General
Search
Interface
Navigation
Price
Onscreen Help
Terms
Sensor Emitters

General

Q. Does iSelect include products from any other manufacturers?
A. No. iSelect only features Banner products.

Q. How do I get more information about a sensor family?
A. When you click on a product family thumbnail, you are funneled down to a second "page" which gives you product specific information. You may get more in-depth information by clicking on the yellow button called "More Family Info" in the lower right-hand column of the screen. This button will take you out of iSelect and into a specific part of www.bannerengineering.com.

Q. Does Banner only have 27 products?
A. No, Banner has thousands of unique products. iSelect features 27 product families, represented by the thumbnails you see. Presently iSelect only contains Banner's Photoelectric offering, but will be expanding to include Measurement & Inspection and Safety products. If don't see something in iSelect, call a Banner representative. We probably have what you're looking for.

Q. None of the "My Conditions" apply to me. Do I have to pick one?
A. No you don't have to select any of the criteria that appear on the right hand side. You may search through iSelect by narrowing down your selection criteria or not. If you don't narrow down your selection, iSelect will find more sensors for you.

Q. I don't understand all the criteria on the right. Do I have to choose all of them to make a selection?
A. You are not required to select any of the criteria to view the sensors. If you don't understand the meaning of some of the criteria, click on the Question Mark button in the upper right-hand column. When your cursor changes to a question mark, click on a word you don’t understand. A "help" window will open up with definitions of difficult terms.

Q. Are these all the sensors Banner has?
A. Banner has many more sensors and sensor accessories. Order a catalog through our web site, or call with your application question. A Banner representative will assist you in finding the right sensor for your application.

Q. I don't see the VALU-beam. Does this mean Banner no longer makes it?
A. iSelect cannot represent all the products that Banner offers. Banner does carry the VALU-beam and many other products that are not represented here in iSelect. However these products are still available on our web site, www.bannerengineering.com . iSelect features many of our newer, more compact models. Call a Banner representative for more information or order a catalog through our web site.

Q. Can I use any of these products in a safety application?
A. The products you see here are our standard photoelectric selection. None of these are certified for personnel or machine safety. Please visit our web site to learn more about our Machine Safety products.

Q. I may need accessories for my selected sensor. How do I find them?
A. iSelect simplifies the process for you. When you select a sensor and put it in your shopping cart, you will automatically be given a choice of accessories appropriate to the product you have chosen.

Search

Q. Can I search for a product by model number?
A. Presently you cannot search by model number. iSelect is meant to help you isolate a discrete product from the universe of possibilities. If you have a model number, you might want to search our e-commerce site, www.buybanneronline.com under price/product search.

Q. How can I use iSelect to search for a sensor?
A. First, think about the application in which you will use the sensor. Then mouse over the different selection criteria you see in the right-hand column. How big does the sensor have to be? How will you attach or mount your sensor? What sensing mode do you need for your application? A quick way to find some application-specific guidance is to select "My Conditions" which selects sensors based on various requirements of the application, the target, the environment or of the sensor. The selection criteria in the right-hand column will help you funnel down to a group of sensors that may work in your application. If this is your first time buying a sensor, we recommend that you call a Banner representative before you make a purchase. We're here to help.

Q. What is the best way to go through iSelect?
A. There is no one best way to go through iSelect. iSelect takes into account the different searching needs of our customer base. There is no single way to get the right information. The results you get will depend on the selections you make.

Q. How can I find the range of a sensor?
A. Range, or how far a sensor "sees," is dependant on the sensing mode. When you mouse over or click on a sensing mode (opposed, retroreflective, etc), the maximum range will appear beside that sensing mode.

Q. Can I search by range?
A. Unfortunately no. Range will vary depending on the sensing mode. (Learn more about sensing modes and ranges by taking one of our online tutorials.) You could mouse over one product family thumbnail at a time. This will highlight the relevant selection criteria in the right-hand column and you can compare ranges within one family.

Q. Can I search by price?
A. Unfortunately no. However, by mousing over the product family thumbnails on the left, you can get a sense of the price range within the family. This information will be displayed in the gray bar in the upper right-hand column.

Interface

Q. What happens if I click on the "Compare" button?
A. Use the "Compare" button to compare the sensors that fit your criteria. The sensors and their relevant specifications will be displayed side by side to assist you in choosing a specific model.

Q. What happens if I click on the "Reset" button?
A. The "Reset" button returns you to the original state of iSelect.

Q. What happens if I click on the Question Mark button?
A. By clicking on the Question Mark button, you will change the cursor to a question mark. When you click on an unfamiliar term, a help window will open and display a definition.

Q. Why can't I select the gray tabs at the bottom of the page?
A. On the first page, you cannot select the gray tabs. You can only make selections in the right-hand column. When you click on a selection in the right-hand column, you will notice that the related gray tab fills in with your selection and turns blue. However on the second page the tabs do become active, you are able to click the tabs and make selections.

Q. I chose a family but I don't know what selections to make. Can I see all the products in the family?
A. Yes you can. Just click on the "Compare" button and iSelect will display all the products in that family.

