Hello,
I’ve worked a few time with Allen Bradley’s PanelView32 as an example. Now they have more sophisticated software and PCs, I’m thinking of the VersaView. They are very expensive.
Ignition, to me is a definite competitor.
We plan to use Touch Screen in our updates in automation in the factory. Unfortunately Ignition has no virtual alphanumeric keyboards or simple numeric ones. Are there any projects in the near future?
Thank you.
Well I will weigh in on this. Frankly you are comparing a simple HMI with a full blown SCADA system assuming you are going to install the RSView ME on the Versaview. The vesaview is simply a panel mount computer. With RSView ME installed on it you really dont gain much over a panelview. You have a limited number of screens you can develop and the software is somewhat buggy. There are some nice things about the platforms such as the ability to drill down and grab tags from an offline project and the ability to create global objects (would love to see those taken the rest of the way by the IA folks). The last place that specced a PV that I developed has now put in Ignition for logging and trending (yes ME can trend but you’ll wish you never had gone through all the work to implement it for what it really does). I wont even get into the expense since you already did. I can buy a panelmount computer for half the price of the AB interfaces and drop clients wherever I want with IA. I can just use simple operator interface functions or use a database for practically anything.
Not sure I understand your comment about alpha keyboard and numeric inputs. Maybe you didn’t see the touchscreen mode in IA that automatically brings up those functions. Hope this helps.
Russell
[color=#FF4000]Not sure I understand your comment about alpha keyboard and numeric inputs. Maybe you didn’t see the touchscreen mode in IA that automatically brings up those functions. Hope this helps.[/color]
What I mean is if we plan to use a touch screen there will be a possibility to be able to type letters and numbers???
[color=#FF4000]I have not heard about the touchscreen mode…is there some place where we can find out about it?[/color]
If you enable Touchscreen Mode for the project, clicking on any input component will bring up the on-screen numeric keypad or keyboard. To do this you can go into the Designer and under the Project Browser double-click on Properties and navigate to Client -> General. In that there is a checkbox labeled “Touch Screen Mode Enabled”. Save the project and launch a new client. There will be a grey rectangle in the upper right corner that turns orange when you click on it. That means you have activated Touchscreen Mode.
Thank you Robert.