LCD keypad provides helpful drive HMI
A
Control Techniques product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Mar 5, 2003
Control Techniques has extended the Unidrive SP AC drive system's ease of use with a new onboard or remote mountable amber backlit LCD keypad that talks the engineer's own language.
Following on from the launch of the unique Unidrive SP (solutions platform), Control Techniques continues to roll out additions to the system that add to its versatility, performance and ease of use, reinforcing the concept of the drive as the complete answer for control systems or stand-alone applications.
Now, as well as providing a comprehensive range of applications and communications modules, smartcard commissioning and programming and a host of other features, Control Techniques has extended the Unidrive SP AC drive system's ease of use with a new onboard or remote mountable amber backlit LCD keypad that talks the engineer's own language and provides an easy-to-use HMI that can be drive or panel mounted.
As well as allowing browsing of the drive parameters in the user's own language, the new LCD keypad provides comprehensive onboard help at the touch of a button.
The new 'help' button provides a technical description of the parameter to scroll in the text area, potentially eliminating the need for a technical manual and making the drive exceptionally user-friendly.
This capability can be particularly useful for engineers who can program their own text with each parameter, to offer reminders or to highlight a chosen value.
"The 'help' feature is a multilingual user guide", says Product Manager, Richard Smith.
It is very comprehensive, giving detailed and fully customisable information on parameter functions, default settings and minimum and maximum operations levels - it essentially provides a quick start-up for engineers who are looking for ease of use without having to browse a heavy instruction manual".
French, Italian, German, Spanish and English languages are available as standard and other European languages can be added to suit the user.
In addition, the provision of a number of setup wizards are available to guide the user through a rapid setup of the drive for specific needs such as for lifts, servo applications and so on.
The new Unidrive SP LCD keypad has an alphanumeric display on which the menu and parameter number, plus the parameter's value, are positioned at the top of the display area in large, easy-to-read, numeric characters.
During normal character browsing, the lower two lines display a native language description of the selected parameter, with additional help information available at the press of the 'help' button.
What's more, the amber backlit LCD keypad talks in real SI engineering units, with special icons on the right of the display denoting parameter units such as Hz, rpm, A or %.
The Unidrive SP LCD keypad plus is hot-pluggable and can be connected to the drive in two ways - direct mounted or remote.
In both instances, all the 'help' and other features of the drive are immediately accessible.
The amber backlit display was chosen by Control Techniques as it offers increased display visibility.
An extensive testing phase was undertaken by engineers to determine which colours gave users the visibility required.
Amber was chosen for the true clarity the display achieves in all types of lighting.
Users can customise parameter descriptions to form their own HMI display, specific to the application, on the LCD keypad.
User application parameters can have custom text associated to build up a winder or a hoist parameter set, telephone numbers and names could be integrated into the 'help' features.
With the aid of CTSoft programming assistance, users can create and manage parameters, save setup sequences and custom-design features unique to their own needs.
Users have a choice of having the keypad panel-mounted as an HMI or as a zero-space alternative onboard the Unidrive SP itself.
Users of the Unidrive SP now have the choice of using three different display options from no keypad for simple applications to hot-pluggable LED and LCD display keypads offering the user choice and flexibility while achieving high performance.
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Contact Control Techniques
Tel +44 1952 213 700
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