Unicode and RTSP...

The HMI now supports Unicode. Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems.

Two additions for video camera support have been added.

The first addition is generic MJPEG decoding that should work with all cameras, that support MJPEG via HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), regardless of ‘manufacture’ embedded data in the header.

The second addition is support for RTSP (Real time streaming protocol). The main reason for adding RTSP support was to add H.264 decoding. The list of supported protocols is too large to list in this blog. Testing of RTSP was performed using H.264 and MJPEG decoding using 4 different video cameras/encoders.

(H.264/MPEG-4 Part 10 or AVC (Advanced Video Coding) is a standard for video compression, and is currently one of the most commonly used formats for the recording, compression, and distribution of high definition video.)

Ping via ICMP (Internet control message protocol)...

The HMI now has a “Ping” driver. This driver can be used to ping devices that do not have other communication paths with the HMI. This allows the HMI to monitor devices and create alarms, messages, graphic changes, log entries, etc. when a device does not respond within the configured parameters.

The address to ping can be an IP address or a host name. Each “ping master” can support 100 devices and the number of masters is unlimited.

Here is a screen capture of the configuration screen.

 

Delta motion control protocol...

The HMI now supports the Delta motion control protocol (DMCP) using TCP and/or UDP.

All registers are accessible and multiple register writing is supported. One write call can write up to 1024 registers for TCP and 256 registers for UDP.

The HMI can also collect plot data from the controller using “Method 2: Advanced”.  Using this method allows the HMI to collect all 8 plots (0-7) and the plot size is unlimited. The captured plot is rendering in an X/Y chart and a picture of the chart can be included in a generated report. The data can also be exported to CSV file.

HMI and PCCCOPC update...

We released a maintenance update for the HMI and PCCCOPC programs.

An issue was discovered with I/O reads for the SLC and MicroLogix. The two I/O systems are similar but the differences were not fully addressed in the programs.

Support for using a NET-ENI with a SLC PLC was added to the HMI program.

The alarm panel unused area color is now configurable.

Work is under way for supporting native communications with Delta Motion Controllers, DMCP protocol.

SMS...

Email notifications when an alarm occurs, with/without acknowledgements, tiered users, repeats, etc. has been a part of the HMI for some time.

As of today the HMI now has SMS as a notification option with the same features as Email notifications. Both Email and SMS can be enabled concurrently. Plus, at runtime the user can be presented with a form to enter and send an SMS to one or more users. Also, a fixed SMS can be sent to one or more users via scripting.

 

A bug, "406 Not Acceptable", with the "Check for update..." feature, that appeared recently, has been corrected.

 

New gauge...

The latest HMI release has a new gauge graphic element. It has many configurable settings, up to 3 needles, 3 sections, opacity, etc..

 

Drag and drop...

Before today importing graphics into the graphic editor was via the clipboard. Some external program (MS Paint, Photoshop, etc.) copied the graphic to the clipboard and the HMI could then ‘paste’ the graphic from the clipboard and convert it to an internal HMI graphic element for display.

The HMI graphic editor now supports drag and drop for graphic files.

PNG                Portable Network Graphics       

GIF                  Graphics Interchange Format
JPG/JPEG      Joint Photographic Experts Group
WMF/EMF   Windows Meta File/ Enhanced Metafiles
BMP               Bitmap Image File
ICO                 Icon

The file name extension is used to determine the file type. The clipboard can continue to be used to import graphics. The nature of WMF/EMF files might require a particular file to be imported via the clipboard.