preference: Factory Talk SE and ME mix or SE on touchscreens?

V0N_hydro

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I have to decide between using factory talk SE and ME on 15" touchscreens.

There will be 3 touchscreens all displaying the exact same displays in different locations, and two desktop-computer based HMIs in two different locations.

If I use SE everywhere then I could potentially use the exact same screens, albeit at 1024x768, on the computers as the touchscreens, and the touchscreens would be panel mount industrial PCs with integrated touchscreen runnings Factory Talk SE Client.

If I use SE only on the desktop computers then I have to maintain a Factory Talk ME project as well and I would order PanelView6+.

The licensing and hardware costs seems to be a wash, comes out about the same as I am stuck using AB industrial PCs.

I imagine it might be awkward trying to use the same interface with the mouse and with touch, and it has been pointed out that 1024x768 is pathetically small for a desktop HMI, and I agree.

I have never used SE or ME or panelviews.

is ME much better suited to running on touchscreens? Will any potential time savings by using the same project on the touchscreens and the desktop HMI be offset by accomodating mouse and touch and the poor resolution?

thanks for your input.

This is a rephrased version of http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?t=84544
 
Touchscreen interfaces are all about how you design your HMI, nothing to do with the hardware. Don't get me wrong, some touch panels will be more responsive than others but overall if you know you have touchscreens, you make sure buttons are large for fingers, buttons are used instead of scroll bars...etc.

You're better off using SE clients all around, but I would spring for a 17"-19" touch screen (industrial computer + hope industrial touch screen). Shoot the resolution to 1280 x 1024 and everyone is happy including the keyboard/mouse stations. Gives you plenty of room for fat fingers, larger buttons and descent graphics.

If you use SE distributed, then you can manage everything quite easily. PanelViews belong on stand-alone skid-type systems, not on larger distributed areas.
 
Thanks for your thoughts.We will be using SE distributed to integrate with a remote control room where they will have SE HMI clients on desktop PCs.

The panelview6+ and AB industrial PC hardware is nearly the same, just different software ME vs. SE.

the SE on the touchscreens would work a lot better as 1280x1024 as then it could be totally common with the desktops.
 
Push harder for a vendor variance on the touchscreens so you can get the same resolution as the desktops. It's going to be a huge time-saver to be able to use the exact same GFX files, rather than duplicating and scaling them.

In the project you described, I would absolutely rule out mixing ME and SE.
 
I suppose one plus for the panelview6+ with Factory Talk Machine Edition is that they would be independent of the SE server. If/when that computer stops working the ME HMIs would continue to operate normally as I assume they interact directly with the PLC(s) instead of getting all data second hand from the SE server.

This is very helpful thanks.
 
If you choose to use PV+6 and FactoryTalk View ME for your field touchscreens, they will be independent of the FactoryTalk View SE system. They'll talk directly to the PLC controllers, and use resources and bandwidth on the controller ports separately from the SE system, and if the SE system crashes the PanelViews will presumably remain running.

In addition, you will be using a familiar development environment, with many consistent and similar features.

However, the applications will necessarily be different. FactoryTalk View ME doesn't support VBA, it has greatly limited datalogging and trending capabilities, and many of the fundamental features like Buttons with navigation and scripting actions that are used in SE are absent in ME.

If you mix FactoryTalk View ME and SE, you will end up making all of your changes twice and will have to find ways to reduce functionality or modify features in the ME application.

You have to weigh the advantages of diversity (the PV+ will continue running if a server crashes) against the advantages of consistency (the application is actually identical and changes will be made in only one place).
 
If you go the SE route, definitely get touch screens with at least 1280x1024 resolution. SE doesn't scale well, and the cost is minimal. We use almost all 17" screens here, from various vendors.

Also, if you go the SE route, I'd strongly advise against an all-in-one PC and touchscreen (typically called Panel PC's). Totally not worth it. Go with a separate Industrial Fanless PC and touch screen.

And always keep backups of your SE HMI projects.
 
Here is my 2 cents worth and How I do it.

You don't want to be maintaining a SE and ME applications. Go with SE distributed as this situation is what it's designed for. As Paully's 5.0 stated panelviews are for skid systems and single HMI applications.

I would not use the integrated panel PC as the touch screen is what get's the abuse and what fails first. If you go with a panel pc then evertime there is a failure you have to replace the whole thing which is much more expensive than just replacing the screen and also you have to relaod all the **** to the new PC and with FT view this is a nightmare.
 
If you have a control room I would put a real server in there and run thinmanager on it and make everything else a thin client. Use bign Hope industrila 19 or 21 inch screens and you will love them and you can't beat the price.

Thin clients are more robust than PC's and will autoconfigure if using thin manager. This way if a terminal goes down Bubba can replace the touch screen as thinmanager will have the drivers for it and can even calibrate it on it's own and if the thin client dies Bubba just plugs in a new one and thin manager load all software and configures it automagically.

This is the way to go if you like to sleep at night.

Want a good server buy a stratus.It is fully redundant and when a part fails your operation keeps running and never misses a beat. the server will send a message to stratus and you that a specific part has failed and it will be overnight delivered to you with install guides and a guy to do it depending on the package you choose.

Run the server virtualized in VM Ware ESXI and you are bullet proof.


http://www.stratus.com/Solutions/ByITNeed/FaultTolerance
 

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