Symptom → most likely cause
| Symptom | Usual suspects | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Touches land in the wrong place | Calibration drift | Recalibrate from the system menu (below) — free |
| Touch ignores you entirely, display fine | Digitizer or touch controller; field reports exist of CR3000 touch dying after months of service | Gasket check first, then repair quote |
| Ghost touches / one zone always active | The bezel gasket: a small fold or warp presses the overlay and reads as a permanent touch — a documented field case | Loosen the mount, reseat the gasket, recheck — free. (Same physics as PanelView's Fatal 3A) |
| Screen dark | Power or backlight, not touch | Black-screen triage |
Getting into the system menu
- CR3000 / units with a reset button: hold the reset button on the side while applying power, and keep holding until the system menu appears. Touch calibration lives there.
- G3 series: hold the first two soft-keys while applying power; after the copyright page the screen goes blank — release, and the system menu shows.
The free-Crimson advantage
Crimson 3.x is a free download, and the project database transfers to a same-family spare without licensing pain. That changes the economics: a shelf spare plus the project file beats most repair timelines. Touch-layer repair itself runs the usual $300–$1,000 and 1–2 weeks — worth it on larger units, marginal on small ones. Keep the .cd3/database file off the machine and labeled; the panel is replaceable, the project is the asset.
Keep producing while you wait
Have the panel project export? Drop a FactoryTalk View, TIA Portal, Weintek or CSV export into our free HMI project converter — it runs in your browser, the file never leaves your PC, and your displays' buttons, indicators and values become app pages with the real tag names already in place. Graphics and alarm logic aren't carried over, and it takes the project export — a bare .mer runtime can't be converted.
Today, from a phone: the free LineKeeper app for iPhone and iPad speaks EtherNet/IP, Siemens S7 and Modbus TCP. On Allen-Bradley Logix it reads the controller's own tag list automatically; on S7 and Modbus you add the addresses you care about. Build a dashboard in about 15 minutes — the operator panel's start/stop buttons come once the right tags are identified, ideally mapped in advance. Mount a spare iPad in full-screen panel mode, and the operator has a screen before the first repair quote arrives. Reading is free; writes are a one-time unlock with confirmation and limit checks on every value.
A temporary screen in minutes
Zero-config tag browser for Logix, drag-and-drop dashboard, operator panel, alarms — no changes to the PLC logic.
On a desktop? Scan with your iPhone or iPad to get the free app.For the machine itself: the LineKeeper device — in development — is a self-contained 7″ or 10″ touchscreen built to live on the machine permanently — the same drag-and-drop screens, plus what a phone shouldn't carry:
- Live view of every mapped tag, refreshed twice a second — plus per-tag unlocked writes, confirmed and audit-logged
- Operator panel: start/stop, indicators, setpoints — hold-to-run releases when your finger lifts (not a safety function)
- Stays useful after the repair: data logging, dashboards, machine diagnostics
Small hardware that helps while the panel is out
- GL.iNet Opal travel router — Wi-Fi into the machine network from a spare switch port, so the phone app can stand in as the screen today.
- Anker USB-C to gigabit Ethernet adapter — wired straight into a spare switch port, the phone sees the controller in seconds; USB-C iPhones and iPads need no drivers.
- VIVO pole-mount VESA arm — puts the temporary screen at eye level on a machine post instead of a chair.
- TICONN IP67 enclosure with clear cover — houses the gateway or Wi-Fi bridge on the machine without bare boards on the rail.
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