Rockwell Automation® plans to discontinue the PanelView™ Plus 6 family in September 2021. While this change is over a year away, you should consider upgrading your existing Plus 6 and/or adding new applications using either the PanelView Plus 7 or the PanelView 5000 family. Let’s look at upgrading your HMI (human-machine interface) and replacing PanelView Plus 6.

Migrating to PanelView Plus 7

Replacing PanelView Plus 6 applications and migrating to PanelView Plus 7 is very straight forward, using the same FactoryTalk® View Studio Machine Edition development software, supporting the same objects. The standard limitations are the same as the compact, and the PanelView Plus 7 performance offers the extended feature options found the PanelView Plus 6 extended feature set. One migration challenge is that the Plus 6 offered additional communication modules for DeviceNet, ControlNet, DH+, and DH485, and the Plus 7 only supports Ethernet/IP and Kepware server protocols or DF1 serial. If you run into a situation where you need one of those protocols, we have Encompass™ partners that offer gateways to connect those networks. 

Physically, the products may require adapter plates as the cutout dimensions are not the same. Rockwell Automation only offers adapter plates for their performance family of HMI (human machine interface). All the cutout dimensions are published on the Rockwell Automation literature website if you want to modify the enclosure yourself. The PanelViewPlus 7 is also enhanced with higher screen resolution, which will automatically rescale in the software. 

Upgrading to PanelView 5000

Are you curious about replacing PanelView Plus 6 with the PanelView 5000 family? Can it be done? The answer is maybe, depending on the application. Let us start with the hardware. The cutout dimensions are the same as the PanelView Plus 7 performance versions, so the adapter plates are the same. PanelView Plus is a Windows CE 6.0 appliance running 512mb internal memory. The PanelView 5000 runs an embedded Linux OS and has 1Gb of internal memory. The PanelView, 5000 unlike the PanelView Plus 6 and 7 families, uses vector graphics, so the image scales nicely across the display ranges. Like the PanelView Plus 6 and 7 with compact or standard and performance offerings, the PanelView 5000 has the 5310 and 5510 sized for smaller and larger applications.

A MANUAL PROCESS

Replacing PanelView Plus 6 and converting to PanelView 5000 is a manual process. All screens must be recreated using Studio 5000® View Editor. With a Linux operating system, technology like ActiveX and ViewPoint is no longer supported. The PanelView 5000 has a rich set of embedded objects with real-time and historic trending, local data logging, VNC, and a PDF viewer. Recipes, e-mail, and web HMI for remote viewing are future releases. HMI tag-based alarming has been replaced with device-based and Logix tag-based alarming, all done in the controller. PanelView 5000 supports CompactLogix™ 5370 and 5380 and ControlLogix® 5570 and 5580 families only. For Logix tag-based alarming, only the high performance 5380, 5480, and 5580 processors with version 31 or greater firmware are supported. 

For those of you who have been around for a while, you will remember when Rockwell Automation changed the name from RSLogix 5000 to Studio 5000 back in version 21. Studio 5000 is the wrapper for a suite of products, and back in version 21, the only product in that suite was Logix designer aka RSLogix 5000. Today Studio 5000 includes not only Logix designed for programming Logix controllers, but also View designer for PanelView 5000 development and Architect for creating system overviews. All three products are included as a suite when purchasing Mini, Lite, Standard, Full, or Pro editions. 

We Can Make Replacing PanelView Plus 6 Easy

We’re here to help. Our Automation Specialists are well-versed in the latest trends and technology. We can make all your upgrades and migrations run smoothly. Let us help you keep your facility productive and profitable. Contact us today!