Bit to Display

[John_R]

Hey All,

I'm in the process of converting a project I originally did in a V570 into a V1210

Along the way I have been revisiting logic I did several years ago and cleaning up some bad habits from the past (multiple lines in a net, conditional sub calls, etc).

I ran the Project Optimizer and it came back with this suggestion for a few different  "HMI Display Loaded" calls that I have, and says to use "Bit to Display" instead.

I looked in the Help section but do not see "Bit to Display"

Anyone know what/where/how ?

JohnR

 

[Flex727]

I think they're talking about the bit you assign on the Links & Jumps tab on the HMI display.

[John_R]

Thanks Flex,

I guess I really have not paid attention to that option on the Links & Jumps tab, but it makes sense.

JohnR

[Flex727]

It probably makes little difference, but Unitronics seems to want the programmer to use the Links & Jumps tab whenever possible. I tend to use that for the Bit to Display, but almost never use the Jump to Display bit assignment on that tab (except for the keyboard PLCs such as the V130 or V350).

[John_R]

And I find that I like to use the Jump to Display with a touchscreen for repetitive use touch buttons, like an EXIT button or Arrow button.

For instance, I make an EXIT button assigned to MB40, I can re-use that button on any display, but it only Exits from the current display to whatever display the jump is assigned to it for the particular display it is on.

JohnR

[Ausman]

A little off topic, but this is another area where the firmware in the plc could be changed to accommodate more modern needs if some of the "never used" bloatware was removed.    The decision needs to be made one way or the other......either use the Links & Jumps assignments, or the HMI display loaded system, but not both.

Apparently the lack of modern things is due to no more room available at the firmware-chip-inn, so my greatest wish for some time has been for the creators to revisit things and go through all the Vision system's older quirks.  They should get rid of the myriad useless stuff that no-one uses  eg Add/Mult/Div/Sub 3 x1, 4x1 etc, add in more modern needs and then put a big notice on that update that it "most definitely will not work with older programs" blah blah.  One thing that springs to mind would be the ability to have secure connections. 

Perhaps another way to achieve this would be to change the chip on the board to one with much larger capacity if that is indeed the issue.

But sadly it seems that good old Vision is not being concentrated on anymore, it is Unistream.   In some ways this is a very anti-client path to be going down, given what Unitronics current status was built on and is apparently still the prominent seller.  The world is littered with the gravesites of companies that have ignored the things users want and have concentrated on the "latest and greatest".  If my $500 machine could still do the job with some minor improvements, there would be no need to change it into a $2500 machine that I won't sell!

cheers, Aus

[Joe Tauser]

7 hours ago, Ausman said:

good old Vision is not being concentrated on anymore, it is Unistream

You are correct, sir.

I have asked literally half a dozen times if the OS of the Vision could be pared to make room for new functionality.  It's not going to happen.

What I've noticed on the UniStream side of the forum is a large percentage of the questions have to do with non-PLC topics such as networking, serial communication, databases, remote control, and so on.  The shift is for everything to be some kind of Internet appliance, and the Vision really isn't capable of that.

If the masses are screaming for cake, they're not going to buy potatoes.  Follow the money.

Joe T.

 

[Ausman]

6 hours ago, Joe Tauser said:

the Vision really isn't capable of that.

Ahh yes, Joe.  But if the OS could be modded to suit that need, would it not do the job?

cheers, Aus

[Joe Tauser]

Not really.   All the function blocks in the Vision were written by the Creators from the ground up to run on a microprocessor.

Look at the barely-functional-in-today's-world Email block in the Vision.  When it was created in 2005, SSL did not exist and it worked great.  Along came SSL with a whole new set of rules and now their festive little block doesn't work anymore. 

Only four sockets.  A joke of a webserver.  Remote Access with a custom program via one of the sockets on a port that no IT department will let you open because it's in the wild.

The UniStream platform actually has two CPUs - the panel is a Linux box and the "CPU" is another processor that runs a PLC logic solver as a thread on the panel.  So all the functions that PCs do as mentioned above have been offloaded to an operating system that is supported by a much larger community that can keep up with the networking and security changes and requirements.

All the other players are doing a similar thing on their HMI products - I know for a fact that AB PanelView Plus and Siemens Win CC run as a task on Win CE.  I don't know what OS Weintek / Maple Systems uses but it is similar - an HMI program on a dedicated CPU.

So the Vision series will continue to be a logic solver with a screen.  Which is fine.

Joe T.

[Ausman]

I'm going to run this OS issue discussion over into a new topic about possible ways around the limitiations.

cheers, Aus