PLC5 1771-DA ASCII Card and a Barcode Scanner

I am a student at Utah State University and am working on a project that involves a PLC-5. I am hoping some of you won't mind offering some advice! A group of us Electrical Engineering students are trying to interface a barcode scanner with a 1771-DA ASCII card. In RSLogix 5, I used the setup dialog to "insert ladder rungs" to initialize the card. It seems the BTW/BTR blocks are functioning, but i cannot figure out how to send or receive data via RS232. I have a computer connected to test the communication, but sending ASCII codes to the card from the computer does nothing (at least from what i can tell). I was thinking by sending the ASCII codes as described, the ASCII codes would get stored in the storage blocks in a sort of buffer (there are 64 blocks for both send and receive).
I have been frantically searching for info about how to initialize this card, but only find info for the PLC2 and PLC3 systems. Any advice or suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
-Ben

Hi,

See attached zip file with rungs & file tables. I think this module is setup to read from an allen bradley barcode scanner. I hope you have the user manual. If not maybe download one from the AB web site. I think the 1771-DA module requires an "End of Message" character or characters to be appended to the message before the module will accept the message. Something like "CR' or LF" depending on the sending device capabality. This stuff is 15 years old so..... good luck..... don't call me I'll call you!
BD

Ben,
The ASCII module requires a BTW to initialize it (String Length, End of String Delimeter, Baud, etc.) This should be done on power up. Subsequent BTW/BTR's can then be used to send/recieve data. I'm not sure how well the "Insert Rungs" works with this module. I'll see if I can attach a working example PLC5 program if no one else does. In the meantime you should be able to use the PLC3 information that you found and adapt it to the PLC5.

Thank you so much, i cant wait to give this a try! You are awesome!

i'll be glad to see that sample program

Hi There,

I used to support the DA for A-B tech support back in the
late 1980's early 1990's. I wrote a program called DAConfig
which makes the configuration of the BTW much easier.

Try contacting A-B tech support and see if someone has a copy
of that old thing.

Good Luck

(8{)} .)

(Yosi)