FactoryTalk ViewPoint on a shop floor andon display

What you need

• The View application with the andon display in it, on a terminal that has ViewPoint. Many HMI terminals ship with the ViewPoint capability installed; check your terminal's software list before you build the plan around it.
• The HMI's IP address, reachable from the TV side of the plant network.
• A small desktop PC mounted with the TV, so the HDMI run stays short. The vendor's published requirements for ViewPoint 9.0 were a 2.8 GHz dual-core processor, 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of free disk space, with desktop browsers named for the client side; a current mini PC clears that several times over. Check the requirements page for your own ViewPoint build, because the supported-browser list decides which PC you can use.
• A desktop browser with a kiosk mode and a timed reload. Browsers start kiosk mode from a command-line switch; the switch name differs by browser, so use the one your browser documents.
• The TV, a mount rated for its weight, and an HDMI cable. Fix the mount to building structure that carries the load: a board hanging over a walkway is the one part of this job with a safety consequence.

Publish the andon screens

ViewPoint serves one published application at a time, and publishing a new set of displays overwrites the set currently published. Build the andon display into the application you intend to publish; there is no slot beside an existing published application to park it in.

1. On the server, open FactoryTalk ViewPoint Administration and, on the Home page, click Publish Displays.
2. On the Publish Displays page, select the andon displays.
3. Select the Re-publish all selected displays check box and click Publish displays. Republishing the full set keeps the web application and the terminal graphics in step.
4. Set the andon display as the startup display in the project's System Start-up options, so a browser that opens the site lands on the board, not on a menu.
5. From the PC at the TV, open the browser and type the HMI's IP address. The ViewPoint pages are served by the HMI itself, so nothing extra runs at the TV end.

Open the published page beside the terminal before the TV goes up. Publishing converts the graphics into web pages, and a graphic that renders oddly is fixed once, in the display, then published again. The ViewPoint quick start guide for your build walks these same administration pages and carries your build's exact wording.

Set the browser and the 15 minute reload

The board runs every shift, so set the browser up for the two events you will actually meet: a power cut and a hung page.

• Kiosk mode starts the browser full screen at the HMI's address with no toolbars and no desktop. After a power cut the board must come back without anyone touching it.
• The timed reload is the kiosk browser's own interval setting, pointed at 15 minutes. If the browser you picked has no interval setting, a scheduled job on the PC that refreshes the page every 15 minutes does the same work.

Why 15 minutes: a hung page freezes on the last good values and still looks like a running line, which on an andon board is worse than a blank screen. A reload every 15 minutes bounds it. The board is never wrong for more than a quarter of an hour, and one page load per quarter hour is nothing for the HMI to serve. Plants running this exact arrangement report hangs anywhere from once every 3 months to 20 times a day, which is why the timer stays in the design at both ends of that range.

Test the timer at install: set the interval to 1 minute, watch one complete reload, then set it back to 15 minutes.

Size the rows before you mount the TV

The legibility planning figure is 30 ft of viewing distance per inch of letter height (FHWA), and 20 ft per inch is the safer choice for fast reading, which is how a board gets read while someone walks past. Rows are spaced at 1.7 × capital height. Where to hang the screen, ceiling over the aisle or line-side, is the subject of the andon board guide; this section sizes the text on whatever you hang.

Row height is set by the tallest element in the row, usually the count digits. On a 43-inch 16:9 screen the width is 43 × 16 ÷ 18.36 = 37.5 in, so 1920 pixels across give 51.2 pixels per inch of text, and the screen is 21.1 in tall (43 × 9 ÷ 18.36). Divide 1080 px by one row's height in pixels to get the row count:

For the general question of diagonal against distance and resolution, the guide on screen size and viewing distance covers the basics.

Example: six presses read across the aisle

Scenario: a ceiling board over a press shop. The nearest operator stands 10 ft from it; the forklift route on the far aisle puts the farthest reader at 40 ft. Six presses, one count row each.

1. Capitals for the farthest reader: 40 ft ÷ 20 ft per inch = 2 in.
2. Pixels for that height: 2 in × 51.2 px per inch = 102.4 px.
3. Row height with the FHWA spacing: 102.4 px × 1.7 = 174 px.
4. Rows that fit: 1080 px ÷ 174 px = 6.2, so six rows fit, using 6 × 174 = 1044 px and leaving 36 px, about a fifth of a row.
5. Check the nearest reader: 10 ft ÷ 20 ft per inch = 0.5 in of minimum capital height, and the 2 in digits clear that four times over.

Decision: the 43-inch board carries six press counts at 2 in capitals, readable from the far aisle, and the operator at 10 ft reads them easily. If nobody reads from beyond 20 ft, 1 in capitals double the count to twelve rows. A header strip costs a seventh row at this size, so run header text small inside the first row or leave it off.

Check it worked

• From a second PC on the plant network, type the HMI's address and confirm the board comes up as the startup display, full screen.
• Change one count at the PLC and watch the number move on the TV.
• Unplug the network cable at the PC for 20 minutes, plug it back in, and confirm the next timed reload brings the live page back. That is the hang recovery path, rehearsed on your schedule.
• Power-cycle the TV PC and confirm the browser returns to the board full screen with no clicks.

Recommendation: Publish one application whose startup display is the board, run the TV from a small kiosk PC mounted beside it, and set the reload to 15 minutes, tightened to 5 minutes on lines where a stale board would send an operator to a running machine. Size the rows from the farthest reader: 2 in capitals covers 40 ft and gives six rows on a 43-inch 1080p TV; 1 in capitals covers 20 ft and gives twelve.

Where the arrangement falls short

A browser board dies with its PC, its TV or the plant network, and a count whose disappearance stops the line deserves a shorter path. Drive that one straight from the PLC: the LED batch count display for PLC presses article covers the wiring and the digit sizing.

An offline screen covers the static side of the wall. Shift messages, maintenance notes and safety tallies play fine from an offline shop-floor signage display that pulls image and video files from a memory card or USB stick, and planning an offline sensor status display walks that build. The offline screen handles what does not need to be live; it is not a second ViewPoint client.

Questions