NNZ (Customer) asked a question.
I have a CM5-T10W HMI that is running at one of our facilities, and we have had it freeze and require power cycling a couple times in the last week. The system has only been installed and operating fully since early last week, but during testing and troubleshooting prior to installation we had no issues with the screen locking up. The HMI is connected to an Allen Bradley Compactlogix controller and basically shows the status of 3 sections of a production line and information regarding faults and a total of 6 barcode readers. I don't know if it is always freezing on the same screen or on multiple different screens in the program. The program is nowhere near the HMI's capacity, and this is the 5 screen running a fairly similar program and appears to be the only one with an issue. The 4 other screens run a similar program but with only information from 2 barcode readers and 1 machine cell.
My first thought is the 24VDC power to the HMI. I will guess there are other items on the same power supply that powers the HMI. If possible, add a power supply dedicated just for the HMI.
You do not mention a USB stick, but if you are using a USB stick inserted into the HMI for colleting data, try running without the USB stick. This is a long shot because this is a new system. We have had trouble with HMIs when the USB stick gets corrupted, or is full, or is ejected incorrectly, or a non-compatible stick is used.
I will see about adding in a second power supply and see if that helps. Double checking the load on the power supply, shows that if everything is maxed out I might be over it's amperage abilities.
We do not have a USB stick connected to the HMI.
Thanks for the suggestions.
Yes, hopefully the dedicated HMI power supply will solve the freezing problem. If not, another thought, you mention (6) barcode readers. I'm guessing you are using an external USB splitter to get these (6) USB inputs? And your other working systems get data from only (2) barcode readers. I do not know if this USB splitter could be a problem or not.
Similar to our bad USB stick problem, could one of the barcode readers be at fault? Again, a long shot because this is a new system.
Anyway, please post your solution.
Since this HMI is installed at one of our other locations, I will have to wait until one of the maintenance personnel there is able to add in another power supply to see if it fixes the issue.
As for the number of barcode readers, I worded it wrong before. All the information from the barcode readers goes directly o the PLC and is processed/manipulated there for the inspections and comparisons that we do. The HMI just pulls the information from the PLC to provide it to the operator and to help with troubleshooting. All of it is done over ethernet, so no issues with USB connections.
Thanks for the explanation. I misunderstood your layout. (easy for me to do) How does the HMI communicate with the CompactLogix? Serial? Ethernet? If Ethernet, are the barcode readers on the same network with the HMI? Or are the barcode readers on their own network? On a CompactLogix Ethernet module for example? If HMI-PLC communication is via RS232, I agree, barcode readers should have no effect on the HMI. (I see some CompactLogix include both Ethernet and serial ports)
All the communications are done over ethernet. All of the equipment is on the same network and this system is the only thing on this particular VLAN. Readers are controlled through the Compactlogix ethernet module. The HMI only directly communicates with the PLC and pulls all the needed tag information from it.
Controls and data for the barcode readers that show up on the HMI are: manual trigger, automatic tuning, and then just string data (We show current box label, current job, string that is being used for comparison, current part, and then only when on a troubleshooting page we show the last 26 parts ids). The trigger and tuning are just bit in the PLC, and the string data is all stored and pulled from the PLC.
Hope that helps explain it.
Please open a support case so we can dig into this and figure out what the root cause is.
Second what @ADC_HmiClicK_PE01 (AutomationDirect)
Be ready to provide:
1) Your firmware version
2) A copy of both the PLC and CM5 projects
3) Clearly explain what do you mean by "freezing"? The touch operation stops working? Data stops updating on the screen?
4) What is going on at the time it freezes? Is someone touching the screen? Is a recipe being loaded?
All of these will help narrow down and duplicate the issue. Sorry you are experiencing this issue.
Yes, that explains it, thank you. Hoping power supply will solve it. My thinking about the communication was if readers and HMI are on same network, which they are, possibly communication was causing HMI freezing, duplicate IP addresses for example. But yes, ADC tech support will figure out the root cause.