Compact HMI is the Solution of Choice

Electrical Design and Automation Ltd (EDA Ltd) is an automation system builder located on the outskirts of Shrewsbury, UK. A recent automation project for a brewery offered the opportunity to capitalise on their experience and training to produce a very cost effective solution for their customer. This involved the use of a pre-configured Advantech touch panel with Wonderware InTouch Compact Edition HMI supplied by HardwarePT.

InTouch Compact Edition is the version of the world leading SCADA InTouch software which is designed to run on a multitude of Windows CE devices. Wonderware has established its ‘Powered By Wonderware' programme with leading vendors which certifies that a particular device will run InTouch Compact Edition. One of the leading vendors in this programme is Advantech.

EDA is the established automation systems supplier to a brewery where Wonderware InTouch is used. The new project was to extend this application to provide an additional HMI for the same system, but mounted remotely and closer to the equipment. Various solutions were considered, such as the PLC vendor's HMI, but the more elegant solution was to be able to take the existing InTouch application, edit it to meet the functionally lower requirements of the new HMI and then install this onto an InTouch CE device.

Complete single source supply

A suitable device was the Advantech 10" screen touch panel, which had a screen size to meet with operational requirements and was a certified device for Wonderware InTouch Compact Edition within the "Powered By Wonderware" programme. What EDA needed was a simple way to procure this combination without a whole new learning curve. A single source of supply was found in SolutionsPT's HardwarePT division, which was able to supply the Advantech panel loaded and pre-licensed with Wonderware InTouch Compact Edition. In addition the particular unit had been powered up and subjected to pre-delivery functional checks in HardwarePT's workshops.

On receipt of the panel, EDA simply loaded the modified application using their standard Wonderware development tools and then took the panel to site. This was deployed rapidly and connected with the Rockwell CompactLogix PLC.

Commenting about the first time experience with Wonderware InTouch Compact Edition, Neil Phillips, EDA Automation Engineer, said, "The whole exercise was far easier than I had anticipated. HardwarePT delivered a ready-tested and ready-licensed panel, Wonderware InTouch Compact Edition worked just fine and we had a smooth progression to project completion." Neil added, "Wonderware WindowMaker [the development tool] is both easy to use and powerful, offering the same high quality development environment for PC and HMI based applications." Neil had a few questions that needed clarification during the first use of the HMI but these were readily resolved in a couple of calls to SolutionsPT's support services.

Summary

The combination of Wonderware InTouch technology both on HMI and PC, with Advantech panels and services from HardwarePT has provided a very cost effective and efficient solution for this project, which will no doubt be the underpinning of proposals for similar projects in the future.

Contact

Electrical Design and Automation Limited, gen@eda-limited.co.uk

www.hardwarept.co.uk

www.wonderware.co.uk