Controlling relays from ControlAnything

[BenD]

Hey everyone,

Just wondering if anyone has worked with relay boards from www.controlanything.com. I've gotten a 24-channel ProXR relay that I'm using for some automated testing and I'm having a little trouble with their somewhat esoteric command set. I've downloaded the latest USB Serial Port emulation drivers and I can easily control the relays using the company's software, but I'm not familiar enough with serial protocol to get through the next step.

I think the issue is with the fact that the command set for the relays uses ASCII *codes* and the LabVIEW example (just the serial write and read example from the LV examples) I'm trying to use is sending characters. Does this mean I then have to take an ASCII table and figure out what characters equate to the ASCII code I need to send to actuate the relays, or something else? Is there a way I can just send the raw ASCII code from LabVIEW?

The documentation on the command set is found at http://www.controlanything.com/manuals/ProXR.pdf

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

[Phillip Brooks]

QUOTE (BenD @ Jul 31 2008, 10:22 AM)

The documentation on the command set is found at http://www.controlanything.com/manuals/ProXR.pdf

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

Have you looked at or tried the drivers on their web site?

http://www.controlanything.com/Merchant2/m...gory_Code=LVIEW

I don't have LV 7.1 so I can't look at them to see if they are any good...

[BenD]

Funny you should ask - I discovered them about 5 minutes after I posted my original message! I don't know if we have LV7.1 kicking around, couldn't it be imported in 8.5, or do I need to install 7.1 to see what's going on?

[pallen]

Hi Ben,

Figuring out how to talk to a serial device can be tricky. It seems I go through just about the same old struggle with each new device.

Unfortunately I don't really have time to read through all the documentation you posted a link to. Neat looking device though. Are they expensive?

This online ascii table may be of some help to you http://www.asciitable.com/

The way you have send the commands reminds me a little of working with IAI cylinders. I had a heck of a time getting them to work right. But the "codes" for that device was quite different from what you're sending.

I some things on the NI boards here and here

I think the programmer here had to send similar commands to his device. The code posted on the second link is a bit difficult to look at. But apparently it was working.

Good luck with your project.

QUOTE (BenD @ Jul 31 2008, 11:31 AM)

Funny you should ask - I discovered them about 5 minutes after I posted my original message! I don't know if we have LV7.1 kicking around, couldn't it be imported in 8.5, or do I need to install 7.1 to see what's going on?

I got them to open and resaved them.

[BenD]

QUOTE (pallen @ Jul 31 2008, 11:49 AM)

I got them to open and resaved them.

Thanks so much! Saves me from having to install 7.1!

[AnalogKid2DigitalMan]

They opened fine in 8.2, looks pretty straighforward to control.

Thanks for the link to the manufacturer, I'll have to keep their in my fav's for future reference.

[BenD]

QUOTE (AnalogKid2DigitalMan @ Jul 31 2008, 02:26 PM)

They opened fine in 8.2, looks pretty straighforward to control.

Thanks for the link to the manufacturer, I'll have to keep their in my fav's for future reference.

It *looks* pretty straightforward but we'll see. Looks like the commands used in the driver VI are the same as what's in their documentation so I'll just need to modify it some for my 24-channel version.

I'll keep y'all posted as to how it turns out. Right now the board doesn't want to talk via the company's interface but their customer support is pretty accessible. I've got a feeling that it may actually be a problem on the board. The communication chip looks to be poorly soldered onto the board and could be why it's having some issues. Other than that, the board seems pretty well built and with the A/D version it has a little added functionality that I didn't even know I needed when I ordered it! :thumbup:

[BenD]

Thanks for all the advice everyone! After messing around with the command set (the website drivers used a different command set but it was easy enough to see what was going on to make my own) I've got a pretty well-functioning driver for the relay portion of the board. The only thing that was sort of tricky was coding up the part to read the status of a relay (open/closed). Turns out that the controller sends ASCII 85 ("U") back after every single command for acknowledgment so I had to read all of those from the receive buffer before reading the result from the relay status command.

As far as the device goes, it functions as expected but has quality issues. It randomly stopped receiving commands - looking the board over the SMT work is pretty shoddy and after getting our SMT people to reflow the COM chip and fixing some cold solder points, it's working fine. The board itself is pretty big so hopefully this fall when they are supposed to release some solid-state relays they can cut down on the form factor and maybe offer some standard DB connection options as well.