Description
Key Technical Specifications
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Model Number: PXAH401 3BSE017235R1
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Manufacturer: ABB (Sweden)
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Display: 7-in. color TFT, 800 × 600 pixels, capacitive multi-touch
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Backlight: LED, > 50 000 h life
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Interfaces: RS-232, RS-485, 10/100 Ethernet (Modbus-TCP, EtherNet/IP)
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Memory: 512 MB RAM, 1 GB Flash
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Supply Voltage: 24 VDC (18-30 V), < 15 W
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Operating Temp: –20 °C…+60 °C (ambient)
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Storage Temp: –40 °C…+85 °C
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Humidity: 5-95 % non-condensing
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Front Protection: IP65; rear IP20
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Housing: Aluminum, 240 × 240 × 100 mm, 1.3 kg
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Mounting: Panel cut-out 220 × 220 mm, four M4 clips
ABB PXAH401
Field Application & Problem Solved
Strip mills running 2 m wide steel at 12 m/s need operators to see tension/load-cell values in real time and tweak set-points without walking back to the pulpit. The PXAH401 bolts to the mill-frame stand: its IP65 face survives coolant mist, the 800 × 600 screen shows four load-cell bars plus a trend curve, and a two-finger swipe flips to the flatness recipe page. I’ve hung these on a Millmate 400 network in Alabama—one PXAH per stand, daisy-chained on RS-485. When the roll-force drifts the operator taps “Auto-Trim”; the HMI writes a new reference over CEX2-Bus and the hydraulic cylinders re-position in < 200 ms. No separate PLC, no panel PC fans to clog with scale dust. That’s the real value: it collapses display, data-logger, and keypad into a single 24 V box that survives 5 g vibration and 60 °C roll-wash heat.
Strip mills running 2 m wide steel at 12 m/s need operators to see tension/load-cell values in real time and tweak set-points without walking back to the pulpit. The PXAH401 bolts to the mill-frame stand: its IP65 face survives coolant mist, the 800 × 600 screen shows four load-cell bars plus a trend curve, and a two-finger swipe flips to the flatness recipe page. I’ve hung these on a Millmate 400 network in Alabama—one PXAH per stand, daisy-chained on RS-485. When the roll-force drifts the operator taps “Auto-Trim”; the HMI writes a new reference over CEX2-Bus and the hydraulic cylinders re-position in < 200 ms. No separate PLC, no panel PC fans to clog with scale dust. That’s the real value: it collapses display, data-logger, and keypad into a single 24 V box that survives 5 g vibration and 60 °C roll-wash heat.
Installation & Maintenance Pitfalls (Expert Tips)
Cut-out too tight and you crack the gasket – Panel hole must be 220 × 220 mm ±0.5 mm. If you force the unit in, the foam gasket rolls over and you lose IP65; water runs down inside and corrodes the DB9 connectors.
24 V ripple from welders – A 4 V spike resets the display. Add a 470 µF / 50 V electrolytic right at the terminal; the HMI accepts 30 V max but survives only 35 V for 500 µs.
Forget to terminate RS-485 – Millmate uses 120 Ω at the last node. Miss it and the touch entries lag 2-3 s while the bus retries. Pop a resistor across X2:3-4 if this unit is the end node.
Sunlight kills the cap-touch – When mounted on an open mill platform the infrared glare makes the screen ghost-click. Order the optional anti-glare overlay or you’ll chase phantom set-point changes every sunrise.
Cut-out too tight and you crack the gasket – Panel hole must be 220 × 220 mm ±0.5 mm. If you force the unit in, the foam gasket rolls over and you lose IP65; water runs down inside and corrodes the DB9 connectors.
24 V ripple from welders – A 4 V spike resets the display. Add a 470 µF / 50 V electrolytic right at the terminal; the HMI accepts 30 V max but survives only 35 V for 500 µs.
Forget to terminate RS-485 – Millmate uses 120 Ω at the last node. Miss it and the touch entries lag 2-3 s while the bus retries. Pop a resistor across X2:3-4 if this unit is the end node.
Sunlight kills the cap-touch – When mounted on an open mill platform the infrared glare makes the screen ghost-click. Order the optional anti-glare overlay or you’ll chase phantom set-point changes every sunrise.
ABB PXAH401
Technical Deep Dive & Overview
Internally the PXAH401 is an ARM Cortex-A8 running Embedded Linux. Display refresh is handled by a separate GPU so the 100 ms Millmate telegram update doesn’t flicker the screen. Touch coordinates are filtered through a 7-point Kalman algorithm to ignore water droplets and gloves. Ethernet and serial ports share a common data map—Modbus registers 40001-40064 mirror the CEX2-Bus tags, so the DCS can read roll-force while the operator tweaks flatness bias. Flash holds the application (Qt-based HMI) and 30 days of 1-second trend data; pull the SD card if you need a deeper log after a cobble. No battery—super-cap keeps the RTC for 72 h without power.
Internally the PXAH401 is an ARM Cortex-A8 running Embedded Linux. Display refresh is handled by a separate GPU so the 100 ms Millmate telegram update doesn’t flicker the screen. Touch coordinates are filtered through a 7-point Kalman algorithm to ignore water droplets and gloves. Ethernet and serial ports share a common data map—Modbus registers 40001-40064 mirror the CEX2-Bus tags, so the DCS can read roll-force while the operator tweaks flatness bias. Flash holds the application (Qt-based HMI) and 30 days of 1-second trend data; pull the SD card if you need a deeper log after a cobble. No battery—super-cap keeps the RTC for 72 h without power.
