Control Engineering AVG custom newsletter for January 17, 2005

By Control Engineering Staff January 17, 2005

A custom advertising newsletter from Control Engineering & AVG | January 17, 2005

Enhanced Automation

AVG, the designer and manufacturer of EZTouch—one of the most well-recognized operator interface products on the market for its ease of programming and low price—now directly offers the EZPanel Enhanced operator interface, which incorporates the principal features of EZTouch with new capabilities based directly on customer input.

EZPanel Enhanced

EZPanel Enhanced grew out of the success of EZTouch, which was initially released to the market to provide an operator interface product with twice the features at less than half the price. The interface was also very popular because it required no prior programming knowledge to design a screen. All of this helped make EZTouch one of the top-selling operator interface products on the market.

Since the development of EZTouch, AVG (based in Bettendorf, IA) has provided backup technical support for the product while sold exclusively through AutomationDirect.com. In that time, AVG learned what customers most wanted out of the product. This led to the incorporation of such new features on EZPanel Enhanced as:

12 new hardware drivers that quickly connect the touch panels to the most popular PLCs. Available drivers support Allen-Bradley (with string support—the #1 most requested feature by users of EZTouch), Aromat, AutomationDirect, DirectLOGIC, Control Techniques, Control Technology Corp., GE, Idec, Mitsubishi, Modbus, Modicon, Omron, Siemens, Square D, and Texas Instruments.

New software features include: overlapping of objects, free sizing of touch objects, pick and apply styles, display of tag addresses on objects, and support for importing image formats. Note: If you already own an EZTouch panel and programming software, AVG will ship the new EZPanel Enhanced Editor at no charge with the purchase of any EZPanel Enhanced. Editor is fully backward compatible with existing EZTouch panels.

All models (6-, 8-, 10-, and 15-in.) share common features and programming language.

Other key features of the EZPanel Enhanced include:

High-speed, vector-based objects, scalable 3-D graphical objects: pushbuttons, numeric entry, meters, line graphs, PID faceplates, etc.;

128 colors;

Display text in up to nine different languages;

Built-in Symbol Factory with over 4,000 symbols;

Screen and object password protection (eight user-defined levels);

Alarm capability with history, count and details;

Recipe downloads to the PLC: 20 values into 20 registers (fixed or variable);

Floating-point numbers to and from PLC;

Import/export tags to/from Excel or CSV files;

Scalable meters and bar graphs

Unique patent pending “online” programming for fast screen development and debugging

Three new models are available in the EZPanel Enhanced line:

6-in. white on blue for $399

6-in. TFT for $999

8-in. TFT for $1399

In addition to enhancing the product’s features and offering it at a lower price by selling direct from the manufacturer, AVG’s tech support for the EZTouch products proved the value of enhanced customer support to the company. As a result, AVG, in selling its products directly, will offer same day shipping for all orders placed by 7:15 pm Central Standard Time. Also, tech support will be available from 6 am to midnight CST and emergency tech support is also available on the weekends.

Visualization/Communication

EZMarquee

The successful market approach behind EZTouch—offering twice the features at less than half the price—is also behind AVG’s EZMarquee line of products. Prior to the launch of EZMarquee, industrial messaging products could not be bought for less than $1,500-$2,000, which typically restricted the use of such products to very few machines for all but the largest manufacturing operations. AVG believes that for optimum manufacturing processes, every machine should have a marquee so that its status can be easily seen.

Available in 16 different models starting at $349, EZMarquee comes with an RS422/485 and an RS232 port for communicating to most PLCs and can be ordered with an Ethernet, DeviceNet, or Profibus communication interface built-in, allowing you to connect multiple EZMarquees (in a network of up to 16 marquees) and reduce hard wiring costs.

Visual display features of EZMarquee include:

2-in. to 8-in. red or tricolor characters;

Blinking and scrolling messages

2 Lines of 10 2-in. characters for only $549

International character set;

Single line 10 characters to 4 lines of 40 characters;

EZ ASCII interface to PLCs and PC-based controls

NEMA 12 Industrial Ratings, 0°C to 60°C

Integrated Programmable Controllers

EZTextPLC

Years of experience in providing PLC products to customers taught AVG that an operator panel with a PLC built-in offered at a good price point would generate a great deal of market attention. Using its experience in designing and manufacturing many electronic and semiconductor products, AVG has brought the EZTextPLC to market.

With up to 32 I/O points (16 digital in, 16 digital out) for less than $350, EZTextPLC can be used to substitute small control systems that require a text type display. This eliminates the need to buy and install a PLC and operator interface separately and reducing the electrical panel space (by up to 35%), thereby making the control system compact and cost effective.

Because the PLC in the EZTextPLC uses a separate processor and power source than the operator panel, you don’t have to worry about interruptions in processes controlled by the PLC if something happens to the operator panel.

EZTextPLC uses AVG’s EZI/O modules (starting at $19 for an 8 point, 0.5 Amp, short-circuit proof, removable terminal block, snap-in I/O module with LED status indicator for each output), which can be chosen from a variety of options including analog I/O, high-speed counter, relay, and AC/DC combo modules.

EZPLC—the PLC behind the EZTextPLC—is a micro modular PLC suitable for small machines that need high-end PLC performance like fast scan times, a fair amount of I/O, or lots of memory. The low cost of EZPLC (starting at $111) also makes it appealing to those simply looking for a good price.

Key features of the EZTextPLC line include:

Choice of five EZText operator interfaces

Up to 32 I/O PLC with EZ-220/EZ-420/EZ-220V

Up to 48 I/O PLC with EZ-220P/EZ-220PV

Heavy duty mounting gasket

PLC message indicator LED

Flexible 8 point I/O modules

64KB PLC program memory

Fast scan time: 3ms for 1k

Ladder logic instruction set

Extra RS422/485 communication port

ASCII in/out support

Built in real time clock/calendar

Option cards for Ethernet ($99), DeviceNet ($79) and Profibus ($129)

Cost effective analog I/O

100 KHz counter module

Interrupt input module

Order our free catalog

400 exciting new products

Order by phone 800-774-3279; fax 800-775-3279 , or online at www.ezautomation.net

Same day shipping for orders placed by 7:15pm CST

Free shipping for orders over $300

Contact :Usman KhalidEZAutomationTEL: (877) 774 EASY (3279) x312Fax: (877) 775 EASY (3279)Email: usman@avg.net

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