iPad instead of HMI?

[s2sam]

Sam,

Thanks for the great information I really appreciate it. These are all good factors on why it's probably not great for the application. What screen did you use with the FX-60 Jace and what was your specific application?

Thanks, Rick

Good day Rick,

Like I said, my comments were things we considered and they may or may not be deciding factors for others. However, I am glad that you appreciated them anyway

I will have to dig up what screen we ended up using, as it was a while ago. It has Windows CE (5 I think) based which I had and have reservations with. Developement was a bit of a pain, but I was pleased and surprised at the stability of the O/S ... not one crash... now that I say this it will now ... We decided upon spinning our own hardware that was installed between the screen the FX-60. There were several reasons for this with the two biggest ones being that we had little confidence in the industrial robustness of the LCD serial interfaces (i.e lack of over-voltage, surge, etc protection, etc) and the non industry standard input voltage (12VDC as opposed to 24VAC used all over the place). Secondly, I was uncomfortable embedding the entire project's functionality into the LCD, as I was concerned with Win CE's stability. Since this device was going to be connected to a N2 trunk I did not want to have the LCD being a failure point. So, I kept the LCD's functionality simply as a smart graphics interface that communicated with my hardware that interfaced to the FX. This has several benefits, as I can easily embed multiple protocols (I have on-board Ethernet as well) into my hardware without having to disturb LCD at all (which is mounted to a wall), I have full control of the reliability (I galvanically isolated the LCD and the connection to the FX), and I embedded a robust power supply (with suitable fusing/protection) for the LCD. This approach may not be for everyone, but it is one I felt comfortable doing, as it makes it easy for me to provide long term support to my customer.

In terms of the application... The building is a 3 story 60K sq-ft build that already had each floor's main lighting wired to about 8 zones/floor via contactors. These in turn are connected to some N2 controllers. This was an existing architecture that we were asked to work with. The system is under BMS control (FX-60) already, but the customer, architect, etc. wanted to have a separate interface for security as opposed to doing it via the FX.

The outcome works very well and has a very clean and contemporary feel about it. It is highly intuitive and so training is only a matter of minutes. It has been rock solid and so far no issues or complaints (yeah!). Since the system is completely configurable, we can whatever functionality they wish... we already have over 100 occupancy sensors sprinkled throughout the building (as part of the controls portion) and so we can add smart lighting control features too. We are only limited by one's imagination and the customers budget.

Cheers,

Sam

[Doug-e-fresh]

Look at this. The company is in England but they are using iPhones so it should work on iPads as well. Met the owner at the Niagara Summit a couple of years ago.



http://www.tyrrellsystems.com

[s2sam]

I have a logitech box connected to my TV, it's an android product. While it cannot run the JRE, It can view and operate any site I have an RDC or LogMeIn account for. Using this type of system with any of the tablets would be great for a walk about tool. Why plaster it to a wall?

Good day Mechdorn,
I am unfamiliar with this product and so I am assuming it is Wifi? If so, then to walk about a space (at least the ones I am on), we would need a number of Wifi Hotspots which would be costly and also would concern IT in regards to Security. I guess it would depend upon the project and its objectives.

Secondly, items that are not mounted tend to get misplaced (i.e. Who had the terminal last? Now, where did I put that thing?)... or even "lost", ahem. Yes, things tend to disappear at times. Mounting a device like this will certainly minimize these type of issues. However, if mobility was a need, then you are right... although my approach for my projects would be to write a iPhone or Android app to operate from one's smartphone which would communicate with my hardware... Indeed, there are many solutions to doing things.

Cheers,

Sam

[sysint]

...The outcome works very well and has a very clean and contemporary feel about it. It is highly intuitive and so training is only a matter of minutes. It has been rock solid and so far no issues or complaints (yeah!). ...

This is why I like a well designed panel. It is simply there, does its job and is easy to learn how to operate.

Although, honestly I'm surprised the WIN CE touch panel is that reliable and you don't have too much lag. I take it you are not doing any dimming through it?

[s2sam]

This is why I like a well designed panel. It is simply there, does its job and is easy to learn how to operate.

Although, honestly I'm surprised the WIN CE touch panel is that reliable and you don't have too much lag. I take it you are not doing any dimming through it?

Good day Sysint,

Indeed, I was and am pleasantly surprised at the CE stability. However, is it because:

a. I am not pushing the CE box's resources (I am only doing the graphic control and a state machine communicating with my external hardware) or

b. The CE build for this LCD panel has been well sorted (CE5 as opposed to 6)?

c. Windows CE is a good O/S? ... I had a hard time typing that one ...

Hard to say exactly. My past experiences and instinct says I was just lucky ...

Lag is not a big deal, maybe a second or so... However, given where the panel is mounted and where the control zones are, the user really does not notice it.

Indeed, dimming is not currently implemented. The customer spent a lot of money on the building and its renovation and so full lighting control functionality was not in the budget. Although the building was only a few years old, they found a number of big ticket surprises during the reno that really increased the budget.... so dimming, etc was not an option at that time. Going forward it is in their plans, and like I mentioned earlier ,we already have a number (about a 100) of the smart lighting controls (occupancy sensors,ambient light level sensors, customizable mini -TFT LCD graphic interfaces, etc) installed, wired, and working... best of all these smart controls virtually came for "free", as the device used (our S2UI28) was already purchased and installed for the controls portion of the renovation.

Cheers,

Sam