C-More Micro HMI Bottling Plant 7: Tracking Screen from AutomationDirect

If we select Shifted Function Key F4 (which would be F9) we get the tracking screen. This screen shows us a graphic over here which responds to another pushbutton over here When we press this button the graphic over here changes from manual to auto. The FAN and Adjustments buttons are just screen change buttons with bitmaps sitting on top of them to make things more clear for the user. Let’s see how this works together. Let’s see … we are on screen 13. In our project, let’s scroll down to screen 13 which is our tracking screen. This is just a normal indicator button that’s using the AutoMan Tag for both the push button action and the indicator light. The trick here is the text that is used on the button is right justified. That leaves room to place a Dynamic Bitmap over here which can also track the AutoMan TAG. So when we press the button both the button AND the Dynamic Bitmap change so it looks like one button action working. This is a handy technique to use especially since there isn’t a graphic button where we can specify our own bitmap. The exact same concept is used here on the screen change buttons; these are just Dynamic Bitmaps sitting on top of screen change buttons. The tracking function is just a simple bard graph with all labels and other markings turned off except for the divisions, we have two major and two minor divisions. We’re using a solid fill and a horizontal graph which is limited from 0 to 100. And it’s monitoring this speed TAG. On top of that, we are using an indicator light that displays the Auto and Manual Text but that Indicator is just tracking that AutoMan TAG that we modified with the pushbutton. Down here we just have some static text. Notice on this screen there isn’t room for the HOME button. That doesn’t matter, we can still create a screen change button, using function key F1 that will take us back to screen 2 which is our shifted version of the main screen. The user won’t see this button, but they will know from the rest of the project that the F1 button will still take them to the home screen. This really points out the importance of consistence in your panel designs. If the user is used to going to the home screens using F1, then they will simply know that will work even on screens where it isn’t apparent like this one. If we go back to the simulator we can see that the dynamic bitmaps both here and here tracking the pushbutton action. And finally, just to be sure, let’s hit F1 and sure enough, that takes us back to the home screen. That’s it for this video – be sure to check out the other videos in this series. And as always, please send us any topics you would like to see covered – or - any other comments for that matter – we appreciate the feedback