BASIC Module

PC connected to Allen Bradley BASIC module on SLC 5/03 via RS-232. No response from hyperterminal. Any ideas please??

Could be 100 different things.

For starters:
1.) Make sure the connection cable is the correct pin-out...
AND
2.) Make sure you're tied into the programming port...
AND
3.) Make sure the communications parameters in HyperTerminal
are set to match the parameters of the BASIC module port.

How do you know these things?
1.) Consult the manual. Buy the right cable, or make your own.
2.) Consult the manual to determine the positions of the jumpers
on the module, making sure nobody has them set to RS484...
3.) Consult the documentation. Somewhere in the program (perhaps)
or on the schematics, the designer should have told you what ports
are what rates, etc.

If all else fails, pull the battery, pull the eeprom, set the
jumpers to default, and start over.

A thing that I came across was the rs232 port on the PC being too fast for the basic module. The chips that handle the messaging on modern pc's is too fast for the old chipsets that are used in the basic module.

Nonsense. For ansynchronous protocols like ASCII, there's not a PC serial port in the world that won't behave as configured for 19200 baud or less. Unless "jenmalone" is trying to run the old PBASE software's DH-485 driver, there's no reason for the serial port to be physically incapable of keeping up (and that's a software problem, not hardware).

This highlights one of the best features of Prosoft's communication modules for the A-B family controllers; they all include a debug port that is always set for a default baud rate and framing. You can always "get online" and observe the module's function without guessing about port settings.

On the old 1747-BAS module, though, you really do have to know what the settings are on the serial ports. Get a user manual, get an RS-232 breakout box, and get to work.

Ken,

I have just read your response to my post where I stated that one might need to use an older PC. My reason for stating what I did was simply down to the fact that I ran into the problem before when downloading programs to a BASIC module. Every attempt at downloading a program failed at approx. the 80% mark. After speaking with the AB guru's in the United Kingdom I changed laptops and low and behold 100% download first time!! They put the issue down to the fact that my Dell laptop had a chipset that was too fast for the BASIC module. While not making sense to me at the time I just accepted what they said to be true and proceeded. Due to time constraints I have not had the time however to delve into the matter further.

What is this?

Guest, are you saying that the new laptops send data faster than the standard 9600, 19200 and 38400 bit rates? I don't think so! Go check your facts. It is possible to have small devivations in the bit rate but these are small. When using a 20MHZ oscillator it is impossible to generate a bit rate at exactly 192000, but one can get close. Rarely have bit rate errors been a problem unless one device has an error on the high side and the other has an error on the lows of the true 19200 baud or whatever the target bit rate is. Usually these errors are higher at the higher bit rates. Unless the bit rate generators are different by a over .5%, there should be no problem

Jenmalone, check the handshaking. Make sure both devices are using the same handshaking type. If using hardware handshaking, check the RTS and CTS wires are wired correctly. Usually the RTS lines and CTS lines are tied together on the same DB9 or DB25 connector when no hardware handshaking is used.

Guest might be talking about a common conflict between Hyperterminal and embedded BASIC interpreters, including the 1771 and 1746 BASIC modules. When you're downloading into a BASIC module, you're in Terminal Mode and the module just thinks you're "typing really fast". But the module's input buffer can't keep up with the terminal program's default settings sometimes, and you need to increase the inter-line delay setting (usually to 250 ms). This is described in Knowbase document G16392.

Without a little more info from jenmalone, I can't guess what the problem is with that particular BASIC module and that particular PC.

Omron has had the same problems with using newer,faster notebooks with their ASCII-BASIC modules. Like Ken mentioned "the module thinks you're just typing real fast." There is needs to be a small delay after each line to allow the interpreter to do it's job. Here's the setup for Hyperterminal.