The present invention relates to industrial devices. In particular, but not by way of limitation, the present invention relates to systems and methods for displaying information on industrial control devices.
Many industrial devices are amenable to being installed in an industrial system with a variety of orientations. A mass flow controller, for example, may be installed in one fluid transport line with a first side facing up in one orientation, and the same controller may be installed in another transport line with the first side facing down in another orientation.
Many control devices include display panels that provide information about a status of the control device and/or a status of the process the control device is associated with. For example, control devices are often capable of displaying information such as temperature, pressure, percent of full load, alarm information and/or error information.
Although control devices may mechanically and electrically operate without a problem in many orientations, when a control device includes a fixed display panel that moves along with the control device, the display panel may be installed upside-down relative to the perspective of an operator of the control device. As a consequence, the information on the display is at least an inconvenience for the operator to read, and worse, the information may be misread by the operator, which may cause a costly interruption to the process, damage to the system or even personal injury.
In an attempt to alleviate these display issues, some devices incorporate a display panel that is mechanically adjustable so that an operator can change the physical orientation of the display panel while the control device is installed in a system. These mechanically adjustable displays are often awkward to adjust, prone to slipping and/or adversely affect the structural integrity of the control device. Accordingly, a system and method are needed to address the shortfalls of present technology and to provide other new and innovative features.
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention that are shown in the drawings are summarized below. These and other embodiments are more fully described in the Detailed Description section. It is to be understood, however, that there is no intention to limit the invention to the forms described in this Summary of the Invention or in the Detailed Description. One skilled in the art can recognize that there are numerous modifications, equivalents and alternative constructions that fall within the spirit and scope of the invention as expressed in the claims.
In one exemplary embodiment, the present invention may be characterized as a method for presenting information from an industrial device to a user. In this embodiment, the method includes arranging the control device so as to place a display panel of the control device in an orientation relative to an industrial system, installing the control device in the control system so as to fix the orientation of the display panel with the orientation and changing the presentation of content on the display panel in response to the orientation of the display panel relative to a viewing perspective of a user.
In another embodiment, the invention may be characterized as an industrial apparatus including at least one connector that is configured so as allow the control apparatus to be coupled to an industrial system in a plurality of orientations. The industrial apparatus includes a display panel configured to display status information relating to the industrial system and a processor configured to receive an orientation signal that is indicative of at least one of the plurality of orientations. The processor in this embodiment is configured to alter the presentation of the status information on the display panel in response to the orientation signal.
As previously stated, the above-described embodiments and implementations are for illustration purposes only. Numerous other embodiments, implementations, and details of the invention are easily recognized by those of skill in the art from the following descriptions and claims.
Various objects and advantages and a more complete understanding of the present invention are apparent and more readily appreciated by reference to the following Detailed Description and to the appended claims when taken in conjunction with the accompanying Drawings wherein:
Referring now to the drawings, where like or similar elements are designated with identical reference numerals throughout the several views. Referring first to
As shown in
In one embodiment, the I/O port 106 is an Ethernet port, but in other embodiments other ports that allow for communication to and/or from the control device are be utilized (e.g., DeviceNet, RS232, RS485, analog interface, etc.). As discussed further herein, the display panel 110 in some embodiments is realized as a liquid crystal display (LCD), in other embodiments as a light emitting diode (LED) display and in yet other embodiments as organic light emitting diode (OLED) display.
In the present embodiment, the connectors 104 allow the control device 100 to be coupled to an industrial process in a variety of orientations. As depicted in
In
In some embodiments, the presentation of information is selectable by a user of the control device 100. In one embodiment for example, the user is able to communicate with the control device 100 via a communication link (e.g, Ethernet) utilizing the I/O port 106 of the device. In another embodiment, a separate switch is utilized so as to allow the user to change the presentation of information on the display panel 106.
In yet other embodiments, the control device 100 is configured to sense its orientation and automatically change the presentation of content on the display panel based upon the orientation of the control device 100 (and display panel 110).
Referring next to
In the exemplary embodiment, the sensors-206 include a flow meter, a pressure-meter and a temperature meter, which provide status information to the processor 202. These inputs are exemplary only and one of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that other types of sensors are utilized in connection with other types of control devices.
The processor 202 in the present embodiment is configured to receive information (e.g., status information from the sensors 206) and generate display signals 222 (e.g., in serial form) that are processed by the display driver 210 so as to generate row and column signals that are converted to row and column drive voltages by the row driver 214 and column driver 216 respectively. Although the processor 202 is depicted in the exemplary embodiment as a single general purpose processor unit (e.g. a Motorola ColdFire 5282 processor), which includes the logic for inverting the displayed characters, in other embodiments the processor 202 is realized by a collection of discrete analog and/or digital components.
In some embodiments, the processor 202 alters the display signals 222 so that the altered display signals translate to a change in the presentation of the image on the display panel 212. For example, if the control device 100 is rotated 180 degrees as depicted in
In the exemplary embodiment depicted in
The orientation input 208 in the present embodiment allows an orientation signal to be sent to the processor 202 that is indicative of one or more orientations that the control device 100 is capable of being positioned in. In some embodiments, for example, the orientation signal is a command, which causes the processor 202 to provide display data 222 to the display driver 210 that flips the presentation of information on the display panel 212. In other embodiments, the orientation signal may include information indicating the orientation of the control device.
Referring next to
As previously described, the user in one embodiment initiates the change in the presentation of information, and in an alternative embodiment a sensor (e.g., the orientation sensor 218) automatically sends the orientation signal 208 to the processor 202.
Referring next to
In conclusion, the present invention provides, among other things, a system, apparatus and method for displaying information on a control device. Those skilled in the art can readily recognize that numerous variations and substitutions may be made in the invention, its use and its configuration to achieve substantially the same results as achieved by the embodiments described herein. Accordingly, there is no intention to limit the invention to the disclosed exemplary forms. Many variations, modifications and alternative constructions fall within the scope and spirit of the disclosed invention as expressed in the claims.