What's The Difference between An HMI And A Touch Screen?

What is the distinction between a human-machine interface and what is commonly known as a "touch screen"? Technically, there is a significant difference between the two. Because the "touch screen" is only the hardware component of the HMI product that can be used, it serves as a replacement for the mouse and keyboard portion of the function, which is installed in front of the display input device; however, the HMI product is a human-computer interaction device that includes both hardware and software. Human-machine interface products having touch input functions are frequently referred to as "touch screens" in the industry, but this is not scientific.

Touch screen is a typical term for "human-machine interface with touch function"! A genuine touch screen is "a piece of transparent glass that can be operated by hand".

1. What's the difference between "human-machine interface" and "touch screen"?

In a strict sense, the two are fundamentally different. Because the "touch screen" is only one component of the hardware that can be used in human-machine interface products, it is an alternative to the mouse and keyboard part of the function, which is installed in front of the display input device; and human-machine interface products are a type of human-computer interaction equipment that includes both hardware and software. In industry, people frequently use the "touch screen" input feature of human-machine interface goods, but this is not scientifically sound.

2. What's the distinction between HMI and configuration software?

HMI devices, sometimes known as "touch screens," consist of HMI hardware and the matching specific screen configuration software. In general, different manufacturers of HMI hardware use different screen configuration software, and the main type of equipment that connects them is PLC. The common setup software works with a wide variety of devices, including PLCs, PC boards, meters, inverters, modules, and more. Large-scale monitoring systems.

3. Is there an operating system with the HMI product?

Any HMI product contains a system software component, which operates in the HMI processor and supports multi-tasking functions. The processor requires a small operating system to oversee the functioning of the system software. High-performance HMI solutions built on flat-panel computers typically run WinCE, Linux, and other standard embedded operating systems.

4. Can the HMI only be connected to a PLC?

Not so. HMI products are designed to solve the problem of human-machine interaction with PLC, but with the development of computer technology and digital circuit technology, many industrial control devices have serial communication capabilities, so as long as the serial communication capabilities of industrial control equipment, such as frequency converters, DC governors, temperature control meters, digital pick-up modules, etc. can be connected to HMI products to achieve

5. Can the HMI only connect to other devices using the conventional serial connection port?

In most circumstances, this is true. However, as computer and digital circuit technology advances, the interface capacity of HMI products becomes increasingly robust. In addition to the traditional serial (RS232, RS422/RS485) communication interface, some HMI products have a network port, parallel port, USB port, and other data interfaces. They can be connected to industrial control equipment via a network port, parallel port, USB port, and other interfaces to achieve human-machine interaction of equipment. Click here for 13.3 Inch Lcd Display with Hdmi.

6. Is it true that equipment having communication functions can always be linked to HMI devices?

This should be the case. In general, as long as the communication driver corresponding to the connected device is selected in the HMI's screen setup software, the communication link between the HMI and the device can be established. If the selected HMI product configuration software does not include a communication driver for the connected device, the user can notify the HMI product's manufacturer of the communication port type and protocol content of the connected device, and request that the HMI manufacturer create a communication driver for it.

7. Can a PC with a touchscreen interface directly with a PLC perform the functions of an HMI?

Of course, you can. However, the necessary HMI software must be developed for the PC to function as a true HMI product.

8. What is the future development trend for HMI?

With the advancement of digital circuitry and computer technology, the distinction between high, medium, and low functions in future HMI products will become less and less obvious, and HMI functions will become richer and richer; all HMI products larger than 5.7 inches will have color displays, and the screen life will be extended. As the cost of computer hardware falls, HMI products will primarily be high-end products with flat PCs as HMI hardware, because such high-end products have greater advantages in processor speed, storage capacity, communication interface types and numbers, networking capability, software resource sharing, which are the future development directions of HMI products. Of course, tiny size (display size less than 5.7") HMI products will be widely employed in human-machine interface applications of small mechanical equipment as their features are increased (for example, by adding IO functions).