JPH07160311A - Superimposing display device for operation display unit - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the power of expression of a screen and to lighten the load on a program on a programmable controller(PC) by displaying characters, indicated by character codes sent from the PC, on a fixed screen with their display attributes. CONSTITUTION:The programmable operation display unit(POD) reads out information specified by a fixed screen number 101 among pieces of fixed screen plotting information 102 held in a screen memory 3 and displays the fixed screen 103 regarding the fixed screen plotting information on a display panel 6b. Further, the characters indicated by the character codes are displayed in a character superimposition area 106 in the fixed screen 103 with their display attributes on the basis of the codes of the characters sent from the PC 11, character code and position data 104 indicating the display positions of the characters, and attribute data 107 indicating the display attributes of the characters by using CG 2. Namely, the attribute information on the character display is sent from the PC 11 without switching the fixed screen to change the character display into an inverted, a blink, and a colored state, etc., and the reusability of data is increased to reduce the consumption of the memory.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a programmable controller (also called a sequencer, P
(Also abbreviated as C) with a communication line, a moving image is displayed in a partial area of a fixed screen of a programmable operation display (abbreviated as POD) as an operation panel including a display portion for monitoring the state of mechanical equipment. A device that displays in layers,
Particularly, the present invention relates to an overlay display device of an operation display device having a function of dynamically switching between blinking display, reverse display and colored display from a PC by giving a display attribute to a part of data sent from the PC to POD. .

Here, a moving image means a character, a numerical value, a figure,
A screen that can dynamically change its display form from a PC, such as a graph. Further, in the drawings below, the same reference numerals indicate the same or corresponding parts.

[0003]

2. Description of the Related Art An operation indicator (POD) is connected to a PC by a communication line, and basically has an operation function of sending an operation signal to the PC and operating mechanical equipment or the like to be controlled by the PC via the PC. , A device having a display function for displaying status data and the like (for example, production quantity, presence / absence of abnormality, etc.) sent from a mechanical equipment to a PC.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of this type of POD. This figure shows a programmable operation display (POD) as an operation panel of an external mechanical device, for example, an assembly processing machine. The assembly processing machine includes a sensor for detecting a work piece, a conveyance mechanism for the work piece, various processing mechanisms for processing the work piece, and the like, and the work piece is detected by the sensor. Not only is it configured to be transported by the transport mechanism and processed by the processing mechanism to complete the product, but it also has a control device for canceling operation and adjusting operation of the machine when an abnormal condition occurs, It is possible to display the status of each sensor and perform step operations by the drive mechanism for transportation from this operation panel.

In FIG. 2, 01 is POD and 1 is P
A microcomputer system as a CPU that controls the entire OD01, such as an 8-bit one-chip microcomputer, 2 is a character generator (CG) that generates display characters, and 3 is an EEPROM that stores graphic data that forms the screen. Is a screen memory, and 4 is a data memory (R) for holding quantity data to be displayed on the screen.
AM, and this memory 4 is backed up by a battery so as to be a non-volatile memory). Reference numeral 5 is an internal bus, and 6 is a transparent touch key in which a display panel and a transparent switch are integrated. Among them, the reference numeral 6a is used to indicate the transparent switch, and the reference numeral 6b is used to indicate the display panel.

A liquid crystal display panel or the like is used as the display panel 6b. The microcomputer system 1 to the display controller 1 are used.
Data can be displayed by writing data in 7. The display controller 17 has a video RAM. The transparent switch 6a is located on the display screen of the display panel 6b, and the switch item displayed on this screen is touched through the transparent body that constitutes the transparent switch 6a to output the corresponding switch output from the transparent switch 6a. It is supposed to occur.

Reference numeral 7 is a key encoder which receives the operation output of the transparent switch 6a, encodes it, and transmits it to the microcomputer system 1. Reference numeral 8 is an operation switch, 9 is an interface bus, 10 is a loader for inputting and setting data for screen creation, and 11 is a sequencer (PC) as an external operation control device. A machine (not shown), which is an assembly processing machine in this case, is connected to the end of this sequencer, and the assembly processing machine is controlled by the sequencer in the operation procedure (program).

The sequencer 11 has a function of issuing a command to the microcomputer system 1 to select and specify the screen data stored in the data memory 4, and the transparent switch 6.
a, the operation result of the operation switch 8 and the like, the key encoder 7,
Read through the microcomputer system 1
It has a function of outputting an operation output to the above-described machine connected to the sequencer 11 and issuing a command to the microcomputer system 1 to switch the display screen on the display panel 6b.

Reference numeral 12 is a display lamp for an alarm or the like whose lighting is controlled by the microcomputer system 1, 13 is an alarm relay, and 14 is a buzzer. The relay 13 and the buzzer 14 operate when an abnormality occurs and notify the outside thereof. . Display lamp 12, alarm relay 13, buzzer 14, display lamp 1
The operations such as displaying the nameplate letters on the 2 side are performed by the sequencer 11
The program is specified by the above program, and the microcomputer system 1 which has received a command for specification via the interface bus 9 controls the operations thereof. When the transparent touch key 6 is operated, the buzzer 14 detects the operation and sounds for a short time to notify the operator of the fact.

