Numeric entry object style for a non-touch HMI keypad

Can a 20-button keypad enter numeric data on a non-touch panel?

Yes. The 20-button bezel keypad types values into a Numeric Entry object on a non-touch panel once that object's style is Style 3. That style pairs arrow-key selection with keypad entry. The default Style 1 is the touch-screen popup and never takes a digit from the bezel.

The three style choices sit together at the bottom right of the Numeric Entry object, so the diagnosis is quick. Open the object and read which style is marked. You then know whether the keypad path was ever configured. Style 1 fields ignore the bezel. Style 2 fields take up/down adjustment. Only a Style 3 field listens to the keypad accessory. When a healthy panel ignores its keypad, this setting is the first thing to read, before any cable or hardware check.

Which numeric entry style works with the bezel keypad?

Style 3 is the bezel-keypad style. The object offers three choices. Style 1 opens a popup keypad on a touch screen. Style 2 selects the object with the arrows and trims its value with up/down. Style 3 selects with the arrows and types on the bezel keypad.

On the non-touch unit, Style 1 is out at the start: there is no touch input to open the popup or press its keys. Style 2 runs without any accessory and suits fields operators only nudge in fixed steps. Style 3 suits fields operators type whole, a new batch quantity or a new target length. Walking Style 2 from 250 mm up to 1,250 mm one press at a time costs a thousand presses. Style 1 stays the correct style on touch hardware, where its popup keypad carries a trap of its own on high-resolution panels, the keys rendering too small to hit; fixing an HMI numeric keypad that is too small on a high-resolution panel covers that repair.

Recommendation: Set Style 3 on every Numeric Entry object operators fill with typed digits on a keypad panel, set Style 2 on trim-only fields, and keep Style 1 for touch hardware. Assign each object's Tab Index in the same sitting as the style, because the two settings only work as a pair.

What do you need for bezel keypad numeric entry?

You need four things: a non-touch panel fitted with the 20-button keypad bezel, the project open in the HMI configuration software, a PLC register or tag for each field that takes keyed entry, and a short window on the physical panel, because the final check runs on hardware.

• The 20-button keypad bezel on the panel, which adds the physical 0 to 9 digit keys; a bezel without it has none.
• The project file, with the Numeric Entry objects already placed on their screens and pointed at their registers.
• Download access to the panel, by cable or network, at a moment when the machine tolerates a test entry.
• A written field list: which fields, on which screens, take keypad entry, so the index work in the next section covers every field in one pass.

How do you set a Numeric Entry object to Style 3?

Open the object's properties and pick Style 3 from the three choices shown at the bottom right of the Numeric Entry object. Style 3 is the choice that pairs arrow-key selection with bezel keypad entry.

1. Open the screen in the configuration software and open the properties of the Numeric Entry object.
2. Look at the bottom right of the object: the three style choices sit stacked there.
3. Select Style 3.
4. Confirm, while the properties are open, that the object writes to the intended PLC register.
5. Repeat for every field operators will fill from the keypad, then save and download the project to the panel.

Check: reopening each object shows Style 3 selected, and the download completes without errors. A field that still shows Style 1 after a clean download was either saved before the change or is a different object than the one you edited.

How do you make the arrow keys reach the field?

Assign a Tab Index to the Numeric Entry object. Style 3 selects the object with the arrow keys first, and a field the tab order never reaches cannot take keypad digits even with the style set correctly.

The Tab Index assigns the order in which the arrow keys select each object. It decides whether the operator's first purposeful keypress lands on the right field.

1. Open the properties of each selectable object on the screen.
2. Give the Numeric Entry object a Tab Index of 1 when it is the first field operators visit.
3. Index the remaining fields 2, 3 and onward, in the order an operator works the screen, usually left to right and top to bottom.
4. Save and download the project.

Check: on the panel, the arrow keys walk the objects in index order and leave the target field selected before any digit is keyed. If the walk skips the field, compare its index with the indexes on its neighbors; the fix is a number, not a style change.

Example: keying three setpoints on a cut-to-length line

Suppose a screen on a cut-to-length line carries three Numeric Entry objects on a non-touch panel: batch quantity at Tab Index 1, target length at index 2, and units per case at index 3, all set to Style 3. One operator keys all three from the bezel keypad, and the screen holds the values on revisits.

The values below are illustrative for this line; your setpoints and units are whatever your process runs.

1. Arrow to batch quantity, index 1, and key 250. The field reads 250 pieces.
2. Arrow to target length, index 2, and key 125. The field reads 125 mm.
3. Arrow to units per case, index 3, and key 40. The field reads 40 units.
4. Walk back through all three fields and confirm each still holds its value, which shows the tab order holds on revisits.

Result: three setpoints keyed with no touch input anywhere, and every setting that made it work lives on the objects, Style 3 plus Tab Index values 1, 2 and 3. Add a fourth field six months from now and it needs its own place in that index chain, or the arrow walk passes it by. Where a field must show a decimal the register does not hold, that formatting belongs to the tag or the object, and moving an HMI numeric entry decimal point from a PLC tag is its own job.

Why does Style 3 fail in the simulator but work on the panel?

The simulator runs Style 1 only, so a project set to Style 3 takes no keypad digits in simulation. The limit belongs to the simulator, which has no bezel hardware to type on. It says nothing about how the same project behaves on the panel.

Split the two test beds and give each its own job. The simulator stays useful for layout work: object placement, screen order, text. It is the wrong bench for Style 3, so treat a dead keypad field there as the known limit at work and take the project to the panel. The panel is the only bench where the bezel exists, so it is the only bench where Style 3 can pass or fail. Keep the two results in separate commissioning notes, so a simulator limit is never filed as a panel fault.

A popup keypad demo in the simulator tests Style 1, the one style this panel will never use. Leave the styles as set, download to the hardware, and judge there.

How do you verify the entry on hardware before release?

Run the full operator path on the physical panel. Walk the tab order with the arrow keys, key a value you would really run, confirm the intended field took it, and sign the function off only after that, because the simulator cannot exercise Style 3 at all.

1. Download the project and bring the screen up on the panel.
2. Walk the tab order with the arrow keys and confirm the sequence matches the indexes: field 1, then 2, then 3.
3. With the field selected, key a production-realistic value, inside what the machine tolerates.
4. Confirm the selected field displays the keyed digits and the PLC register received them.
5. Navigate away and back, then key one value again, to confirm the order and the field stay stable across revisits.
6. Repeat for every Numeric Entry object in the walk.

Keyed setpoints go live the moment the register takes them, so run the sign-off with the machine in a state where a changed value acts without damage.

Check: every field an operator must fill is reachable in the arrow-key walk and accepts digits from the bezel keypad on the hardware. Before release, back the keyed values up by clamping numeric entry limits in PLC ladder logic. If the indexes are right, the style reads Style 3, and the panel still refuses keypad digits, take the panel model and the project to the manufacturer's support desk; the bezel keypad function is theirs to confirm.

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