PLC Laboratory

Fourth Year

Experiment no. 4

Numeric Display and Meter Graph

Prepared by:
Prof. Dr. Mofeed T. Rashid
Prof. Dr. Ammar A. Aldair
Dr. Abdul-Basset A. Al-Hussein

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Objective
Designing an interactive visual interface using HMI to monitor PLC output by Numeric Display and
Graph Meter.

Introduction
There are many control and monitoring systems that specialize in measuring the values of temperature,
humidity, pressure, speed, etc. Viewing and monitoring these outputs is an important factor for
engineers and technicians to monitor system behavior. To simplify the monitoring process and make it
more interactive with the systems, there are several visual tools in HMI that facilitate the process of
monitoring and interacting with the values of these outputs, including (Numeric Display and Meter
Graph), in which these tools will be explained and how to use them through the implementation of
several experiments.

Numeric Input
This device is used to modify and display the PLC related word or double Word For 16 bit size word the
supported numeric formats are the unsigned DEC, signed DEC, ,Octal, Hex, Bin, and BCD. For 32 bit size,
the float data type is added to the previous list. This numeric device allows the designer to modify the
relevant PLC word with the scaled version of what is entered in this device in addition to keep the entered
value between the selected minimum and maximum limits if scaling check box is marked. Masking the
input data is possible if the cipher check box is selected.

Here and only for 32bit size word, one must understand that memory word k (%MWk) refers to the PLC's
memory double k/2 (%MD(k/2) k is positive even integer).

Numeric Display
This device is used to display the PLC related word or double Word according to the required format. For
16 bit size word the supported numeric formats are the unsigned DEC, signed DEC, Octal, Hex, Bin, and
BCD. For 32 bit size, the float data type is added to the previous list. It also provides scaling facility so
that the PLC related address content can be transformed to the value the end user can well understand
or in other words to emulate the real environment.

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Example: Design HMI utility that displays the binary, octal, and hex equivalent of unsigned decimal
number.

Solution:

Numeric Item Type Configuration Set Value Address

Numeric Input Input Unsigned Dec %MW1
Numeric Display Display Bin %MW1
Numeric Display Display Octal %MW1
Numeric Display Display Hex %MW1
(a) Device Characteristics

(b) Interface HMI page

The Execution of Example

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Meter Graph
The Meter Graph display device displays the value of PLC relevant word or double word numeric data in
term of the position of clock like hand moving clockwise or counter clock wise inside one of circle, top-
half circle, bottom-half circle, left-half circle, right-half circle, top-fan, bottom-fan, left-fan, right-fan, or
3/4 fan shapes. The pointer swings between upper and lower limits fixed during the design phase of this
device. This device deals with word and double word data types. Forword (16bit size), the supported
numeric formats are the unsigned DEC, signed DEC, and BCD . For double word (32 bit size), unsigned
DEC, signed DEC, BCD, and float data type are supported.

Example: Design clockpage with three hands (second hand, minute hand, hour hands).

Solution:

Lower Upper
Plate Scale Needle
Item Address setting setting BG image Border Direction Function
color Points Color
value value

Meter
%MW220 0 60 plate Transparence Transparence CW 12 Black Second
Graph
color

Meter
%MW221 0 60 plate Transparence Transparence CW 12 Blue Minute
Graph
color

Meter
%MW222 0 60 plate Transparence Transparence CW 12 Red Hour
Graph
color
(a) Device Characteristics

(b) Interface HMI page

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 (c) PLC Ladder Diagram.

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 The Execution of Example

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Exercises:
Q1) Design IPhone Stopwatch (Lap button is passive) that shown in figure below.

Q2) Design a controller for parking car by PLC and HMI, which the garage capacity is 50
cars. HMI panel is shown in figure below

Start
No. of cars No. of empty
inside garage places
Garage Empty

Garage Full 00 00

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