Awloescher

Thanks for your reply and assistance @Joe E..  I had "channel no" value in the canned "Write" UDFB set to 0 somehow. It's supposed to be "2" for the embedded serial port I guess..  I didn't see anywhere in documentation which channel no it should be.  Anyway, the AWA command works now.  I'm not reading anything though from the printer. A few questions about that now: I'm not using continuous transmission, and the printer is supposed to send an ACK or NACK once it receives data. I'm seeing zero characters in the buffer after I transmit, and I'm getting ABL error id 11, "The requested length for the string is either invalid, a negative number, greater than 82, or 0. Applies to ARD and ARL function blocks. " Is it safe to assume, then, that either I'm sending character combinations that the printer doesn't like, it's not properly receiving the data, or it's not sending the ACK/NACK in a proper way? Is the best way to troubleshoot this rigging up a cable from my laptop to the printer and using pUTTY or other hyperterminal to figure out if I'm sending the correct data in the correct format?

Anyone have any ideas?  I'm going to look into using pUTTY to attempt to communicate with the printer to see if I can find where the issue is.  

Hi all,I'm completely new to ASCII and trying to figure out where I'm going wrong here.Application: I need to send 2d barcode data to a KGK Jet model CCS3000L Inkjet printer. Only protocol possibility is ASCII. PLC I have is a Micro850, and the only port option for ASCII is the serial port. I modified one end of a 2707-NC11 cable to connect PLC TxD to printer RxD, PLC RxD to Printer TxD, and PLC SG to Printer SG. I jumpered CTS and RTS at the printer connector, and the 2707 cable I'm using doesn't have wires on the Micro850 CTS or RTS pins.Printer company verified that I can just jumper RTS and CTS on their side and not connect their DTR and DSR pins (since I'm not using hardware handshaking). I don't really need any flow control for the application ( I don't think...again, ASCII noob here).Do the CTS and RTS on the PLC side need to be jumpered? Does the DCD pin need to be jumpered or connected to something if I'm not using handshaking?I downloaded the Micro800 ASCII read and write functions and function blocks from Rockwell library, and they seem to be working, except that I keep getting ABL error id "7". This error states, "Cannot complete ASCII send or receive because channel configuration has been shut down using the channel configuration dialog box." I have the serial port enabled and configured to ASCII, no handshaking, baud 9600 same as printer, no parity check, 1 stop bit, character length of 8.Any help in pointing out what I'm doing wrong or things to try would be greatly appreciated!   ASCII_TEST.ccwsln

Thanks for the reply. I appreciate your advice!

I'm an automation tech in a tool and manufacturing facility.  Lately, we've quoted a few projects for customers that include tooling (stamping dies usually) as well as some partial automation.  The automation is fairly simple usually...motor, drive, actuator to transfer material in 2 axes, e.g.  The company president and quoting engineers don't think it's a big deal for us to do this, but I'm a little wary to agree to these projects.  I have 2 years experience doing all sorts of small programming tasks, wiring, control panel design and build, troubleshoot, etc. However, I also know that there are a lot of industry and safety standards to follow when you start machine building/integrating for customers.  The tooling build is straightforward and is our forte.  But we have no electrical/controls engineers, and we have no standards really for automation "builds".  I've done smaller projects for us and I'm trying to develop some sort of standards, but there was nothing like that when I came into this position.   Anyway, should I undertake these sorts of projects in your opinion or not? And if I would, what sort of knowledge/standards should I master in terms of liability and safety, and where would be a good place to start in developing a wiring/electrical schematic standard? Thanks for your assistance. Andrew

I also saw the option of using a serial port splitter 1747-DSP1/2...it's hard to tell if it would support talking to the ASCII scale.  And it's also quite expensive.  Seems like any option is fairly expensive, since I can't plug into the DH+ or RS232 port and still debug/go online while process is running. It's not a large enough problem where the company is going to spend that kind of money to upgrade the equipment, so I'm most likely going to have to go with "pull the memory card and reset it", since we do have the existing program on file...unless anyone else has other ideas.  Thanks for the help and knowledge gained :)

So what I've gained from digging for information is that I can't talk to an ASCII driver with RS232.  So I assume my only option then is to default the memory card and reset/ download the program again.  Is that correct?

  Thanks for the reply Joe...yes we are using a virtual machine, and yes we connect through the VM...com port is completely different and won't recognize the port if we go through the COM port through the host.

Newer automation tech here...still taking classes and learning on the job as well.  We've had trouble connecting with our SLC 5/04's.  We get the message "failure to find baud and parity rate...check cables"...or something to that effect.  A few times we've somehow got it to connect.  Cables are new, using RXLinx Lite to connect, USB 1747 CP3 to 1747 CP3 SER A to connect to RS232 port on SLC 5/04.  Autoconfigure just won't communicate...trying to communicate with RS232 DF-1 Driver.  SLC has no fault, no battery low indicator.  I've experienced this twice now on two different SLC's.  One time I was able to connect, but I can't figure out how.  The maintenance guy told me I need to default the memory card, which as I understand it involves shutting off the power to the unit, pulling the memory card, then reinserting it?  Is this the "go-to fix" or something? Thanks in advance for the help. Andrew