C-more HMI: How to Setup Email and Notifications from AutomationDirect

C-more HMIs are there to inform you of your project status. Even when you’re away from the panel or can’t connect remotely, C-more can still keep you in the loop with email, giving you access to scheduled reports, alarms, and even custom messages from the panel, ensuring you get the information you need, exactly when you need it. In this video, we’ll cover the basics of setting up email in your C-more project. From setting up the network connection and email client, attaching files, and even sending a custom email on demand. Check the chapters below to quickly navigate to the section you need. Let’s get started. Open your C-more development software. Select a new project and define your panel. We can ignore the PLC Communication for this example since it isn’t required for email. Click OK. Now, before we can set up the email, we need to configure the panel’s Ethernet connection. On the Setup Ribbon, select Panel Network. Select Ethernet Port. Check ‘Save setting to project’ to make sure the settings are applied to your panel when you transfer the project. If your Ethernet network uses DHCP, the IP address, subnet mask, default gateway, and DNS will be set automatically. If your network uses static settings or requires manual configuration, contact your network admin to provide these values. For this project, the IP address is going to be provided by DHCP, so I’m going to leave it as it is. In this same dialog, click “Email Client.” Enter the sender’s email address. Add that email address’ SMTP server here. Next, select the port that matches your server’s encryption requirements. And, finally, if authentication is required, enter your credentials here. That’s it for almost any standard company or domain email. Then Click OK. Now before we continue, I want to discuss Google and Yahoo mail accounts. Both have discontinued direct SMTP access using standard username-and-password log on, along with other legacy authentication methods. Because of this, C-more can only send email through those services by using an App Password that you generate in your Google or Yahoo account. This applies to all C-more HMIs, as well as the Do-more and Productivity PLC families. Now, we’ve created support documents that walk you through generating an App Password for these providers. Click one of the links above or check the video description to access those articles. Next, let’s add recipients. Go to the Database ribbon and select Address Book. Click Add. In the Name field, enter the recipient’s name for identification purposes in the Address Book, along with their email address. Enter the name and address of each recipient in turn. If you want to make the name and email address variable during runtime, select Tag Name and enter or create String tags in those fields. The HMI will then, when triggered, send the email to whatever name and address is in those strings. While you can configure this tag at runtime with something like a Text Entry object, it is recommended to use preconfigured values to avoid user error. Recipes are a great option for this. When done, Click OK, then OK again to exit the Address Book. Now all that’s left to do on the backend is to set up an event so C-more knows what the email contains and when to send it. From the Database Ribbon, select Event Manager. For an example of automated emails, we’ll send the Alarm Log at the end of each day. Click Add. Under Trigger, select Date & Time. Set the time to 23:59 and deselect Repeat. Under Action, click this icon to select an email event. Choose at least one recipient in Send Address. Enter a subject line and then add your message. For the attachment, click here, then select Alarm Log. Click OK, then Add to insert the event into the Event Manager. Now, the HMI will automatically email the alarm log at the end of each day. For the next example, we’ll create a custom email that users can send on demand. Under Trigger, select Tag. Enter a tag name and press Enter. For this example, I’ll be using a discrete, internal tag. Click Add. For the action, click the email icon again. Set the sequence and select the recipient. Add the subject as before. We will now create a custom message. To insert dynamic content, click this button to enter a tag. In this example, I will be making this message user-defined, so set the Embedded Data field to String and enter or create a string tag. Click Add to insert the tag, then click Add to insert the event. Now click Close. You can now see the custom message tag. And, you’re all set. To trigger that custom email manually, we’ll create a screen with a text entry field and a push button. Add a Text Entry object to the screen, and the properties window will automatically pop up. Assign the message tag we created earlier to the Tag Name field so users can input a custom message from the panel. Next, add a Pushbutton object to the screen, and then assign the trigger tag from earlier to this button. Set the Object Type to Momentary On. This means the bit will set to "true" when pressed and reset back to "false" when released. Change the button text to let the user know what the button does. Lastly, arrange the objects wherever you would like, save the project, and your project is ready to send to the panel! So in runtime, click the Text Entry object to enter your message and then click the button to send the email. At this point, your C-more HMI is fully set up to send email notifications. If you have any questions or need further assistance, AutomationDirect’s award-winning support team is always here to help. Click here to learn more about C-more HMIs. Click here to see more AutomationDirect products. 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