DL06 & PC800 servo drive

I am having a really difficult time changing parameters in the PC800 servo drive using ASCII protocol. I searched the archive and found Eric Nelson & John Deitz talked about this back in 2003. From talking to the "tech support", it seems that I am missing a command to "wake" the PC800 up. Can anyone please help?

Thanks,
Tong

I assume you've already found THIS thread? The example program I showed in that thread DOES work, and it should be quite easy to substitute whatever parameter you choose to change.

The 'wake up' command is <STX> (Start of Text). This is ASCII character code "2" (See www.asciitable.com) In order to 'print' this to V-memory, you use "$02" (WITH the quotes).

The next part of the text string is the drive address. Since I only had one drive, I used 255 which simple write to ALL drives. Supposedly, you don't really need to include this. Next is the 'write' command (letter W), which tells to drive you want to WRITE to the address. Next comes the code for the integer value you're changing. You use the number that corresponds to the variable you want to change, followed by = and the new value. Finish it off with a carriage return <CR>, which is written as "$R" in DirectSOFT.

You will save yourself a LOT of frustration by using Window's Hyperterminal to watch what the PLC is sending to the drive. Otherwise, you can only 'guess' what's REALLY being sent.

The Simple ASCII Protocol is discussed in Appendix G of the PC830 User Manual. Also be sure to download THIS application note for additional information.



-Eric

P.S. Don't bother trying to read the string sent back from the drive. The DL06 is good at sending OR receiving ASCII, just not at the same time. I tried this, and although it works, it's not reliable. Occasionally, you miss the return string...

actually I found this thread:

http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?t=4630&highlight=pacsci

I understand now, and feeling really dumb. I did use hyperterminal to see what the DL06 was printing out, and it was "correct" in the sense that my format matched exactly what the examples in the Appendix G of the manual was showing. Which was "<STX> W 10093 = 10000 <CR>" and the drive was not responding at all. I was pulling my hairs out on that one. I wasn't able to figure out how to use hyperterminal to talk to the PC830 to see if I can change the parameters using hyperterminal instead of DL06.

now I realize "<STX>" is not ASCII! brain freeze...

I'll try "$02" "$R" when I go in to work next week.

Many thanks Eric,
--tong

qlingtime said:

actually I found this thread:

http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?t=4630&highlight=pacsci

Click to expand...

Ah yes, I forgot about that one...

qlingtime said:

I did use hyperterminal to see what the DL06 was printing out, and it was "correct" in the sense that my format matched exactly what the examples in the Appendix G of the manual was showing. Which was "<STX> W 10093 = 10000 <CR>"

Click to expand...

Yes, the problem is that you were ABLE see the <STX> and <CR> in hyperterminal...

I actually have a PC830 drive (and motor) on order for an upcoming project. Great little drive for the price! I should have it in my hands by early next week if you have any more questions.



-Eric

Eric Nelson said:

Ah yes, I forgot about that one...

Yes, the problem is that you were ABLE see the <STX> and <CR> in hyperterminal...

I actually have a PC830 drive (and motor) on order for an upcoming project. Great little drive for the price! I should have it in my hands by early next week if you have any more questions.



-Eric

Click to expand...

I was very very frustrated with the PacSci. I wasn't able to get ANY support at all from them. When I call them, all I got was an automated answering voice telling me to call my distributor, & surprisingly, there's no one there that was familiar with the problem that I was experiencing. At any rate, this run-around & jumping thru hoops that they make people go thru, I am surprised that they still can sell their product.

I have been tied up with other projects and have not been able to try out the magic words: "$02" & "$R" I'll going in this saturday & try, I'm sure I'll have more questions once I get it communicate & try to do "fancier" things.

thanks
--tong

still not working... can't figure out what i m missing. I know my cable is good because i can see what the DL06 is printing out to the hyperterminal.

I have tried "$02" for <STX> & "$R" and "$0D" for <CR>. I tried byte swapping & not swapping.

all permutation of strings shown below were tried with no success:

"$02" "255W10093=" V4000 "$R"
"$02" "255W10093=" V4000:B "$R"
"$02" "255W10093=" V4000 "$R"
"$02" "255W10093=" V4000B "$R"
then
"$02" "0W10093=" V4000 "$R"
...
then
"$02" "W10093=" V4000 "$R"
...
then
"$02" "255W10093=" V4000 "$0D"
...

I even tried typing in the exact snippet of code that you posted for the DL06. I noticed that you used Normally-ON contact SP1 which would constantly sending to the PC830. I tried it both ways, just pulsing (PD) and SP1...

I have all my 3 move bits on the PC830 tied to 0 VDC so that predefined move 0 is constantly selected. I have tried sending the ASCII while the drive is disabled & even enabled (which wouldn't make any sense - but had to try)

I can change the Move0distance (10093) by using PC800tool software and can see the change but sending ASCII, my PC800 is like an enigma.

i am so lost.... any ideas Eric? please help.

thnx,
--tong

I stayed home today, but I would not be able to offer more help if I were at work anyway. The drive I ordered has not shipped yet, plus I don't have a DL-06 handy to test with. The project I ordered the PC800 drive for is a standalone system with no PLC. Parameter adjustment will be handled with a Maple Systems HMI.

