TY - JOUR N2 - The paper describes a prototype operator panel, which was designed to operate with the S7-200 family of Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC-s) from Siemens. Most of the functionality of the operator panel was implemented in a computer program, which runs on a PC-class computer. The program communicates with a PLC through its communication port configured in the Freeport mode. Two kinds of interface between the PC, and the PLC are supported: wired, and wireless. For wired connection a standard PC/PPI cable supplied by Siemens is used. For wireless connection two communication modules were designed, which operate in the free 433 MHz band. The operator panel program is intuitive, and easy to use. States of PLC inputs and outputs are presented using graphical objects. It is possible to modify states of the outputs, and monitor and edit any variable in the M and V memory in the PLC. The application supports also alarming. The program can be run on any computer with the MS Windows operating system installed. This makes the solution very cost-effective. Providing both wired and wireless communication radically increases flexibility of the proposed solution. The panel can be quickly mounted in areas, where pulling new cables is inconvenient, difficult or expensive. L1 - http://www.journals.pan.pl/Content/84800/PDF/10_paper.pdf L2 - http://www.journals.pan.pl/Content/84800 PY - 2013 IS - No 2 June EP - 320 DO - 10.2478/aee-2013-0024 KW - operator panel KW - human machine interface (HMI) KW - programmable logic controller (PLC) KW - wireless communication KW - microprocessor system A1 - Mazek, Kacper A1 - Chmiel, Mirosław A1 - Kulisz, Józef PB - Polish Academy of Sciences VL - vol. 62 DA - 2013 T1 - A PC-based operator and diagnostic panel for Simatic S7-200 programmable controllers SP - 307 UR - http://www.journals.pan.pl/dlibra/publication/edition/84800 T2 - Archives of Electrical Engineering ER -