HMI update 11/29/2014

A couple of minor additions and a major addition in HMI release today.

·       A new graphic element for easier data entry for operator/users was added.

·       An issue with rotating imported WMF files causing the transparent flag to be ignored was handled.

·       At runtime, if the web server is enabled and another program is using the same port number, the web server would be prevented from listening on the port number and the program using the port number would be unknown. Now if the port number is used, an entry will be placed in the event log with the name of the program using the port number.

·       User mouse actions are point and click configurable for most actions. For the unusual requirements a script could be created and the mouse action linked to the script. Now the script (OnMouseDown and OnMouseUp) can be embedded in the graphic element, eliminating the linking step, linking is still supported.

·      When an ODBC connection attempts to connect to a database and it fails, the error message generated is now more informative about the cause of the error, i.e. invalid credentials, table not found, etc.

·       Analog host tags can now have an initial value set on runtime start.

·      The “Drop list” graphic element can now be loaded from an XLS file at runtime.

·      The recipe unit was based on using XLS files to hold/access the recipe and was read only. Now, the XLS file can be modified in the HMI, at runtime, and saved to disk. (Excel, does not need to be installed.)

·      Also, the recipe unit now supports ODBC. So, connecting to any database that supports ODBC is now supported. And as with XLS recipes, the recipe can be changed at runtime and changes are written to the database when the change occurs.

 

HMI update 11/06/2014...

Today we release a new graphic element in the HMI. Since the initial release the HMI has had a horizontal scrolling trend graphic element.

Now the HMI has a 24 hour circular trend graphic element. The mechanical circular trend was used for decades before strip chart recorders. Round circular trends can be very useful to see data points over an entire 24 hour period on one chart, without any data compression to format the data for display on one horizontal trend.

HMI update 09/22/2014...

Yesterday’s HMI release included a change in the help system to PDF, using the 900+ page help manual, as the source of context sensitive help. Selecting “Help” in the HMI, will open the “User manual” and position the page to a relevant entry.

We added an optional delay time to alarm generation. For example, a boolean input transitions from false to true and the “rising” alarm is enabled.  If the “delay” count is 5 the alarm will not be generated until the input remains true for 5 seconds. If the input transitions to false and back to true, the delay timer restarts.

Analog clock...

The new HMI release includes a new analog clock graphic element.

Creating custom analog clocks is made simple by the wide range of adjustable visual attributes.

DNP3 outstation...

The HMI has supported the DNP3 protocol, as a master station, for several years. Today we released a new version of the HMI that can emulate DNP3 outstations. Any data point in the HMI can be used as a source point in an outstation. For example, data from a device needs to be made available to a DNP3 master and the device only supports a non DNP3 protocol (MODBUS or Allen Bradley or GE, etc.) the HMI can read the data from the device, transfer it to the emulated DNP3 outstation and the DNP3 master can access the data via TCP/IP.

The number of outstations that can be emulated is unlimited.

Here is a screen shot of the default group/item settings.

Percent fill...

The HMI has provided a “percent fill” with directions of left, right, top and bottom since the first release and the MA (Manual/Automatic) complex object has provided up, down and middle fills.

“Middle” (vertical) selection provides for fill from the middle of the object towards the top if the value is 51% of full scale or greater and towards the bottom if the value is 49% of full scale or less. 50% has no fill.

For example; a temperature is maintained +- 10 degrees. The range is -10 to 10 degrees. The percent fill using “middle” is a better visual indication of the temperature in relation to the desired value.

Today we extended the “Middle” direction to all graphic elements that support “percent fill” and also added “Middle (Horizontal)".

 

PDF...

Yesterday we released a new version of the HMI that added support for PDF output.

Reports, screen captures, window captures, DMCP plots and trend plots now all support PDF as an output option.

CFR 21 Part 11...

Yesterday we released a new version of the HMI to support CFR 21 Part 11 user/password control. The HMI has always provided a user/password system to control and monitor access to the HMI. The HMI now provides more options for passwords.

New protocol added...

Today a new version of the HMI was released that supports the Saia-Burgess Serial-S-Bus (RS232/485) and Ether-S-Bus protocols.

Registers, counters, timers, flags, inputs, outputs and data blocks are supported.

Boolean, integer, float and string data types are supported.

 

Graphics addition...

From the release of the HMI the option to set a graphic element to transparent or opaque has been present. This allowed the selected brush style to be applied to the graphic element and the “background” (whatever is behind) to show thru the graphic element.

Yesterday we released the latest version with an “Opacity” setting. This allows for the background to show through graphic elements with a “blend” of the foreground and background. A setting of 0 (zero) is totally transparent and a setting of 255 is totally opaque.

Here is a sample.