Tesco E2 vs 255

[deetooarruk]

Just fancied starting a thread about the current situation of the Emerson E2 and Danfoss AK2-SC 255 Frontend controller situation within Tesco.

As far as i'm aware they are ripping out the old woodley frontends and most stores will have the 255 installed in it.

Has anyone come into contact with either of these units? Any user experience?

[supermarketguy]

Hi Deetooarruk,

Tesco's position at the moment is to use the 255 in stores that are all have IP controllers and use the E2 in stores that have a mix of controllers, such as guardian, woodley and IP controllers and cpc controllers.

I have to say that both panels are not as user friendly as the old woodley panel and they were easier to navagate. The newer panels graph facillity are not as good as the woodley was.

But this is Tesco spec and we will as always adapt this newer set up

Supermarketguy

[coolhibby1875]

good thread deetoo

in scotland there is a good mix of e2 and 255.
in my opinion the e2 is streets ahead of the 255 its easier to navigate around and when replacing controllers you set the address and it up loads everything from the e2, it also gives graphs for everything where as the 255 gives you just about nothing.

like supermarketguy says the old woodleys were good but the more i use these e2 the more i like them.

the stores with all ip controllers are a nightmare on the 255 always having to rescan the front ends as danfoss is having problems with the software.

[fowlie]

when i first seen the 255 going in i thought they would be something to look forward to a step forward in technology,huh they are pants you could get more info off a old elm supervisor panel than these.apparently they were only put in for the stores for staff/ist to put on to case cleans.i like the e2s only problem is you cant change settings when the e2 is in,but being able to see all the packs and graphs is a big help.

[tony--1]

Thankfully iv only got 2 stores with this crap in them . both had problems when first installed . but got danfoss out a few times!!!! and they are working ok now. (not holding my breath tho) . woodley a LOT BETTER i think. like you fowlie i thought great new stuff WRONG . LMAO but wat do you do .

[coolhibby1875]

hi fowlie if you phone cpc thay will give you a day pass to get into the system and change setpoints as long as you can justify the changes.

[Y L Lai]

Never used an E2 before, but I like 255 very much. The control is much more simpler and easy, compare to AKM.

[deetooarruk]

Thankyou for all your comments. Much appreciated!

hi fowlie if you phone cpc thay will give you a day pass to get into the system and change setpoints as long as you can justify the changes.

Agreed. Call CPC and they can issue you with a day password. You will need good reason for needing to access the 'Level 5' settings.

The E2 is a pretty beasty device. Only being used for refrigeration control in Tesco, it is possible to configure an E2 for total building management.

As for the Woodley... Just make sure the screen is calibrated correctly!

Controversy warning!!: I heard (from a fellow fridge engineer) there was a 'big stock-loss' situation at a Tesco store running a 255 that crashed. Not sure what store it was.

I just hate it when I visited a site that had a woodley that has become a Danfo$$. Makes me sick, especially when an E2 is ripped out and replaced with a 255 (i've seen the 'mess' they left).

- E2: Under-rated and Over-powered.

[Silhouette]

The 255 now does third party as well but it is a pain in the posterior to set up and looks a mess on screen!
The E2 is Ok but like most engineers you speak to I would have prefered something like the old woodley or even the old Microm front end.

[750 Valve]

The 255 now does third party as well but it is a pain in the posterior to set up and looks a mess on screen!
The E2 is Ok but like most engineers you speak to I would have prefered something like the old woodley or even the old Microm front end.

Microm front end (Consultant) = nice
Microm hardware = hideous!!!

E2 is IMO the best on the market currently

255 is OK but nowhere near as powerful or flexible as E2, pretty user friendly though.

[E2vdanfoss]

I think that the E2 is a far superior controller than the danfoss. We have experienced quite a few danfoss controls 'lock up' and they just hang there until you manually reset the control.
The E2 seems much more reliable and the support from Emerson has been very good over the past 18monts or so.

[deetooarruk]

They 'lock up' due to different issues, one being intermittent comms or dodgy MAC cards. Someone lost a lot of food through a "flat-line-everything's-fine" scenario...

[E2vdanfoss]

Apparently there is a new E2 being released soon called E2 Enhanced. It has a larger screen within the same box and you will be able to backup and restore from a USB stick. More communication options and able to interface with more third party devices.
Danfoss are falling further behind. They need to at least get a qwerty keyboard soon on the front panel. You don't always have time to pre-program a whole supermarket before you get to site, so need to program on the run via the controller.

[750 Valve]

I heard Danfoss have put 255 development on the backburner and have been working on a new controller also, I hear good things about it but only time will tell - Danfoss have a lot of catching up to do and need to put some runs on the board pretty darn quickly before people drop them like a hot spud!

[deetooarruk]

Really? the 255 on the back burner? What will Tesco do???

Oooooohhhh.... A new E2... Might have to have a word with the boss to get one in the office for 'test' purposes...


Hunting for a standard E2 to look after my veg while I'm looking after Sainsburys' veg; this 'donated' E1 just flat-lined on me, despite my attemted percussive resuscitation. Failed to run time schedule due to CPU Fault = dry plants.
Dry Plants = E1 + Claw Hammer = Cleanup on garden path + Me with watering can.

[E2vdanfoss]

Aaaahhhhhhhh.............the old E1, or as I like to call them, "old shaky". Quite a few bugs, but a necessary evil in the leap forward to the E2 I think.
I hear that a few of the new E2's have already started being installed in Kroger supermarkets in the US, and my spies tell me that there a some being installed in Australia in the next month or so.
BACnet protocol may be on the first ones, but if not, it is not too far away.