ViewMarq Serial Communication to PLC unsuccesful

[JoseM 0]

I'm trying to get a "ViewMarq" display to respond to an ASCII string I'm sending to it via serial RS232. I connected a PC running "hyper Terminal" in place of the marquee display as I wanted to confirm that the PLC was sending the command and that the content of the command was what I was expecting. I would like to know if this ASCII string is correct and if so, why the ViewMarq doesn't respond to the message. The ViewMarq doesn't do absolutely nothing.

[pturmel 157]

I see many "$0D" that I presume are supposed to be real carriage returns.  But if they were, you would see line breaks on the terminal.  That dollar-sign+hex escaping is what Rockwell PLCs use for special characters when editing strings within Studio 5000 and friends.  The ViewMarq probably gave its examples that way, but you will have to convert those to the source PLC's convention for control codes.

[JoseM 0]

Thank you for the reply. I took this screen shot before I made a few changes following your suggestion on the $0D. I'm sending this string command for a purpose of troubleshooting, every 60 seconds. That's why you see about three strings registered on this Hyper terminal session.

The Automation Direct technical support told me to use that carriage return in my application.

The PLC I'm using is a brand that probably many are not familiar with, Toyopuc. Is this $0D an ASCII character Automation Direct has designated for the ViewMarq as the Carriage Return?

I did converted the $0D to what I think is its Toyopuc Hex equivalent , 24D. Is this the correct move? Because it still not working for me.

Edited 1 Jun 2023 by JoseM

[pturmel 157]

$0D, if interpreted the way rockwell does (and apparently Automation Direct, too), is simply the carriage return character. "0D" hex is 13 decimal--the code point for a carriage return.

[JoseM 0]

This is another output of my pc Hyper Terminal connected to the PLC. I put on my PLC code the Hex equivalent to $ which is 24 hex and also the Hex 0D for carriage return. The ASCII output which is what Hyper Terminal is presenting, you can see the ASCII for dollar-sign and nothing for 0D.

Are you saying that all I need is decimal 13 and not add the $ to my string??

Edited 1 Jun 2023 by JoseM

[pturmel 157]

Correct.  In Rockwell's notation, the dollar sign is the escape character that says "take the following two hex digits and make the single character from that code". 

A real carriage return doesn't usually show up in a terminal program, except that following traffic is on a new line.

[JoseM 0]

Did the modifications to my PLC source code to just add decimal 13 at the end of my "Command String" but it still doesn't work for me. Any other ideas, thanks.

[pturmel 157]

I don't know enough about the ViewMarq to advise further.

[BobLfoot 301]

Just a quick 2cent thought.  Hyperterminal is pretty forgiving on baud and protocol , usually doing an auto-negotiate,  I am unfamiliar with the ViewMarq . but are you absolutley certain that you're not on the wrong baud, or missing a stop bit.  Your last hyperterminal looks like it should be a valid data packet. 

One other thought, have you thrown a null modem in the rs232 line to the marqview?  Might be that solves the last pice.

[panic mode 246]

please do not use wrong name - you are only confusing yourself and perhaps those who try to help you.

that is clearly not a hyperterminal - screenshot shows that this is the KRterm from Kawasaki.

while features/settings will overlap (at least the core), they are not identical (may look differently, be called differently, etc). this is hyperterminal and how the settings appear::

 

any terminal software allows you to configure some things including termination characters. so this may already be there...

there seem to be configuration software for the product. did you use it? it should allow you to confirm or set specific com port settings and everything else that product may need.

without correct cable and com port settings, there will be nothing going on. so what port settings, what cable are used. and are you even sure that you are connecting to a correct port? at least some of the devices seem to have more than one port.

AD has bunch of examples including documentation that dives into every command. your posts suggest that you only look at ViewMarq itself for response. what about getting response though communication channel that you are trying to use? for example why not ask it to report version? that should allow confirming cable, port and port settings are correct even before you send some longer command in correct format (one that may specify correct window, position, blink etc.)

personally i like RealTerm because one can see the messages in different formats - including hexadecimal. as someone who wrote code talking to various devices, hexadecimal view is essential debugging and understanding what goes on. 

this is also the reason to always have ASCII table at your fingertips:. in this case you only need carriage return which is already explained has code 0x0d or 13. Btw, that is inserted as you are done with typing of the command, or more specifically when you press Enter. For example if you are using Notepad++ to write anything, try turning on "Show all character" and you will see everything - including tabs Cariage Return, Line Feed etc.

 

[BobLfoot 301]

On 6/2/2023 at 3:56 PM, panic mode said:

please do not use wrong name - you are only confusing yourself and perhaps those who try to help you.

that is clearly not a hyperterminal - screenshot shows that this is the KRterm from Kawasaki.

 

Good Catch @panic mode when @JoseM mentioned "Hyper Terminal"  I never looked deeper.