EZ Soft HMI

[MarkTTU]

Does anyone have experience with the EZ Soft HMI software from EZAutomation.net? Good, bad, ugly, I'd like to hear some real-world experiences if anyone's got them. I'd be looking at using this with a Do-more BRX and probably one of their 19" or 21" touch PCs.

[Controls Guy]

You'd get WAY better pricing on embedded and panel PCs as well as standalone monitors from LogicSupply.com, and better specs to boot.  I also buy monitors from Hope Industrial.

Never used their software so can't comment on that.

[MarkTTU]

Thanks for the sources! Looking at options for a new product line; been using C-mores forever and wanting bigger screens. What software do you use for HMI work?

[Controls Guy]

I use DAQ Factory from Azeotech.com.  It started out as a control package so has excellent scripting and so on, and some people still use it that way.  Several levels of development licenses.  The top of the normal levels is under $1,000 with runtimes at $160 I think.  You can spend more and get a development license that will generate runtime-free apps or ones that let you customize the startup screen with your own artwork, etc.

I also use a lot of hardware HMI's, and I like Idec.  Everyone's software stinks approximately equally (actually ADC's is probably the best), and the image quality is more customer-facing anyway, so I tend to pick hardware HMI's on the basis of color saturation, resolution, and brightness, as well as startup time.  On those Idec wins, and they have local stock and so on.  Ironic that the makers of pretty much the all-time worst PLC have one of the best HMI's.

[Controls Guy]

The other nice thing about the Cincoze panel PC's from LogicSupply is that it's actually an embedded PC and a monitor.  They engineered it so they go together and mount like a normal panel PC, but if the monitor or PC breaks, you don't have to replace both.

[jwbaker3]

We normally, (if not specified by the customer) use a Lenovo M700/M900 tiny with a SSD and a Hope Ind touch monitor. The Hope Ind monitors hold up very well we have them in washdown food plants, foundries and grain elevators.  Most of our customer want us to use Wonderware, Inductive Automation's Ignition or GE Cimplicity/Ifix. You could use the software AD sell's Point of View, but I have not used it. I have used Lookout Direct on a few projects a long time ago, worked OK just limited on the number of tags.

JW

[Controls Guy]

I've looked with interest at the Lenovo tiny's, but was unsure because I'm associating them with more of a commercial-grade PC than an embedded industrial (plus the crappy barrel plug on the power supply instead of terminals).  Can you get them with an SSD as the boot drive?  I take it you've had good success with them?

[jwbaker3]

I have about 25 tiny's working in the field. We have not had any problems. I normally get the under desk carrier to mount it in the panel. The two things I don't like are as you said the power supply and I have to remember to order the HDMI adapter for the monitor. But we have not had any problems with them. The normal configuration is I3 or I5 processor 6 or 8 Mb of ram, 128, 256 or 512 SSD (depending on the application and customer requirements) Windows 7 or 10 pro OS. If we are using it for a Ignition (Java/Python client) project use less power on the specs and if it is for Wonderware we go heaver on the specs. All of the test data I have look at the expected life for the unit is 10 years with a SSD, the system should be upgraded by then to keep the OS in support. 

JW

[Controls Guy]

Thank you for the first hand experience!  Appreciate it.