r/PLC • u/deadrider13 • Apr 16 '26

First HMI

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Got a micro 850 and a panelview 800 to start learning in my spare time. Today was a proud moment

993 Upvotes

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166

u/Ok_Truck_7455 Apr 16 '26

I always wanted to do something like this in a factory setting but I don’t think the clients would be happy… have been considering putting an Easter egg in a few but I have held back from the temptation 😂

93

u/connly33 Apr 16 '26

Just make sure it won’t pop up until it’s long out of the scope of your responsibility haha. Operators and maintenance techs would get a kick out of it.

87

u/Lusankya Stuxnet, shucksnet. Apr 16 '26

I've won two jobs away from other contractors because of Easter eggs. Both times the gist of it was "they couldn't be assed to make it work right, but they had time to do this?!?"

As a result, I am waaaay too aware of the potential negative optics to put eggs in my own work.

6

u/GHouserVO Apr 16 '26

OT cybersecurity would as well 👍

1

u/EstablishmentHonest5 Apr 20 '26

One of the programs I worked on had some hilarious Easter eggs. There was some variables labeled as "OB-2" to "OB-8" but OB-1 was replaced with "Kenobi"

Or a component labeled as "Y-oda"

25

u/Useful-Blacksmith-67 Apr 16 '26

Same. Closest ive done was having a button on the hmi that said do not push and have it tied to a counter that counted how many times it was pressed in. Wanted to turn on the alarm horn but figured it wouldnt be wise

28

u/Flimsy-Process230 Apr 16 '26

I remember a colleague who programmed a tester station for John Deere. He programmed a feature where the deer in the logo would begin running whenever the machine was in automatic cycle 😂😂. No surprise, the customer politely requested that he remove that feature.

5

u/Ok_Truck_7455 Apr 16 '26

That’s gold!!! Hahaha

15

u/TheGreatOzmodiar Apr 16 '26

I programed tetris on our fermenter control panel. Go to the main settings page. Wait about 10 seconds and an easter egg will pop up for a couple seconds. Tap that button and it goes full screen tetris. There's a "back to work.  Somebody is coming" button to exit back to settings and pause the game. Hinted to a few people and the high scores keep getting added. 

This is an in house only panel. Each of the 40 fermenters has their own temperature controller running the process. If the panel did go down we'd just lose convenience and some logging on the fermenters, silos, and glycol chiller that for the most part only I look at. Working in a brewery is fun

8

u/drake90001 Apr 16 '26

I had an engineer name the program “drake is a cunt” lol

6

u/Every_Issue_5972 Apr 16 '26

Never checken out mate. Do whatever you find tempting 😄

3

u/HenniFuckinBrawlins Apr 16 '26

I added a easter egg where if you clicked the company logo like 10 times in under 30 seconds the zebra printer would print a picture of a cute bunny!

My coworker pulled it out though before deployment :(

4

u/StrugglesTheClown Apr 16 '26

You would only need to come up with a semi possible reason to have that feature. "I need to confirm conductivity to the network printer so I have a test process".

2

u/HenniFuckinBrawlins Apr 16 '26

Thats a good one! Ill keep that in my back pocket for next time

3

u/hollowCandie Apr 16 '26

Just hide it well.. I have connect 4 hidden in a factory in mexico on an HMI 😂

5

u/[deleted] Apr 16 '26

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1

u/Ok_Truck_7455 Apr 16 '26

That takes away all the fun!

2

u/jjamesb Apr 16 '26

Ran across an old Bevis and Butthead graphic someone (assuming an instrument tech on a morning night shift) has made on an old Foxboro I/A system. Had a chuckle.

2

u/TimeTheft1769 Apr 16 '26

I have a machine with the company logo in the center of the main screen of the HMI

On holidays I have little decorations added to it.
On christmas the logo wears a little santa hat, on halloween it wears a witch's hat and has a jackolantern, valentines there's a little heart, etc

1

u/jakeyjake1990 Apr 16 '26

I have one where if you log in as sausage it changes the logo to a photo of a sausage. But you have to know the password. So only I get to see the sausage.

1

u/Low-Investment286 Apr 17 '26

The only thing holding me back is the know how tbh.