Help!Does anyone have the SUBVI to talk to TestEquity 1007 Temperature Chamber?

[MartinLiu]

Does anyone have the subvi to talk to TestEquity 1007 Temperature Chamber over GPIB BUS? I just need to set the temperature and read the temperature. TestEquity does have the top-level subvi, but if you want to get it you have to pay money. In my opinion TestEquity should provide the subvi to their customers freely.

[mikeporter]

Good news! You don't need to deal with TestEquity. From reviewing their web site I would say that at Best they assemble the chambers from parts built by other people. In the case of the temperature controllers, the other people are Watlow Electronics.

So first, testequity does provide documentation on the RS232 interface for the control module that is downladable from the link below. My suspicion is that the GPIB interface will use the same command structure.

ftp://ftp.testequity.com/chambers/WatCDCE_A.pdf

In any case, this document has a very good description of the commands and all the various ways of talking to their controllers over serial links (as well as a good discussion of serial communications in general).

No mention though of the optional
GPIB interface. You'll need to call Watlow and ask. The key thing is that the TestEquity chamber you have uses their F4 controller.

Mike...

[Dennis_Knutson]

TestEquity uses an ICS Electronics card to interface to the chamber's Modbus over RS-232. Mike is correct in saying that the commands for the serial interface are the same as the GPIB commands. We wrote programs in both LabVIEW and CVI to control the chambers but since we no longer use them, the code is either gone or lost somewhere on one of the servers. However, pages 1-3 and 1-4 of the GPIB Interface Option Manual have a read chamber temperature and set temperature setpoint example. If that's all you need, then it shouldn't take very long to write the VI's yourself. If you need more, then I'd suggest buying the software from TestEquity. I don't know the cost but I can't imagine that it would be more than the cost to your company if you spent more
than a few hours trying to do it yourself.

[Peter]

Dennis Knutson wrote in message news:<506500000005000000E1700000-1017707437000@exchange.ni.com>...
> TestEquity uses an ICS Electronics card to interface to the chamber's
> Modbus over RS-232. Mike is correct in saying that the commands for
> the serial interface are the same as the GPIB commands. We wrote
> programs in both LabVIEW and CVI to control the chambers but since we
> no longer use them, the code is either gone or lost somewhere on one
> of the servers. However, pages 1-3 and 1-4 of the GPIB Interface
> Option Manual have a read chamber temperature and set temperature
> setpoint example. If that's all you need, then it shouldn't take very
> long to write the VI's yourself. If you need more, then I'd suggest
> buying the software from TestEquity. I don't know the cost but I can't
> imagine that it would be more than the cost to your company if you
> spent more than a few hours trying to do it yourself.

You are correct Dennis. We use an ICS 4809 card to convert the Watlow
F4's serial Modbus interface to GPIB. The ICS 4809 takes care of
calculating block checksums needed for the Modbus protocol, so the
commands over GPIB are quite simple. It is easier to use the GPIB
interface converter for programming with LabView, rather than dealing
with Modbus over the controller's native serial interface. The ICS
converter was made specifically with this in mind.

If the chamber was not ordered with the internal GPIB option, we sell
the external mini-box version (ICS 4899). We provide a null-modem
cable to connect the 4899 to the chamber's serial port, so there's no
internal wiring involved.

For example to read the actual temperature (register 100) the command
is simply:
R? 100,1 (where 1 is the Modbus address of the Watlow F4
controller)

To change the temperature setpoint (register 300) to -25.5 degrees the
command is simply :
W300,-255

All the Modbus registers are documented in the Watlow F4 manual. The
syntax for communicating with these registers is documented in the
TestEquity GPIB Interface Option Manual.

ICS does sell the subVI's for the drivers they developed. I agree that
this should be free and I have had several discussions with ICS
regarding this. TestEquity does not sell them because I do not believe
they should be sold, and I don't want to be the "bad guy".
Unfortunately, TestEquity cannot provide the ICS-designed software for
free due to the obvious licensing issues.

Links to TestEquity GPIB programming resources are at:
http://www.testequity.com/Specifications/te-gpib.phtml

Hope this helps. If you need any additional info, please email me
directly.

Regards,

Peter Keselman
VP Product Marketing
TestEquity Inc.
email: peterk AT testequity DOT com

[Peter]

mikeporter wrote in message news:<506500000005000000C7700000-1017707437000@exchange.ni.com>...
> Good news! You don't need to deal with TestEquity. From reviewing
> their web site I would say that at Best they assemble the chambers
> from parts built by other people. In the case of the temperature
> controllers, the other people are Watlow Electronics.
>
> So first, testequity does provide documentation on the RS232 interface
> for the control module that is downladable from the link below. My
> suspicion is that the GPIB interface will use the same command
> structure.
>
> ftp://ftp.testequity.com/chambers/WatCDCE_A.pdf
>
> In any case, this document has a very good description of the commands
> and all the various ways of talking to their con
trollers over serial
> links (as well as a good discussion of serial communications in
> general).
>
> No mention though of the optional GPIB interface. You'll need to call
> Watlow and ask. The key thing is that the TestEquity chamber you have
> uses their F4 controller.
>
> Mike...

Of course, the parts in our chambers are made by other people
(compressors by Copeland, relays by Omron, controllers by Watlow).
However, our chamber is entirely designed by us from the ground up (I
personally co-designed it), manufactured and supported by us in
Thousand Oaks, California.

Watlow does not have a GPIB option per se. We use an ICS 4809 (or 4899
for external applications) GPIB-Serial Modbus converter, with is made
specifically for the Watlow F4.

Regards,

Peter Kesselman
VP Product Marketing (and engineering for that matter!)
TestEquity Inc.
email: peterk AT testequity DOT com

[sppspb]

Hello,

I could not find the documentation on the RS232 interface at  ftp://ftp.testequity.com/chambers/WatCDCE_A.pdf. it says page not found.

Could you please post it.

Thanks

[Dennis_Knutson]

You are asking someone from a 13 year old thread! Not very realistic.

[NIquist]

5 second Google search and....   http://www.testequity.com/documents/chambers/WatCDCE_A.pdf

[NIquist]

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@Dennis_Knutson wrote:
You are asking someone from a 13 year old thread! Not very realistic.

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And so easy to find it yourself with a little effort...