[0010] By the way, conventionally, production information and the like are stored in POD0.
When the value of the information becomes a specific value when it is displayed on the display panel 6b of No. 1, and the value is blinked in order to call a caution / warning to the production manager, the value is blinked in advance. Is created, and when blinking display is required, P
This is realized by sending a signal to switch the screen from C11 to POD01.

[0011]

As described above, according to the conventional method, the P
In the usage such as blinking display of the character data in the fixed screen of the OD, the display data is exchanged between the PC and the POD while switching the fixed screen, so it is easy to understand the situation of the production equipment that changes moment by moment. In order to express, a large number of fixed screens have to be prepared according to the situation, and the PC has to switch the screens. Therefore, the PC
In addition to the problem that the control program (sequence) on the side becomes complicated, and because many similar fixed screens that differ only in some parts must be prepared, there is a large amount of fixed screen information in POD, and there is a waste of memory consumption. It was

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an overlay display device for an operation display device which can solve such a problem.

[0013]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the overlay display device of the present invention has a programmable controller (such as 11) (interface bus 9).
Of the fixed screen drawing information (such as 102) held by itself (in the screen memory 3 or the like) based on the fixed screen number (such as 101) transmitted via the fixed screen number specified by the fixed screen number. In the programmable operation display (01, etc.) that reads the drawing information (102, etc.) and displays the fixed screen (103, etc.) related to this fixed screen drawing information on the display panel (6b, etc.) within itself, transmitted from the programmable controller. Based on the character code and the position data (character code / position data 104, etc.) indicating the display position of this character and the data (attribute data 107, etc.) indicating the display attribute of this character. The character indicated by the character code (using CG2 or the like) is displayed at the position indicated by the position data (such as the character overlapping area 106). And those with means (such as a microcomputer system 1) to be displayed in the display attribute.

[0014]

By transmitting the attribute information of the character display from the PC without switching the fixed screen, it is possible to dynamically change the character display to reverse display, blink display, colored display, and the like. Increase availability and reduce memory consumption. That is, basic display information defined in advance is stored in the POD, and character data and its display attribute information are transmitted from the PC based on a predetermined data format.
The display attribute of the character is switched from, the memory capacity is reduced in both the PC and the POD, and the processing operation of the application program on the PC side is reduced.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of a method of displaying characters on a POD in accordance with the present invention. This figure shows the exchange and structure of data between POD01 and PC11. In POD01 of FIG. 1, reference numeral 02 denotes a temporary storage area for communication data in the microcomputer system 1, which is a PC 11
It has an individual storage area that is determined according to the type of display data received from. 101 is a fixed screen number stored in a predetermined area in this communication data storage area 02, and 104 is a fixed screen number.
Is a character code / position data composed of the character code and the data indicating the display position of the character, 107
Is attribute data stored together with the character code / position data 104. Reference numeral 03 is another display data in the communication data storage area 02, which is composed of other combination data similar to the combination of the character code / position data 104 and the attribute data 107, for example. Further, 102 is fixed screen drawing information stored in the screen memory 3 for each fixed screen number 101, 103 is a fixed screen displayed on the display panel 6b, and 106 is the character code / position on the fixed screen 103. It is a character overlapping area as a moving image display area at a position designated by the data 104.

The POD01 displays the fixed screen 103 based on the fixed screen drawing information 102 in the POD from the fixed screen number 101 sent from the PC 11. The POD also uses the character code / position data 10 sent from the PC.
Character code in 4 and character generator (CG) 2
Obtains the font information (bitmap data) of the character and displays this character in the character overlapping area 106 at the position in the fixed screen 103 designated by the position data in the character code / position data 104. . In addition, the attribute data 10 attached to the character code / position data 104
In accordance with item 7, the characters are displayed in blinking, highlighted, or displayed in different colors.

[0017]

According to the present invention, the display attribute of a character displayed on a fixed screen is dynamically changed only by transmitting character data and its attribute data from a PC.
The expressiveness of the POD screen is improved, and the load on the PC program is reduced. This also reduces the number of fixed screen types, which reduces the amount of fixed screen data.
The POD screen creation time can be shortened. Also, PC-PO
Since the amount of data communication between Ds can be reduced, the responsiveness of the POD as an operating device is also improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of a method for displaying characters in a superimposed manner on a POD as an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of POD.

[Explanation of symbols]

01 Programmable operation display 02 Communication data storage area 1 Microcomputer system 2 Character generator (CG) 3 Screen memory 6b Display panel 9 Interface bus (communication line) 11 Programmable controller (sequencer, P)
C) 101 fixed screen number 102 fixed screen drawing information 103 fixed screen 104 character code / position data 106 character overlapping area 107 attribute data

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A fixed screen drawing information designated by the fixed screen number among the fixed screen drawing information held by itself is read out based on the fixed screen drawing information transmitted from the programmable controller. In a programmable operation display device that displays the related fixed screen on its own display panel, based on the character code transmitted from the programmable controller, the position data indicating the display position of this character, and the data indicating the display attribute of this character. And a display device for displaying the character indicated by the character code with the display attribute at the position indicated by the position data in the fixed screen.