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Unlocking the benefits of modular instrument design

As production lines and industrial processes evolve, specifiers are increasingly looking to future-proof their instrumentation to ensure their control and instrumentation systems can keep up and continue to take full advantage of future technology advances. Lascar’s PanelPilotACE display module has been designed specifically to support that forward-looking approach. The PanelPilotACE approach avoids the need for ‘rip and replace’ by allowing the core elements of a system – i.e. the most expensive and complex to develop – to remain in place. Additional capabilities can then be added via standard interoperable add-on boards or modules that use industry standard communication protocols which allows specifiers to get exactly what they want with significantly reduced development costs. title This modular approach enables significant savings to be made in terms of design and development time by allowing specifiers to customise standard products to their specific needs in a faster and more efficient way. This flexibility and efficiency is retained once the system is in situ, as key elements of the system can remain in place whilst new modules are added to increase or upgrade functionality. As well as helping specifiers to realise these significant time and cost savings, the PanelPilotACE display platform also provides flexibility for system designers approaching new designs. PanelPilotACE is an off-the-shelf display solution with a drag-and-drop software package allowing designers to create user-interfaces quickly and without having to learn or write a coding language. These displays, featuring TFT colour displays and capacitive touch screens, can act as an HMI, providing information to an operator, but also have the capability to provide measurement and control functionality. Key to making this platform useful to systems designers is the implementation of communications protocols. As a panel instrument manufacturer we are used to providing our customers with ways of taking an analogue input from a sensor – be it a DC voltage or 4-20mA loop – and displaying this value on a screen. What has changed over the last 20 years is the chain of control and automation events that system designers now expect this signal to trigger. With PanelPilotACE it is now possible to do something with this signal be it a simple alarm, or more complex calculations or logic actions. Having the correct communication protocols available allows systems designers to make use of this information within their systems. As such we’ve implemented RS232, RS485 and are working to add I2C, SPI and Ethernet in the near future.  So far these intelligent displays have found homes in a variety of applications including as a monitor and controller for a range of medical refrigerators and freezers, and as a user interface and controller for an environmental control system for example. In both of these applications the communications protocols used allow the PanelPilotACE display to replace a PLC and HMI combination with relatively little re-engineering. Products like PanelPilotACE really help demonstrate why more people are looking to embrace a modular design approach again. 25 or 30 years ago systems were inherently more modular, but this was motivated by more pragmatic considerations. Equipment and sensors were simply more expensive, so if something went wrong, it was more cost effective to change the part rather than throw the whole system away and invest in a new one. Now modular designs are motivated by more strategic considerations. With technologies converging and communications protocols being standardised, a smart systems designer can start to think long term with modular solutions that will continue to evolve and improve as technology advances.

Lascar Electronics have a huge range of PanelPilot displays. Check them out here... www.lascarelectronics.com/panelpilot
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