The code I posted in the other thread resides in a subroutine that is only called when a new distance is entered. The call to the subroutine is cancelled after the COMPLETE bit (C62 in this case) turns ON. Therefore, it only sends the string once.

The first thing I would do is NOT try to implement everything at once. Stick with getting the VPRINT instruction working first. Use actual numbers, rather than variables, in the string. Try "$02" "255W10093=########" "$R" (With a valid number in place of the #s).

Can you talk to the drive via hyperterm? You should be able to type in that string and get a response from the drive. For some reason, Ctrl-B sticks out in my memory as the key sequence for <STX>, though I could be wrong...

I'll be able to help more once I have a drive in front of me. Until then, the only thing I can say is that I've used the example ladder I gave on a number of drives, and it does indeed work. I remember pulling my hair out (what little is left) the first time trying this, so don't give up. You WILL get it to work... :nodi:



-Eric

I did try using hyperterm to send the ASCII in directly with an actual value for the 10093 address (like 10000), but did not get a response from the drive. Which leads me to believe that something is wrong with my set up somehow. That was why I tried sending the ASCII while it is disabled & enabled.

could it be my hyperterm settings? I tried it at 9600-8-N-1-N & also @19200 baud. To talk to the DL06, hyperterm was set to "wait for call" & it worked fine, then to talk to PC830, it was set to "call". You mentioned Ctrl-B for hyperterm, that's something I didn't know. I sent in the same string of text as if it came from the DL06. Hmm... that could be my problem... I'll try that next week.

One common problem is byte swapping. Some ASCII devices for some odd crazy reason, send/recieve data like so: "2" "$02" "551W0039=" The bytes in the word are swapped, causing no end of problems such as this.

Food for thought.

More Info...

Another thing to check is that COM2 is setup with the correct parameters. I don't have an 06 handy to check what the proper setting are, but I do know what values belong in the V-memory locations for COM2. My program includes a subroutine to load these values on the first scan. Maybe icky can decipher them?...

V7655 gets a value of '10'
V7656 gets a value of '670'

Then I send a value of '500' to V7657 to use the above values.

More info about port setup HERE.



-Eric

regarding what Icky said, I did see something like that when I selected byte swapping and watched the results on hyperterm. But when sent into the PC800, nothing happened.

I'll double check my settings for COM2 again. My settings were done thru dialog box settings in DirectSoft & not assigning values to V7656 (which is something I didn't that can be done).

I am gonna give PacSci a call tomorrow. I'll let you guys know if I get enlightened.

Eric Nelson said:

V7655 gets a value of '10'
V7656 gets a value of '670'

Then I send a value of '500' to V7657 to use the above values.

Click to expand...

Glad to Eric.

A "10" in V7655 sets the port for Non-Sequence (ASCII)

The "670" in V7656 set the port for No flow control, 19200 baud, no echo supression (RS-232 or RS-422), 1 stop bit, and No parity.

The "500" in V7657 tells the PLC to commit these values to Non-volatile memory. If the settings are accepted, the "500" will change to "A00", if rejected then it will change to "E00".

qlingtime said:

I am gonna give PacSci a call tomorrow. I'll let you guys know if I get enlightened.

Click to expand...

Well? Any progress?...

I still don't have my drive, so I can't provide more help yet, but I'd still like to know if you had any success... :nodi:



-Eric

Hi Eric,

sorry for the delay, been a bit bz lately. I was able to get some help from PacSci and made a break thru. I was able to send a string from hyperterm to the PC830, but that was as far as I got. I need to double check my communication cable this weekend and maybe play around with the settings. Here's some details on what I got so far.

in hyperterm, the <STX> is accomplished by typing Ctrl-Shift-b and <CR> is just the "ENTER" key. the Ctrl-Shift-b gives you the black smiley face which the DL06 was able to generate by sending your "$02". but when I hooked up the DL06 to the PC830, it didn't respond. the only difference that i can think of is that when i send the command from hyperterm, i was using the 9-pin to 9-pin serial cable, and when sending from DL06, I have a 15-pin to a 9-pin cable. and maybe some time delay involved because i noticed from the hyperterm, it took a little bit of time for it to respond. I'll keep you posted on my progress over this weekend.

tong

really weird...

I still can't get it to work over the weekend. I was able to change PC830's parameter thru hyperterm (which proves that PC830 is capable of communicating). I can send the exact string from DL06 to hyperterm (which proves that my 15-pin to 9-pin comm cable is working). I even copied & pasted the string that was sent from DL06 to hyperterm, and send it back to the PC830 via hyperterm and it does work (this proved to me that there wasn't any extra or missing or hidden characters that was sent by the DL06).

Yet, when I connect the DL06 to the PC830, there's nothing. I double checked my cable with DMM and it is good -- pin 2 to 2, 3 to 3, and 5 to 7. where pin 5 & 7 are
grounding pins.

I think my setting for COM2 on the DL06 is correct. I need to locate my memory stick to show you a few images of my DL06's program & setting for COM2. I am completely stump at this point. the only thing that I can think of at this moment is that hyperterminal is not showing me "everything" that DL06 is sending or that hyperterm is sending something that the DL06 is not which caused the PC830 to completely ignored it.

-super frustrated