I really should investigate release notes more, you learn all kinds of things. I ran across something in the View Designer manual called an “HMIBC” so I was curious as to what it is.

Created for high-speed inputs from an HMI Device, this HMI Button Control is an instruction in Logix Designer that can be triggered from an HMI device at an I/O speed rate and provide an input to jog a motor or open a valve with high precision.

Notes about the HMIBC

  • A controller supports up to 256 HMIBC tags
  • An HMIBC tag only communicates with a Panelview 5000 series if it is in the I/O Configuration Tree in Studio 5000 Logix Designer
  • Rockwell recommends not writing to any other tags on the screen if an HMIBC tag is being written to

Setting up the HMIBC in Logix Designer

The first step is to add the PV 5510 to the I/O Configuration Tree in Logix Designer.

A little side benefit of adding the Panelview to the I/O Configuration tree is that you get status tags from the HMI.

There are a couple of good things I can think of to do with those.

The next step is to select an HMIBC instruction from the instruction set and add it to a rung in logic.

It is located in the “HMI” instruction header. Create a new tag with the “HMIBC” data type.

Setting Up the HMIBC in View Designer

In my View Designer project, I set up a Sump Pump in a containment area to pump out any excess or spilled liquid from the tank.

The Sump Pump would only run if the “JOG” button is pressed and to do this I set up my jog button behavior as “Logix HMIBC set to 1 on press, 0 on release” as shown in the following screenshot. I then saved and downloaded my project to the Panelview 5510.

 At Runtime

 At Runtime, I can press the “JOG” HMIBC and as expected the tag in the controller comes on:

References

Conclusion

While it could typically be used in special scenarios, it is always good to know the tools that are in your tool-bag, just-in-case the need should arise for the special tool.

If you are in to drive systems and other specialties, this may be a frequently used tool, but for those of us that do a little bit of this and a little bit of that, it would be a little less common.

Having said that, I learned something new today and that makes me a better control-systems’ engineer for it. Hope you picked up something here today as well.

My best to you in implementing your first high-speed  HMIBC.

Written by Brandon Cooper
Senior Controls Engineer and Freelance Writer

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Brandon Cooper
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