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C-more Micro HMI -- Product Family Overview for Touch Screen Display for PLC - YouTube
Channel: AutomationDirect.com
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The best place to get information about the
C-More Micro Panels is here at the dedicated
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website at C-MoreMicro.com.
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In this video we will compare the various
C-More Micro panels so you can see the differences
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and decide which panel is best for your application.
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We’ll be using this side by side comparison
on the C-MoreMicro.com website as a guide
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for this video and hopefully give you some
insight as to what all of this means to you.
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Before getting into that though, let’s take
a look at this hardware screen – if you
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go down into one of the panels – you will
see that for each panel there is a link to
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a “specs” page.
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That link takes you to a page that tells you
everything you need to know about the panel
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in just a few short pages, including Features,
Dimensions, Detailed Specs, Wiring diagrams,
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PLC Connections, Supported protocols, Cabling,
Accessories, Replacement Parts and a Software
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overview… make that your first stop when
you have a question about a panel.
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Pretty much everything you could want to know
is right there on that brief specs document.
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So … let’s go back to the comparison chart
and start walking through it.
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The C-More Micro Family currently has EIGHT
different models - six monochrome models – four
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3” models and two 6” monochrome models;
and the two color models, a 4” and a 6”
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for a total of 8 models in the family.
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These two monochrome units two offer both
a regular AND high contrast touch screen – but
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the 3” also offers a non-touch screen version
– so you have the regular contrast, the
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high contrast, the touch and the non-touch
for four total models of the three inch panel.
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While the 3” models are 128x64 pixels – all
of the other 4 and 6” models are ? VGA at
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320-x240 – regardless of the physical size
of the unit.
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The 4” and 6” panels are the same resolution;
the 6” panels just have bigger pixels.
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That ? VGA gives you over 9 times the screen
area of a 3” panel – for example, if we
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look at a 3” display that is fully populated
by a single analog meter like this – this
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is our 3 inch display right here - and then
we go convert that to a 4” panel – you
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can see that the meter that used to take up
the entire 3 inch panel only takes up a small
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portion of a 4 inch or a 6 inch screen.
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So again, the 4 and the 6” panels have over
9 times the screen area of the 3” panels
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– simply because they have a higher resolution.
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Characters are the same thing: horizontally
across the screen you can expect 21 or 32
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characters depending on what mode you are
in on the THREE in panel, but on the larger
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panels you get up to 53 or 80 characters,
again depending on what more you are using.
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We already mentioned that all of the panels
are touch sensitive, but the 3” also offers
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a non-touch version which can save you around
20% on the cost if your budget requires it.
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All of the panels offer optional keypad bezels
EXCEPT the 4” panel.
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Note that while the chart says there are two
styles of bezels for each of the panels – except
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the 4 inch, of course - each panel has different
styles.
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For example, the 3” panels offer these with
two different keypads – a numeric and an
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arrow only bezel, but the 6” panel offers
a portrait and a landscape version of just
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the numeric keypad bezel – there is no separate
directional arrow keypad for either of the
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6 inch panels.
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All of the panels support graphics – both
built in and user generated graphics BTW ..
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All panels have a beep – a little audio
tone - support built in fonts and windows
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fonts, and support data entry methods of both
onscreen pop up keypad on the touch screens,
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increment decrement objects and the 3” and
6” models have optional keypad bezels you
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can use for numeric entry.
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The 3” and 6” monochrome models come with
5 color LED backlights and the 4” and 6”
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color models have 32768 colors to choose from.
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The Monochrome panels come in The High Contrast
or regular contrast models.
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The High Contrast Models really help if you
need to view the panel from a larger distance,
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BUT they only have these 5 shades of Red for
backlight color.
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The regular contrast panels have 5 different
color backlight which is nice because the
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different color screens can help the user
quickly assess what is going on just by the
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screen color.
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The Color models support 32,768 colors, BUT
we haven’t mentioned one other advantage
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that isn’t shown here – the color panels
have a much wider viewing angle.
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The monochrome STNs are good to about 15 degrees
off axis, the Color panels are good up to
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around 70 degrees!
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Different axis have different angles of course…
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check out the spec sheets for more on that
…
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All of the panels have 5 function keys – or
9 with shift – there’s a way you can implement
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a shift key to give you an extra set of function
keys.
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Along with those function keys, all of the
panels have 5 user definable LEDs on the function
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keys.
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The smaller panels can be powered directly
from compatible PLCs without the need for
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another power supply.
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Of course, most of the Automation Direct PLCs
support this feature.
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To figure out which PLCs support powering
the panels and which cables you need to do
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it, simply go to the specs page for each panel
and look it up OR better yet – go to the
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connectivity page of the C-More Micro site
– scroll down to these links right here
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- and you can see a connectivity chart for
the 3 inch panels or for the larger 4 and
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6 inch panels.
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Let’s look at the 3 inch panel first.
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Here we can see that a 3 inch panel can be
powered directly from a Click PLC’s serial
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ports 1 or 2 using this cable and this protocol.
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The Productivity 3000 – the same thing – id
we use the RS232 port and this cable, then
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the 3 inch micro graphic panel can be powered
directly from a productivity 3000 PLC without
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an additional power supply.
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So this chart shows you exactly what you need
to power a panel for every PLC in the Automation
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Direct Line up PLUS many other industry standard
PLCs to!
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One side note: This chart is for the 3”
panels, if we click on the link for the larger
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panels, you will see a note at the bottom
of the chart … this is reminding us that
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for the larger panels while you CAN power
the panel from a PLC serial port, it is really
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only intended for programming.
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This is called the low power mode – in this
mode the panel will have a diminished LCD
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brightness and alarm tones will be disabled.
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All the color panels can be programmed via
USB in low power mode.
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Let’s go back to our comparison chart and
finish this up ... all of the panels have
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the same indoor ratings, all the same agency
certifications, and all of the panels support
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999 screens .. depending on how much memory
you have used, of course.
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Each panel has this much memory.
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And, of course, the programming software and
simulator for all of these units is always
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free.
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You can download it right here.
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One final note –If we go back to one of
the main website pages and scroll down to
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the bottom there is an ad for the C-More panels
– these are the C-More Micro’s big brothers
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– they are available in 6, 8, 10, 12, and
15” models, but the key thing to note here
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is they also have BIGGER and more advanced
FEATURES: things like data logging, Ethernet
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communications, more colors, audio playback
– you can actually play back an audio file
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instead of just beeps - , and more resolution
and of course the bigger sizes – AND you
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can even view the full featured models remotely
from your desktop PC or smart phone!
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So if you need any of those features, be sure
to check out the micros big brother C-More
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Panels.
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That should be more than enough to get you
started – remember everything you need to
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know is located here at c-moremicro.com.
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Be sure to check out the other videos in this
series.
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And as always, please send us any topics you
would like to see covered – or - any other
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comments for that matter – we appreciate
the feedback
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