Weintek Love in the Wild

Panel is ready... Now it is time for #commissioning #ABBMotion #ACS380 #Weintek #cmt2168X #PLCprogramming #Codesys #PM5052 #AC500eCo #ModbusRTU #encoder #wiring

I have already used several Weintek product lines, including EMT, MT, and cMT, specifically MT8072iP, cMT-2078X, FHDX-820 with CODESYS, and the cMT-G01. Weintek provides a large amount of well-structured online tutorials, a fast learning curve, excellent cost-benefit, free software, and high technology. What stands out the most, overall, is the huge number of available drivers and the architectural flexibility of the platform. The cMT line can act as a server for the MT line, remote access through EasyAccess 2.0 works very well, and the cMT-G01 operating as an OPC UA server (15,000 free certified nodes) is impressive. In addition, having native MQTT, direct integration with AWS IoT Core and Microsoft Azure, Modbus server functionality, and features like cMT Viewer puts many external tools aside — it even replaces solutions where Node-RED is often used. Because of the wide range of drivers and features, Weintek solutions are suitable for almost any application scenario. As a suggestion for improvement: It would be very useful if the MAC address of the Ethernet port on the MT series were explicitly visible on the HMI system. Currently, when the navigation button is hidden, retrieving this information can become unnecessarily difficult.

Honestly they are all pretty good, under 10inch and standalone machine i go with the IE/iP series, simply because of the price, nothing comes close. Anything bigger or part of the PLC network I go with CMT X series, you can set them up to access all the CMT HMIs from any other CMT HMI, obviously all password protected but I have a headless CMT HMI in my office connected to a big monitor showing me every HMI on the plant, it's no replacement for a good scada system but it still allows me to make adjustments and monitor data at a glance without loading up or running extra applications on my laptop. But any of them will work, and that's the biggest benefit to me, 1 version of 1 application will do them all

I require remote access to my projects that are away from home. I did some homework and decided that Weintek looked to have a good solution. Set up my first Weintek touch screen yesterday. I set up a domain on Weincloud - free. A secure VPN connection. I had purchased a remote access card when I purchased the screen - about $90 AUD. I set up the screen with appropriate IP addresses - modem was connected complete with an inexpensive data only SIM card - entered modem IP address as appropriate - rebooted the touch screen and clicked add screen on the cloud interface. I added the hardware number of the screen and the serial number on the access card and viola - I was connected to the screen via EasyAccess software and Weintek CMT viewer. Operating switches and the like. The hardware number and access card number are locked together. My PLC was connected to the second Ethernet port on the touch screen and my laptop was connected to the PLC as well through a switch and I was online to the PLC. I clicked on 'pass through' on the cloud connection - added the IP address of the PLC - the software noted that there already was a connection to the PLC (my laptop) - said it would be disconnected - clicked OK - my laptop Ethernet connectiion was disconnected and was then connected through the modem/cloud connection - absolutely seamless. I think back to how I used to have to connect with expensive Extranet cards - having to use a DNS server to find out the public IP address or have an expensive VPN account and program the modem mystery bag - do routing tables in the PLC software - painfull. Very impressed and the screens are not expensive - graphics pretty good as well - a heap of drivers for just about any PLC brand. I did not have to do any programming in the modem either - its default IP address was out of the way of everything so no need. In this case I used a Teleorigin modem but guess that probably any brand would do. Many have a default IP address of 192.168.1.1 which is inconvenient as that is the default address of most routers as well so the IP address would need to be changed before connecting to anything. Now on to discovering about the email feature from the screen through Weincloud using a SMTP mail server. Then on to push messages to mobiles with EasyAccess running on them. My customer will also have access to the screen from mobile phones and computers using the EasyAccess app - everyone is happy. Next one will be setup next week - will have to put together a detailed instruction sheet for my colleagues. Red Lion have a solution of course but it is so expensive and does not appear to have all the features Weintek does have.

I've used the cMT-3072 for a couple of simple project for remote control. They have a free VPN you can use. As long as the HMI has a connection to the Internet, you can log into the screen with the iPhone app or your PC.