ASCII from L81 rack ?

[TheWaterboy]

Are there other options for ASCII output from an L81 rack besides the ProSoft Modules? Anything ethernet and standalone ?

 

[Mispeld]

Point I/O has a an RS-232 module (1734-232ASC). Obviously not going directly into a 1756 chassis, but Ethernet accessible.

 

[TheWaterboy]

I didn't think of that... I'd like it to be even more standalone but that is a thought I will keep in my head.

 

[JeremyM]

Moxa offers appliances that can. AD offers some as well.

 

[TheWaterboy]

I'll look, I keep finding ones that will consume ASCII frmo Barcode and scales but not output it to a device.

 

[Ken Roach]

The Real Time Automation gateways are very rugged and easy to use, and will both receive and transmit ASCII strings.

Digi One IAP is probably the most mature and flexible Swiss Army knife in this category of devices.

For a low-cost but still industrially hardened and EtherNet/IP tested and compliant device, I like the Hilscher NetTap NT50. The configuration is... let's say it's very German, so once you know how it works it's obvious and simple.

What do you need to transmit ASCII strings to ?

 

[TheWaterboy]

The RTA devices all say that they are ASCII to PLC, not the other way.
The Hilscher looks interesting and cheap. I'm going to look at those.

 

[Ken Roach]

The RTA gateways are configured to read one String tag, and write one String tag in the ControlLogix over EtherNet/IP.

When they get an incoming ASCII string on their serial port, they write it to the configured tag.

When they see a .LEN greater than zero in the tag they are reading, they transmit that string out of the ASCII serial port.

They're super, super simple. All web-based configuration, no MSG instructions or I/O object.

I really like the compactness of the Hilscher NT50, but SYCON.net is a DTM-based configuration tool that is necessarily general-purpose, and setting up the data object mapping is non-intuitive.

And of course I overlooked another stalwart of the industry, the HMS Communicator.

 

[TheWaterboy]

This application is simply sending 2 or 3 characters out a serial port to initiate an announcement from a wav player. I can read back the response which is 2 characters also, but I don't bother doing so.

Using a PLC5 for this now. They need to retire that thing. Someday if they are willing I'll go full TTS for this job.

I looked at a couple vids on configuring this Hilscher device and it looks like you need to set up canned strings and then call them to be delivered from the PLC. That would work but I'd prefer to send a string from the PLC right through this device to the end point so I could configure the string on the fly.

 

[Ken Roach]

I like the way the HMS Communicator works for this sort of application.

You set up an I/O image, and the Output data array contains a transmit sequence register, and a .LENGTH value, and the bytes you want to transmit.

Increment the Tx Sequence register +1, and the data is transmitted.

 

[TheWaterboy]

that sounds about right... off I go.

Got any ideas on a TTS (Text To Speech) appliance? I'm looking at Textspeak at the
moment for someone else but I just got started on that quest. I've no idea how practical this will be. But it will be interesting to sort out.