Description
Application Scenarios
Walk into a Tier-2 plastics shop running a 30-ton injection molder on an SLC 5/04. The panel on the operator side is a 2711-K6C5_A: F1 through F10 mapped to clamp, eject, and purge, with a touch layer for the secondary screens. After a solvent spill and a few thousand cycles, the touch cal drifts so badly that a press on “heater zone 3” opens zone 5, and the night shift starts using a screwdriver on the function keys instead. Scrap on the first cavity ticks up before anyone admits the panel is the problem.
The fix is not a migration. The application, the tag map, and the DH-485 node address are all proven. Swapping in a tested 2711-K6C5_A, reloading the .PVA from the last known-good card, and re-running the four-point cal restores the original behavior inside a single break. The machine gets its function keys back, the touch targets line up, and the validation paperwork never changes — because the terminal is still the same terminal the machine was commissioned with.
Parameter
| Main Parameters | Value/Description |
|---|---|
| Product Model | 2711-K6C5_A — “A” is the series/option revision of the 600 chassis |
| Manufacturer | Allen-Bradley, Rockwell Automation |
| Product Category | Operator Interface Terminal / HMI (PanelView Standard 600 family) |
| Display | 5.7-inch diagonal color TFT/STN LCD, 320×240 QVGA, 18-bit color depth on color builds |
| Operator Input | Combined keypad + analog resistive touch; 10 function keys (F1–F10) plus numeric/navigation cluster |
| Keypad Life | Stainless domed keys, rated ~1 million actuations — built for gloved, high-cycle use |
| Touch Life | Resistive overlay, ~1 million actuations; calibratable to the original 4-point map |
| Communication | RS-232 (DF1 / DH-485) native on the K6C5; DH+ and Remote I/O require the K6C8 or K6C3 sibling |
| User Memory | 32 MB / 64 MB application memory (catalog revision dependent); .PVA loaded from on-board store or PCMCIA/CF card |
| Programming | PanelBuilder 600 (Windows); runtime is .PVA, not the FactoryTalk View .MER used by PanelView Plus |
| Input Power | 85…264 V AC or 18…32 V DC depending on the final suffix (K6C5A = AC, K6C5D = DC) |
| Environmental | 0…55 °C operating, 5…95% RH non-condensing; NEMA 12/13/4X (indoor), IEC IP65 front |
| Mechanical | Panel-mount bezel, 192 mm × 290 mm cutout footprint; ~98 mm deep behind the panel |
| Shock / Vibration | 15 g operating shock; 2 g vibration from 57…500 Hz — survives the cabinet next to the press |
| Status | Discontinued by manufacturer — supplied as tested surplus / refurbished spare |
Technical Principles and Innovative Values
Innovation Point 1 — Keys and touch, not keys or touch. The 2711-K6C5_A puts a ten-key function row next to a resistive touch layer. Safety-style acknowledges, mode changes, and recipe calls stay on a tactile key with positive feedback; infrequently used setpoints stay on the screen. Modern touch-only panels force every action onto glass, which is why operators in gloved environments quietly hate them.
Innovation Point 2 — A resistive overlay that forgives the floor. Capacitive sensing fails the moment a latex glove, coolant mist, or a scrap of film touches the surface. The 2711-K6C5_A uses pressure-based resistive sensing, so the tap registers whether the operator is dry, oily, or wearing two layers of nitrile. The overlay can be recalibrated in minutes when it eventually wears.
Innovation Point 3 — DH-485 and DF1 on the wire that is already there. No switch, no VLAN, no Ethernet/IP node commissioning. The K6C5 talks the serial dialects an SLC 5/03, SLC 5/04, or MicroLogix 1000/1500 already understands. That is why a 2711-K6C5_A can replace a dead panel without a single change in the controller program.
Innovation Point 4 — Card-autoload recovery. Drop a CF/PCMCIA card holding the .PVA into the slot and cycle power; the terminal finds the file and loads it with no operator menu navigation. For a plant with no in-house PanelBuilder seat, that is a genuine disaster-recovery feature — image the card, tape it to the inside of the panel door, and the next failure is a 20-minute fix.
Innovation Point 5 — Mechanical continuity across the Standard 600 line. The K6C5 shares the same 192 × 290 mm cutout and bezel family with the K6C1, K6C3, K6C8, K6C10 and their touch-only and keypad-only siblings. A like-for-like swap never becomes a sheet-metal job, and the legend strip is replaceable without opening the logic section.
Application Cases and Industry Value
Case 1 — Injection molding cell, SLC 5/04, DH-485. A molder was running a 2711-K6C5_A as the sole interface to a six-zone hot-runner controller. The touch overlay had developed a vertical drift band; operators compensated by aiming two inches left, which meant accidental heater edits and two scrap shots per shift. We supplied a tested 2711-K6C5_A, pre-checked on RS-232/DF1 at 19.2 kbps, with the original legend strip pattern matched. The maintenance lead reloaded the .PVA from the door-card backup, ran the four-point cal, and confirmed the DH-485 node (station 4) against the SLC. Result: drift gone in one coffee break, zero controller changes, and the plant kept its existing IQ/OQ records because the hardware family and runtime hash did not change.
Case 2 — Food-filler filler-capper, MicroLogix 1500. The line HMI was a 2711-K6C5_A in a washdown cabinet, and the site’s newer PV+ 600 on the adjacent filler spoke EtherNet/IP — two different worlds on one machine train. Rather than migrate both, the plant kept the 2711-K6C5_A on DF1 for the MicroLogix (which also carried the RIO pass-through reservation) and used a 2711P-T7C21D8S only where the new recipe server demanded Ethernet. The mixed fleet cost less than half a full conversion, and the old terminal’s NEMA 4X front kept taking daily caustic foam with no ingress complaints over the next eighteen months. The lesson: preserving a known-good HMI is often more valuable than harmonizing the panel room.
