Guide to Eason 2000 Family & Danaher Products
Communicating to Kollmorgen, Pacific Scientific, API [via ASCII serial port]
Rev 1.0 P/N: 50-00213-01
OVERVIEW These Danaher motion control products use simple RS232 ASCII-based communication. Eason’s 2000 Family RS232 ports and communication codes easily handle this. Sending commands and receiving responses is accomplished with the PUT COM/GET COM codes. (See full list of communication codes available in the Winbuild 2000 HELP.) Using a little bit of BASIC code, you can send out a command, or request data and read the response back- and store that response into a variable.
HARDWARE SETUP Use COM1 or COM2 RS232 port, 9pin D-shell connector, null modem cable. Connect Eason to your device’s communication port.
EASON SHIELD 3 - TRANSMIT 2 - RECEIVE 5 - GROUND DEVICE SHIELD RECEIVE TRANSMIT GROUND
INITIALIZE PORTS Use the COM INIT command in the Eason software to initialize your port to the proper com port parameters. (to match your device’s settings) In this example, we set the com port 1 for 9600 baud, RS232 mode.
The COM INIT statement typically only has to go into your project ONCE, usually on the ‘On Open’ of your very first project screen. Once this code has been run, the port will continue to use these settings throughout the program. If your device has been configured to ECHO every time it receives a transmission, check the “STRIP ECHO” box in the COM INIT dialog. This will cause the Eason to wait for a corresponding echo, and then will throw that out. Also, turn off your device’s prompt character if you can. The Eason terminates receive transmissions by recognizing a carriage return .
Other flow control/handshaking options are available when initializing the port, make sure these corresponding with your device settings. (Turn all off them off if in doubt.) The Kollmorgen products actually have the ability to control the amount of error checking (none, ACK/NAK, checksum). The Eason easily communicates using the NONE option, but if you want additional security you can use BASIC to build strings & parse the response, but using software or hardware handshaking is preferable and easier.)
SEND DATA Use the COM port commands (Pseudocodes) in the Eason to send/receive information on the ports. These communication codes can be put anywhere in your project, on buttons, on screens, in tasks, even on data entry boxes. For instance, to send out a “STOP” command from a button, use the ‘PUT COM PORT value’ code. Double-click on the button you want to configure, and then click to the “Basic Code” tab.
Then click on the “On Press” code button. In the lower half of the editor, click and add the Pseudocode “COM: PUT COM port VALUE expression”. Type “STOP” into the text box, and click OK to add the code into your project.
Now when the user touches your button, the communication port will send out the serial command “STOP”. (Along with a carriage return/line feed.)
RECEIVE DATA To request data back from your device, use the PUT COM/GET RESPONSE code. In another example with a button, add some code to request the value of “STATUS” variable from your device.
This code will send out the port “STATUS=”, and then wait for a response from your device- the response will then go into the tag ‘DeviceStatus’. This tag can then be used whever you need to in your project. (Data display, BASIC code, tasks etc.)
Any further questions? Contact Eason Technology Technical Support: 707-433-2854 x 36 or visit our website, http://www.eason.com