compacts with no loss of functionality. Your app sounds rather simplistic and should be no problem for the units specified. The only drawback is 25 screen limit, so if you need more screens you have to consider "unitizing" screens and doing parameter passing. This allows you to have one screen that acts like many, when called with specific parameters.

[Ken Roach 194]

For what you want, they should be OK. The current generation of PV+ 600 hardware will only run version 5.10 firmware, and the 'Compact' versions of both 400/600 and 700-1500 run the old logic modules and v5.10 firmware. You can develop applications for them using version 6.10 (or 7, I presume) but not with Version 6 features. You'll want to use FTView Studio 6.10, since its RSLinx Enterprise supports the current '5370' generation of CompactLogix. There will be a hardware update for the 600 this spring, but I don't know details.

[Joe E. 259]

Another limitation of the PV+ Compact (probably not relevant to this application, but may be to others) is that it can only talk to one PLC.