Refurbished 2711-M3A18L1/A PanelView 300 Micro HMI – Tested, Keypad-Verified, Drop-In Spare

Product Overview

The Allen-Bradley 2711-M3A18L1/A​ is a PanelView 300 Micro operator terminal, the smallest, most economical member of Rockwell Automation’s Bulletin 2711 PanelView Standard family. It is the human-machine interface you specify when the machine does not need animated graphics or a touch surface — it needs a rugged, panel-mount window onto a handful of integers, bits and alarms, plus a tactile key that an operator can find with a gloved hand. Decoded, the catalog is precise: 2711​ = PanelView Standard, M​ = 300 Micro platform, 3​ = 3-inch display class, A18​ = monochrome transflective LCD with the 18-key membrane layout (numeric, navigation and four programmable function keys), and L1​ = 24 VDC input with the RS-232 DF1 communication variant.

What the 2711-M3A18L1​ actually presents on the panel is a 3-inch monochrome transflective LCD with a 73 × 42 mm viewing area and 128 × 64 pixel resolution, lit by an LED backlight rated at 100,000 hours. “Transflective” matters: the screen uses ambient light where there is any, then adds the backlight in dim cabinets, so contrast stays readable from a basement MCC to a sunlit machine guard. There is no touchscreen and no overlay to calibrate — the 18-key stainless-domed membrane gives you F1 through F4, a numeric pad and cursor keys, rated for two million actuations. The four function keys are the workhorses: start, stop, reset, acknowledge, recipe select, manual step — assigned in PanelBuilder32 and labelled on the legend sheet, not buried in a graphic page.

Communication is deliberately minimal and deliberately serial. A single 8-pin mini-DIN carries RS-232 running DF1, which is the native point-to-point language of MicroLogix 1000/1200/1500 and SLC 5/03, 5/04 and 5/05 Channel 0 ports. That means the 2711-M3A18L1/A​ does not need a DH-485 transceiver, a network node address or a scan-list rework — you wire a null-modem cable, point PanelBuilder32 at the DF1 driver and move N7, B3 and ST files between ladder and screen. The port also doubles as the application-transfer path to a PC, so a known-good .pba loads in minutes. Inside, 170 KB of application runtime memory and 240 KB of nonvolatile storage hold the screens, text and bitmaps, while a battery-backed real-time clock timestamps alarms and events — useful on a pump skid or a batch machine where “when did the operator change that setpoint?” is an audit question.

Positioned well below the 550, 600 and 1000 series in footprint but every bit as much a genuine PanelView, the 2711-M3A18L1/A​ is built for the single machine, the remote skid and the OEM panel where space and cost are both tight. It measures 133 × 111 × 48 mm and weighs 284 g, seals to NEMA Type 12/13 and 4X (indoor) with IP54/IP65 front protection, and runs from any clean 24 VDC supply. The platform is discontinued, but the number still installed on conveyors, feeders, fillers, water skids, lab instruments and marine auxiliaries explains why a tested spare or a membrane-and-LCD repair is usually smarter than a panel-rebuild migration.

Technical Specifications