Nstoll01

We have a contract to refurbish/upgrade a filling/bottling machine. We have the machine but not its control panel or PLC. We've built a new control panel based on the original drawings. We've changed the obsolete 1756-MVI/A serial comms modules to ProSoft MVI56E-MCM modules. These two comms modules are to talk to sixteen (16) Endress & Hauser Promass 63MT08-WOW00A9092B mass flow meters - each module talks to 8 of the 16 meters on separate RS-485 networks. My problem at the moment is that there seems to be no way of knowing the port configuration parameters (i.e. baud rate, data bits, stop bits, parity etc.) without having the original 1756-MVI modules. I should add that these meters are 'blind' with no built-in keypad or display for programming or querying the program. I've approached E&H in the hope that they would have a method of extracting the configuration from the meters but they are saying that the meters are so old that all their expertise and equipment for performing such a task is no longer around. I'm going to attempt to track down the original equipment manufacturer in the hope that they may have kept records. Other than connecting up to a meter and trying multiple combinations of settings in the hope that we hit on the right one, does anyone have any ideas on how we can make progress with this? Also, the meters use what appears to be E&H's proprietory Rackbus protocol. The original 1756-MVI modules could talk to them (presumably!). Any ideas if the new ProSoft modules will be able to?