Saturday, 7 August 2010

PLC support expanded

Allen-Bradley & Siemens plc support expanded

Maple Systems has just expanded their PLC support to more fully integrate their HMIs with controllers from Allen Bradley and Siemens. This important expansion in capabilities comes with their newest release of EZware.

Among the enhancements of this upgrade is the ability to utilize tags with Allen-Bradley Controllers in such a way that they can be named with descriptive text the programmer chooses rather than having tag names based on PLC memory addresses.

This is important on two levels. First, it means that your Maple HMI can work with an Allen-Bradley controller without changing the coding of the controller itself. That allows you to place a Maple HMI into an established Allen-Bradley process without disrupting the existing controller program.

Secondly and from a practical standpoint, cryptic names for variable tags can be replaced with more appropriate nomenclature. That allows you to create descriptive tags which are more meaningful to your unique automation process -- like "pumphouse7" for example.

Also added into the new software are 26 new communication drivers. Included is a protocol for the new Siemens S7-1200 PLC. And with a total of 170 different protocols supported, the Maple HMI grants you flexibility with the brands you want to deal with. This upgrade also includes 67 other operational enhancements that expand the capabilities of the HMI.

In addition, the company has announced that four of its HMI products have just been UL listed for the US and Canada. They include the 5.6 inch HMI5056N, the 4.3 inch widescreen HMI5043N, the 7 inch widescreen HMI5070TH, and the 10.2 inch widescreen HMI5100T. In addition these products are CE certified and RoHS compliant.

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