Connecting electronic equipment on the factory floor is an important aspect of any control system. There are several options for connecting data and power to monitors and other devices. Regarding the cables themselves, there are options in cable quality, shielding, terminations, etc. There are also decisions that affect their appearance and how they are protected and sealed.
Hope Industrial Systems’ Windows-based customers find UltraMon a useful application for managing multiple monitor environments. There are a few features that are particularly beneficial and effective for improved efficiency of customers’ work environments.
Last summer, we released our line of industrial Thin Client Enclosures, which we designed to protect any industrial or desktop-grade small form factor PC or thin client device from the rigors of an industrial environment.
Our new industrial keyboard, featured in the “New Product prototype: Industrial Keyboard” sneak preview back in March, is now shipping. The Industrial Wall Mount Folding Keyboard mounts to any vertical surface and is designed to be used with our Panel Mount Monitors. The keyboard folds up or down for convenient storage and has two different typing positions.
One of the first things customers usually say when entering our trade show stall is “Wow, the stainless steel looks great!” We do go to great lengths to make sure things look good, but most of our effort is spent ensuring that our Stainless Steel NEMA 4X products meet the functional anti-corrosive needs of our customers. Equipment used in the food/beverage, pharmaceutical, and chemical industries must be highly resistant to water, cleaning/sterilization, and other industrial chemicals.
Did you know that NEMA does not require independent testing of monitor enclosures to assure compliance? Because of this, many industrial monitor manufacturers actually “self-certify” their products as being NEMA-rated or IP-sealed, leaving the customer at the mercy of whatever testing methods the manufacturer has decided to use.
Most KVM Extenders transmit keyboard, video and mouse data over CAT5 cable, which is of course generally used for digital network applications. KVM Extender manufacturers choose this cable because it is cheap, readily available, and most industrial users are used to working with it. CAT5 cable is great stuff for all these reasons but has one significant shortcoming: it can be susceptible to EMI (ElectroMagnetic Interference) in electrically noisy environments.
At Hope Industrial Systems we take pride in the fact that our Panel Mount Monitors are the easiest to install in the industry.
Based on feedback from our customers, we have released a new version of our Industrial Thin Client/Small PC Enclosure with an integrated power supply that outputs 24 volts in addition to the existing 5 volt output. This new power option allows the enclosure to be used with a wide variety of industrial PC’s and thin clients that were previously not supported. The existing model supporting 5/12 VDC is still available.
An on-screen keyboard (OSK), or “virtual keyboard,” allows the user to send keystrokes to the PC without the use of a physical keyboard. A mouse, touch screen, or other pointing device is used to “type” on the virtual keyboard on the monitor screen. On-screen keyboards are a great solution when an area rarely needs a keyboard or a physical keyboard is not accessible.