HMI Panels: Siemens KTP700, Magelis, PanelView, Weintek

What it is and where it is used

A panel HMI (human-machine interface) is a touchscreen mounted on a switchboard door. It shows the status of breakers, measurements and alarms, and allows equipment to be operated locally. The panels include the Siemens SIMATIC KTP700 and KTP1200 Basic and TP1200 Comfort, the Schneider Electric Magelis, now Harmony GTU, the PanelView Plus from Rockwell Automation and the Weintek MT8071iE and cMT series.

In substations and in industry they appear in station service panels, automatic transfer switches, emergency generator sets, motor control centers and medium-voltage switchgear. They do not replace the substation SCADA: they are the local operation level of the panel. See substation SCADA and HMI system.

Variants: KTP700, KTP1200, TP1200 Comfort, Harmony GTU, PanelView Plus and Weintek MT8071iE

Main characteristics

• Operation screens: simplified single-line diagrams, statuses, measurements, trends and alarms.
• Local control with confirmation, which must respect the interlocks and the command hierarchy of the installation.
• Alarm and event log in the panel itself.
• User management with access levels for operators and maintenance.

In a substation, control from an HMI must follow the same select-before-operate logic and interlocking as SCADA. See PLCs and substation automation.

Communications and integration

• With the PLC: PROFINET on Siemens, EtherNet/IP on Rockwell and each brand’s own protocols.
• With relays and meters: mostly Modbus RTU and TCP, depending on the drivers each software includes (Modbus RTU and TCP).
• Software: WinCC in TIA Portal (Siemens), Vijeo Designer and EcoStruxure Operator Terminal Expert (Schneider Electric), Rockwell Automation’s software for PanelView and EasyBuilder Pro (Weintek).

When the information must also reach the control center, the HMI is not the path: an RTU or gateway with DNP3, IEC 60870-5-104 or IEC 61850 is used. See substation RTU and gateway.

Frequently asked technical questions

• KTP700 and Weintek MT8071iE manuals: the hardware and software manuals are on each manufacturer’s support portal.
• The panel has become obsolete: Siemens publishes a migration guide to the Unified panels; the cutout may match, but the project is migrated and tested again.
• The panel does not read a relay: it is almost always the Modbus address, the register offset (base 0 or base 1), the data type or the port speed.
• There is no backup of the project: recovering a project from the panel is not always possible. That is why the source project and its software version should always be kept.

Technical data of the panels

Weintek MT8071iE. The available data sheets describe it as a 7-inch panel with an 800 × 480 pixel resistive touchscreen, a 32-bit RISC processor at 600 MHz, 128 MB of flash memory and 128 MB of RAM. Its ports are one 10/100 Ethernet, one USB 2.0 host and three serial ports: COM1 (RS-232), COM2 (2- or 4-wire RS-485) and COM3 (2-wire RS-485). The data sheets state that COM2 and COM3 share MPI support at 187.5 kbit/s and only one can be used at a time. 24 VDC ±20 % supply, front protection NEMA 4/IP65, fanless, and programming with EasyBuilder Pro (V4.10.04 or later depending on the data sheet consulted). The data sheets differ on brightness and contrast, so confirm those values with the manufacturer’s current data sheet. A distributor lists it as discontinued with the MT8070iE as its replacement: verify availability before specifying it in a new project.

Rockwell PanelView Plus 7. The Rockwell Automation product pages show the PanelView Plus 7 graphic terminal (2711P series) as discontinued since 30 November 2021. The engineering replacement is in the catalog numbers ending in D9P (for example, the 2711P-T12W22A9P is replaced by the 2711P-T12W22D9P). Whoever operates an installed PanelView Plus 7 should know that the replacement is in the same family of catalog numbers, but that the application and the communication drivers are reviewed. The sources consulted did not cover the status of other Rockwell series.

Siemens KTP700 Basic. The family is supported in TIA Portal V17 and later according to third-party sources; projects migrated from V15 may require the migration wizard and adjustment of tags. Siemens proposes the Unified panels (MTP700 Unified Basic) as the successor, and the technical articles consulted agree that migration usually involves recreating some screens and objects, not a direct conversion. Verify the official end-of-life notice and the minimum TIA Portal version on the Siemens support portal before planning.

What is needed to use a panel in an electrical switchboard

An HMI panel serves for local operation, but three conditions make it suitable for a power switchboard:

• Signal and address list. Which variable it shows, which device it comes from, with what Modbus or PLC address, what scaling and what alarm text. Without that table, testing and auditing have no reference. In Modbus, the base 0 or base 1 offset is the most common cause of shifted values; see Modbus RTU and TCP.
• Command hierarchy. Who can command from the panel, with what confirmation and with what interlocks; control from the panel cannot bypass the local/remote selector. See command levels and the local/remote selector.
• Backup and version. The source project, the version of the programming software and the panel image or file must be stored outside the panel. Recovering a project from the device is not always possible.

Points of attention at commissioning and maintenance

• Environment. Compare the declared degree of protection and temperature with the conditions in the switchboard, especially in medium-voltage switchgear and outdoor panels.
• Serial communication. Termination, polarity, baud rate and parity must match the relay or meter; on RS-485 a wrongly placed termination causes intermittent faults.
• Clock. If the panel logs alarms with a timestamp, its clock must be synchronized to a common source or the records cannot be correlated with those of the relay.
• Testing. Each screen, each alarm and each command is tested end to end; see FAT and SAT testing.
• Replacement. A matching panel cutout does not guarantee that the project migrates unchanged: the software, drivers and screens are reviewed.

How we help

At Tiza Group we configure HMIs for control and station service panels, integrate them with PLCs, relays and meters, and test each screen and each command at commissioning. We load and modify logic, interlocks and signals remotely, worldwide, through remote relay and controller configuration, without waiting for a site visit. See control, protection and communications configuration and SCADA integration and gateways. Write to us through the contact page.

Related guides

• Substation SCADA and HMI system
• PLCs and substation automation
• Substation RTU and gateway
• Control and protection panel
• Modbus RTU and TCP

References

• IEC 61131-3, programming languages for programmable controllers.
• Modbus Organization, Modbus protocol specification.
• Siemens, manuals for Basic Panels 2nd Generation and Comfort Panels, and the migration guide to WinCC Unified.
• Schneider Electric, pages for Harmony GTU, Vijeo Designer and EcoStruxure Operator Terminal Expert.
• Weintek, PLC connection guide and EasyBuilder Pro release notes.

Frequently asked questions