In the left window pane, double-click the Project Properites node.

In the communication settings, a channel's communications settings can be changed and new channels can be added.

Click on the channel (e.g. COM1 [Serial]) node to display the protocol information (shown in green in the image below).

Press the down arrow to the right of the node and select the Modify Channel menu item.

Make any protocol or channel configuration changes in the window that appears (as pictured below).

• Select the MODBUS option for general 3rd party Modbus PLCs
• Select the CUBLOC/TPC9X option for any of COMFILE Technology's CUBLOC-based products
• Select PROTOCOL FOR MCU option if interfacing with generic microcontroller products like the Arduino
• Select the MODPORT option for interfacing with COMFILE Technology's MODPORT Field I/O Modular Controller
• Select the USER option to transmit arbitrary data out the serial port.

Selecting the Set HMI's communication settings when project is deployed to set the HMI's serial settings in the Comfile Studio project. Otherwise, the HMI's serial settings can be set by touching the HMI's top-right corner of the screen 5 times to enter the System Screen and make serial settings there.

If necessary, customize the time between queries (i.e. query interval).

If the query interval is too high, there may be a decrease in the responsiveness of the UI. However, if it is too low, it may flood the PLC with queries leaving it little processing power to perform its other tasks. The right setting will depend on the application and PLC's performance characteristics.

Press the Add Channel button to add a new communication channel, and the following window will appear.

Here additional communication channels can be added to support multiple external devices. CHA-XXXPR models (Open-frame models) only support one communication channel.

COM3 is supports RS-485 so it is possible to connect several external devices to a single channel. (RS-485 supports 1:N communication while RS-232 is 1:1. COM1 and COM2 are RS-232 so they only support one external device.)

Click the + next to the Add External Device node to add additional external devices.

Be sure to specify a unique slave address (2).

1. External Device ID - A unique id for referencing the device elsewhere in Comfile Studio.
2. Slave Address - The unique slave address for the device within the channel. This can also be dynamically computed in the form of an expression.
3. Override the Panel's Timeout Setting - Use the project's communication timeout settings instead of the panel PC's timeout settings.
4. Conditionally Enable External Device - Provides the ability to conditionally enable the device according to an expression.
5. Run an Action Group When a Timeout Occurs With This External Device - This allows for the creation of an error handler should a communication timeout occur.
6. Number of Address Digits - The number of digits to use to make it compatible with the external device (e.g. 4001 vs. 40001 vs. 400001)

The example pictured below shows a total of 4 devices added to COM3.

• Ethernet communication is currently not supported, but is planned for the future.

After setting up a communication channel, it is possible to configure it as a Modbus slave. This is a useful feature for monitoring or controlling the ComfileHMI and potentially it's connected slaves from an upstream SCADA system.

Modbus queries from a connected master will read from and write to the ComfileHMI's internal memory.

Currently only Modbus RTU and word-related queries are supported.

In the Appearance and Touch options, choose how you want buttons to behave (i.e. Activate event When Pressed or activate event When Released).

Also, select the ComfileHMI hardware model and screen resolution.

The Image Refresh Rate will adjust the rate at which images are redrawn on the screen (lower values mean faster updates). This can be adjusted to make animations or other dynamic image-based visuals appear smoother.

Select the Override the HMI Device's Screen Saver Settings option to have the project settings determine the inactivity timeout before the LCD's backlight turns off.

When the project is first loaded, the ComfileHMI can display a splash screen (e.g. a company logo), or simply load the project's initial screen.

logo file (800×480, PNG)

In the User Files options, select files to be automatically uploaded to the ComfileHMI hardware when the project is deployed.

Pressing the Manage button will display the file explorer where files can be added to or removed from the project.

Files added to the Storage Card folder will be automatically deployed to the ComfileHMI hardware's microSD card.

Audio files must be in .wav format.

Back to ComfileHMI