My name is Chuck and i am a Facilities maintenance tech for a grocery distribution center. We use Opto 22’s PAC display runtime pro to control our ammonia refrigeration system. The Control computer has a large monitor and screen resolution is approx. 1270x840. When I try to remote in, my monitor in the office is smaller and a smaller resolution and the PAC program shrinks down to fit. now the issue is there are no scroll bars on the bottom or side so where the screen zooms into is where it stays I can’t move to the side to get to the buttons on the right side of the screen. I can use the menu bar to switch to different screens but I can’t scroll down to get all the information.
tl;dr no scroll bars
I am not trained on this program so is there an easy solution or is the programmer going to have to come back out and program in some scroll bars?
Do you have all the PAC Control and PAC Display files? How many screens to you normally need to access remotely? I ask in case:
You want to make some changes to PAC Display yourself (we have [free training](http://www.opto22.com/site/training.aspx?nid=nr3) here at Opto 22, and there are a number of training videos, etc. available also).
If you have access to the PAC Control strategy, you may be better off using [I]groov[/I], which is specifically designed to let you quickly develop high-performance HMI screens that are accessible from anywhere and easily scalable. I’d suspect that, given the low price of a [I]groov [/I]Box, it would be cheaper to buy one than to call in the programmer. Probably more fun, too.
To give you a feel for why I say that, here's quick little 26-second video that shows you:
How in [B][I]groov [/I]Build[/B] -- the browser-based development environment -- you have a (landscape) [B]Desktop & Tablet[/B] view AND a [B]Handheld[/B] view to arrange your data/gadgets accordingly (even the video feed).
In [B][I]groov [/I]View[/B], the screen automatically scales and gives you scroll bars!
I’m not sure what all has been loaded in the system.
as for accessing screens well I have 2 screens that would be the most viewed then another 15 screens I might have to look at depending on the problem.
So the Groov system from what i could glean from the link you sent me is something I would design for mobile devices to have access to my databases information?
as for the setup. I have 5 temperature zones, 30 evaporators, 6 ammonia compressors, 2 Condensers and countless sensors all over.
The system is amazing it responds to situations and turns on or off compressors, motors and valves all trying to maintain the temps.
We have one computer that the program is installed on and that computer just recently got put on our network so we could remote access it. we wanted remote access so I could check in on it during off-hours to determine if a problem is bad enough for me to come in or can I fix through the remote access. but the remote screen doesn’t scale so I can’t get all of the information which could be very bad.
Oh I have a Laptop win 7 pro 64 bit used at home, an Android smartphone galaxyS2, and an Apple Ipad one of the newer ones it has the lightning connector on it that I use at work and home.
Hmm OK I went and messed with the resolution on the engine room computer and the program doesn’t scale for computer that it’s on either. If I put the resolution on a smaller setting I lose info all around the screen. Is this because the original design of the interface was made at a certain size and it doesn’t scale with display settings? Is there a workaround this or would it have to be completely redone on a smaller background?
Check out this (also very short) video that gives a nice overview. Ben’s also got another video there on the same page – “5 minutes to groov” that walks you through how quick it really is to build/deploy screens (on any of those devices you mentioned): http://groov.com/groov-video-imagine/
Yes, that “doesn’t scale” thing is a big pain point and one of the reasons we’re so excited about groov, especially for those folks who’ve had their systems a long time and over the years have changed from various screen sizes. I’m certainly not saying you’d get rid of PAC Display (which is still awesome for so many things like SuperTrends and logging, stuff groov does not yet support). But adding it into a system for just the reasons you’re talking about (and that nice video feed too) is very appealing for many of our existing customers like you!
Whats the remote connection / viewing program you are using?
What you are seeing is not a PAC Display limitation, but a limitation of the remote view software.
Its just doing a dumb mirror of whats on the remote desktop gets thrown up on the client (your end). A straight 1:1 transmit.
Some are smarter than others, for example, VNC does not scale, but something like logmein does.
VNC can not handle multi-monitors, but logmein will allow you to chose which monitor at the remote end you want to view with the client.
I’m not a huge fan, but I do use logmein since it does not require any changes to be made to the firewall at the remote end, and because it does scale… The downside is that because it scales, things can get a bit small at times, but there is a way to turn it off and view it 1:1 (like you are now)… logmein gives scrolls bars in this case so you can pan around the image.
Years (and years ago) I used to use PCAnywhere to do my remote viewing of PAC Display, but it required changes to be made to the firewall. I’m not sure if that’s the case any more.
There are many many many different bits of software that are just for remote PC viewing and control. If you dont like the one you have (sounds like it), pick another. Many are free or have free trials so you can test them out.
Your laptop should have no trouble at all, your S2 and ipad will be a little more challenging. Not sure what Android and iOS clients logmein has, you will need to factor that in when you do your testing.
groov is a solid option. If you have a VPN set up, that’s the best way to remotely access the groov box which will go at the site.
If no VPN, then a simple port forward on port 443 is an option. Talk with the IT guys and see what they have set up.
In a nut shell, you would put a groov Box at the site, connect your existing PAC Control strategies, build your pages for PC/ipad and your S2 and your done. (Note. Your PAC Controllers will need to be running firmware 9.2 or better to work with groov).
Your laptop, S2 and ipad all have VPN, so you just turn them on and connect to the groov Box and BOOM! you will be viewing your data.
You will find it so handy that you will be using while you are on site as much as when you are away.
The best thing of all? No scroll bars needed. groov uses scalable vector graphics (SVG), so the screen scales to fit what ever device you are viewing it on.
Oh, and on the S2, you will need to install Firefox for browsing groov. The S2 browser is too old in Honeycomb and hit and miss on the Jelly bean update.
tl;dr. Try some other remote desktop viewing software till you find one that scales. groov rocks.
I would recommend try using LogMeIn, RHUB remote support servers, Bomgar GoToMyPC, GoSupportNow etc. remote support tools for remotely accessing your office computer and check if it resolves your scrollbar issue.
I frequently recommend TightVNC for remote viewing. It has scroll-bars to deal with resolution mismatch and handles multiple monitors. The port over which it communicates does need to be open, but it has a password protection feature to help maintain security.
