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PRODUCTS

HMI (ZETA - ZVIS - EPS)

The human-machine interface commonly called HMI is a software that allows the operator and the machine to communicate.

Since the first numerical control produced, the Z16, D.Electron has always dealt with this non-secondary aspect of the numerical control by supplying the TERMS terminal software. After various developments we have arrived to the current ZETA, the latest and most advanced operator interface of the Z32 CNC.

Since ZETA is a multipurpose interface, D.Electron wanted to make ZVIS available to its clients, which is a development environment for those who wish to create interfaces dedicated to a specific machine, processing or application sector.


The possibility to download, install and use ZVIS is included with all the Z32 CNC setups that D.Electron supplies.

ZVIS is a powerful application that allows to create the structure of software interfaces which will then support dedicated graphic blocks.

The ZETA application itself, the operator interface of the Z32 CNC, was created with the ZVIS tools.

Graphic blocks can be obtained directly from the component library of soft buttons, positions display, gauges, command functions, etc. free to use, that are the result of 20 years of D.Electron software development or created freely using the ZVIS graphic tools.

Each individual block can interact with the Z32 CNC integrated PLC software to exchange data.

It is possible to add software capabilities to the blocks for processing the data to be exchanged with the machine PLC.

EPS communication protocol

D.Electron offers various methods of data exchange between the HMI application and the Z32 CNC, the one used by ZETA is the connection via TCP/IP with the D.Electron EPS (Easy Protocol Server) protocol.

In short, the EPS server is available on all recent Z32 CNCs and allows the exchange of data and/or commands with external software, through a dialogue based on ASCII-coded strings and TCP/IP connection.

An external software that wants to connect to the EPS server must communicate with the TCP/IP protocol via standard socket management (connect / write / read / disconnect).

For example, through this protocol it is possible to obtain:

  • the status of the CNC (in execution, in alarm, manual, …);
  • the execution status of a part-program (name of the program being executed, time elapsed since the start of execution,...);
  • various other data.

It is also possible to remotely control the execution of a specific piece-program.

Z32 OPC UA Communication protocol

Another method for exchanging data between the HMI and the Z32 CNC is through the use of the "Z32 OPC UA Server" software (Z32OPCUA in short) which allows the user, among other things, to define a list of Z32 PLC variables and to display them, both in write and in read mode, to an OPCUA client.

In addition to the user variables, Z32OPCUA displays a certain number of information immediately, without any need to intervene in the configuration files.

The list of information is described in the “NEWS” section of the application manual. The communication standard defined in the OPCUA protocol (opcfoundation.org) allows the exchange of client/server information without the need to write proprietary software to allow access to specific information of different types of equipment.