Advanced HMI and Training

Several years ago I posted on Advanced HMI and described what it is, how you can get it and where I was at the time on developing a training HMI. The picture above shows where I am now.

I finally reached a point where I really needed students to share a PLC in a class, each with their own HMI. When I teach for Automation Training, they have an HMI installed on their computers that accesses tags, but only allows a single set of buttons and indicators in the Controller Tags. While students can use the buttons on the trainer itself, this realistically only allows two students to share a trainer with their own buttons.

My classes are a bit different. As you can see in the image above, I uses a series of mode control buttons, a simulated stack light, and a simulated E-Stop and lighted Power button. This is also how I design my trainers. A big reason for this is that I teach students how to design a full program rather than just teaching the instruction set.

You can also see that there are 4 student screens. This allows up to 4 students to share a processor, each with their own buttons.

Last week I traveled to South Carolina and took a 3 day class with Archie Moore, the creator of Advanced HMI. While the Advanced HMI screen creation part is pretty easy, when it comes to screen navigation and driver manipulation it takes some VB.Net and coding skills that I don’t have.

The application works pretty well, but I am still having trouble with deploying it to the student computers. I am teaching a remote class for Automation NTH in San Diego, and their computers haven’t even arrived there yet. When they do, I will need to have an engineer there install the application and test it. I tried it on another computer in my office and it didn’t work right, something to do with the navigation buttons and possibly the driver.

Anyway, I hope to have this running soon and use it in my own classes. I just ordered parts for two AB 1769-L18 PLC trainers, which would allow me to teach up to 8 students at a time. My office only has room for 4-5, so that should work for a while. I am also working on several Fischertechnik models and another set of conveyor trainers. Should be fun for students wanting to program working simulations.

Lots of other things going on, I am speaking at OT SCADA CON at the end of July, and working with a company in Chicago on new trainer designs.

I hope to start posting more things on this blog again also. It is a convenient way to share what I’m doing on other platforms, and probably the only way to effectively recruit for the Automation Academy. At some point I need to learn how to market!