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.

HMI update 12/28/2013

In the last HMI update for 2013, we realigned the alarm ‘blocking’ logic to maintain continuity between configuration settings and runtime actions.

The SetAlarmEnables function is still present but, will be removed in a future release. See SetAlarmBlocks.

Alarms are enabled / disabled, at runtime start, as determined by project configuration.

Alarm logic can be blocked / unblocked at runtime to temporarily disable and then enable the alarm logic processing for a point.

Alarm blocks are designed to be a temporary solution, when for example, a transmitter fails and the configured alarm needs to be 'blocked' so as not to provide false information.

The alarm configuration should be altered if the 'block' is used as a permanent or long term solution.

Also the SetAlarmSetpoints has a new flag to disable the alarm check when the function is called. This really should only be called with ‘false’ at runtime start, via the runtime start script, when the data from external devices has not yet been collected.

Happy New Year

HMI update 12/1/2013

Yesterday, a new version of the HMI was released that includes three new script functions.

ODBCDataLoggerDelete

This function is used to delete all the records of the table. The data logger appends a record to the table when the preset timer expires or a “log” command is called. The table can become very large. This allows the table to be emptied on command.

AcknowledgePointAlarm

The HMI has a global “Acknowledge” command. Also, the alarm panel graphic has a “Page Acknowledge” button. Now a single point alarm can be acknowledged via scripting. When an alarm row is selected, via the alarm panel, the point tagname and alarm type are now available to the scripting engine, allowing actions to be programmed based on the point tagname and/or the alarm type.

SetAlarmPoints

This function provides for “set points” of the analog point alarms, to be altered at runtime. Two methods are provided to alter a "setpoint". The HMI can be instructed to use the value of another point or via a value defined by the user.


Earlier this month we released an 800+ page manual for the HMI. The link to download the manual is on our website.

HMI release...

Today a new version of the HMI was released. The release has several new features in preparation for a new feature to allow the attachment of files to Emails sent from the HMI.

Several new script commands have been added.

ExportAlarmLog, ExportEventLog

These new commands provide the ability to convert a log file, at runtime, from the internal format to a ‘CSV’ (comma separated values) file. The current log file (today), yesterday’s log file or a log file selected by day/month/year can be converted. The first two options provide an easy method to run a task at for example, 3:00 AM and email or FTP yesterday’s log file without user interaction.

CaptureScreen, CaptureWindow, TrendSavePlotPictureToFile

These new commands provide the ability to capture the complete monitor(s) image, a specified user window, the foreground window or a trend plot picture to a specified file. The file can be sent via email or FTP without user interaction at a specified time or via a triggered event. The print screen features remain without change.

An Email generated via notifications has been available in the HMI for some time. The new Email feature will be under script control and allow the attachment of files, along with the normal message and subject fields. A user generated Email will also be available. It will be much like the SMS user generated message entry.

If you have any requirements, wants or needs for the forthcoming Email feature, contact support for more data.

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.