Brainbox ED-538 communication issues

[BBedford@alexenergy.co.uk]

I am trying to use the ED-538 to control relays in one of our test fixtures. I have been able to establish communications using the device webpage and using YAT to confirm my commands work correctly over serial. When transferring over to LabVIEW I thought simply using the VISA serial sub vis should work to send over the ASCII commands, but they are not working at all. 

I am wondering if anyone has experienced this or used the ED line of brainboxes through LabVIEW and have any vi's they could share.

Thanks.

[Bob_Schor]

If you attached your VIs (code) (preferably Saved for Previous Version using LabVIEW 2019 and 2021 so long-time LabVIEW users who might not  purchase a new license every year can comment on it), we might make more intelligent and maybe even helpful suggestions...

Bob Schor

[Kyle97330]

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BBedford@alexenergy.co.uk wrote:

I am trying to use the ED-538 to control relays in one of our test fixtures. I have been able to establish communications using the device webpage and using YAT to confirm my commands work correctly over serial. When transferring over to LabVIEW I thought simply using the VISA serial sub vis should work to send over the ASCII commands, but they are not working at all. 

I am wondering if anyone has experienced this or used the ED line of brainboxes through LabVIEW and have any vi's they could share.

Thanks.

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Agree with Bob that we need to see your VIs, but you do say you are using "VISA serial sub vis".  The device only has Ethernet connections, so why are you using "serial" subVIs?

Are you connecting to port 9500?

Are you sending the correct syntax?  You generally want to send something like "$01M0\r".  "$" to start a query, "01" for the address of the box,  "M0" is the model query, and "\r" is the carriage return to end it.

[rolfk]

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@Kyle97330 wrote: Agree with Bob that we need to see your VIs, but you do say you are using "VISA serial sub vis".  The device only has Ethernet connections, so why are you using "serial" subVIs?

Not only that. The product page talks about simple ASCII and Modbus TCP support. One of the main problems might be that if you use simple ASCII protocol, each command may need to be terminated by a carriage return, or line feed, or a combination of both. Your terminal program (yat I assume is a terminal program) may append that automatically whenever you hit the enter key. In LabVIEW you have to add that explicitly to the command string.

[BBedford@alexenergy.co.uk]

I haven’t got older versions of LabVIEW installed so I have just attached a screenshot as there isn’t much going on as all I am trying to do at the moment is send one command at a time to get it working before, I go any further.

[BBedford@alexenergy.co.uk]

Yes, I have been using Visa serial as you are able to install a virtual COM port so I would believe that that would work but after you said that I did try using just VISA sub-VI’s and that made no difference in the results.

I am unsure on what you mean about port 9500 I have never came across that before. 

I have ensured that the correct syntaxes are being used by testing them in YAT and the onboard terminal on the brainbox. Also using the \r did not make any change to the outcome.

[BBedford@alexenergy.co.uk]

I have had a look on the protocol on the brainbox and this is what they state as their protocol for sending commands:

I did try using the CR (0D) which didn’t seem to make a difference. 

[Clawsp123]

Hi, did you resolve this. I use a few ed devices but I use node red to connect and have the bb400 as the edge computer which the data is stored.

[rolfk]

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BBedford@alexenergy.co.uk wrote:

I have ensured that the correct syntaxes are being used by testing them in YAT and the onboard terminal on the brainbox. Also using the \r did not make any change to the outcome.

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In order for the \r to represent a <carriage return> you need to make sure to set the string control or constant to display '\' Codes Display. And it is best to right click on the control again and check Visible->Display Style, which makes a glyph appear on the left border of the string that shows you directly which display style the string control is in.