Q. I selected a criteria I didn't want. Can I deselect it?
A. For example, if you clicked on opposed mode, but wanted retroreflective mode, you can easily click on retroreflective mode to change the selection criteria and subset. However, if you clicked on a mode, but you don't want to search by mode, you will have to click on the Reset button.

Q. What are "My Conditions"?
A. The "My Conditions" category is a way to organize sensor selection by application, target type and sensor characteristics. If you know you need to sense transparent objects or if you know you need a sensor with a laser, you may want to funnel down to the right sensor by using "My Conditions."

Navigation

Q. Where do I go from the first page?
A. Once you have isolated which product family will suit your application, you can click on the product family thumbnail to go to the next level.

Q. There's no "back" button. How do I go back to the beginning?
A. In order to go back to the beginning you will have to click the "Reset" button. However this will wipe out all of your previous selections.

Q. Should I use the "Compare" Button to go to the next level?
A. You can use the compare button to go to the next level. However, unless you want to see all the sensors contained in iSelect, it would be best to narrow down your selections first.

Q. After I've made my selections on the first page, what do I do?
A. After you've made your selections, look over the product families and choose one to investigate further. Then click on that family's thumbnail picture to funnel down to the next level.

Q. I'm on the third page and I want to go back without losing all of my selections. What can I do?
A. You can go back to the second page from the third page by clicking on one of the blue tabs at the bottom of the page.

Q. I'm on the second page and I want to go back without losing all of my selections. What can I do?
A. You can't go back to the first page without losing all your selections. To return to the first page, you must click "Reset."

Price

Q. Where can I find the price for your products?
A. The product price appears in two locations. On the first page, as you mouse over each sensor family, you will notice the family name and price range appear in the gray bar in the upper right-hand corner. On the third page, prices are listed for each specific model.

Q. What does the price range mean?
A. Sensors within each family differ in price based on a variety of factors, including sensing mode, connector options, LED color, and others.

Q. Where can I get a price on a specific sensor?
A. You will find pricing on specific models on page three, or the comparison page, where you can see the brief product specs by product.

Q. Why is there such a wide price range within some sensor families?
A. Emitters are products which are seemingly much less expensive than other sensors in a family. However, an emitter is only part of a sensor system. In order to make the emitter work, you need to buy a receiver. Sensors that are not used in the opposed mode typically contain the emitter and the receiver in the same housing and the price reflects this.

Onscreen Help

Q. I don’t understand some of these terms like sensing mode and output types. How can I get more information?
A. Within iSelect, there is a Help function which can help with terms like sensing mode. The Help button in the top right-hand corner of the screen will activate this function. If you need more in-depth information however, you might find the online tutorials more helpful.

Q. How does the Help function work? When I click on it nothing happens.
A. When you click on the Help button, the cursor which is usually an arrow will turn into a question mark. You can click on any of the terms you don't understand with this question mark and a help window will open up with the term and a definition in it.

Terms

Q. What is a sensor family?
A. A sensor family is a group of sensors with the same housing type and fairly similar features. However, you can find different sensing modes within the same family.

Q. What does mounting style mean?
A. In iSelect, mounting style refers both to the housing of the sensor and also how it was designed to be mounted in your application. Right angle mounting describes sensors where the optics and the power cable are at a right angle to each other. Threaded barrel mounting describes sensors where the sensor features threads on its barrel to allow for through hole mounting, typically for 18 or 30 mm holes. Some sensor can be both threaded barrel and right angle. Sensors that are mounted on DIN rails typically are fiber optic or remote sensors.

Q. What does sensing mode mean?
A. Sensing mode refers to how a sensor "sees" its target. Sensing mode is divided into two large categories: Beam Break and Beam Make. Beam Break refers to sensing modes like opposed and retroreflective where a target must interrupt the light beam in order to be detected by the sensor. Beam Make refers to sensing modes like diffuse, convergent, adjustable field and fixed field, where the target must send back the light beam back to the sensor in order to be detected.

Q. What do the size boxes tell me?
A. The first page of iSelect shows a lot of data. As a result, we had limitations in conveying actual size… but we tried to compensate with size boxes which are our best guess at approximating relative sensor size. The second page has actual dimensions and a photo of the sensor in relation to a hand. You can always download the data sheet from the third page.

Q. I don’t understand what some of these terms mean. How can I get more information?
A. Within iSelect, there is a Help function which defines terms like sensing mode. The Help button in the top right-hand corner of the screen will activate this function. When you click on the Help button, the cursor which is usually an arrow will turn into a question mark. You can click on any of the terms you don't understand with this question mark and a help window will open up with the term and a definition in it. If you need more in-depth information however, you might find the online tutorials more helpful.

Sensor Emitters

Q. Why is "Emitter" listed in the Output category?
A. Emitters are listed in the output category as "emitter" because they don't have an output. An emitter is only capable of sending light. The receiver is responsible for the logic of converting light to an output. A product is listed as an emitter in the output category simply to hold its place.

Q. Is an emitter a stand-alone sensor?
A. No, an emitter is not a stand-alone sensor. It is only one part of an opposed-mode sensing pair. The emitter sends the light beam and the receiver sees the light beam and converts it to an output. In order to get a functioning sensor system, you will need both the receiver and the emitter. Our online tutorials can give you more information about sensor systems.