C-more is the next generation family of operator touch panels from AutomationDirect. The new panels, manufactured by AutomationDirect's parent - Koyo Electronics (part of the Seiko group), are fully programmable and offer power, flexibility and a vast set of features.
The range includes 6 touch screen versions with STN monochrome or colour displays and with 6 , 8 , 10 12 or 15 TFT colour screen versions.Hardware features include an analogue touch screen, 10MByte project memory (40MByte on the 12 and 15 versions), and a full complement of communication options including RS232, RS422/485, Ethernet 10/100BaseT, one type A USB port and one type B USB port.
The type A port is used with a standard USB cable for fast and simple project transfers from a PC whilst the type B port is used for devices such as flash drives. Optional Compact Flash cards up to 1 MByte or USB memory devices accommodate alarm, event and message logging. An audio port allows warning sounds or recorded messages to be sent, via an amplifier, to external speakers.
The units are 24 VDC powered but can be supplied with a suitable AC/DC adapter.Projects are developed with easy-to-use Windows-based configuration software providing a powerful set of tools for developing applications with up to 999 screens.
The software includes 4,000 built-in symbols and 14 typefaces with hundreds of font sizes. Graphics features include animation of bitmaps, overlapping objects and custom graphics object creation. High-level communications capabilities include a built-in FTP server, Email client and Web server.
Trending, alarming and recipes are all standard features. In addition to storing alarm and message logs to Compact Flash or devices connected to the USB port which can be taken away for analysis at any time, the C-more panel can also be configured to Email the logs automatically or allow access via FTP.
With the Web server feature, any networked PC with a browser can request screen captures and retrieve log files from C-more panels on the network.
And finally, an important feature of the development software is the project simulator which allows the PC to fully simulate the operation of the C-more panel thus allowing applications to be fully tested before downloading to the target thus saving significant development time.