Ransburg DynaFlow Programmers Manual - Manual (Page 31)

RANSBURG HOST SIO
SIO Operation
The Ransburg Host Serial I/O port is capable of
communicating with a general purpose computer,
personal computer (PC), or PLC via its SIO port.
All DynaFlow parameters, configurations, and
operational data can be transferred between the
DynaFlow Interface Module and a PLC via the SIO
communicatiion link. Each type of data uses a
unique protocol packet structure for the transfer.
The description of the data parameters can be
referenced in the DynaFlow User's Manual and
the DynaFlow Operator Interface Manual with
the exception of the differences that exist with the
Ransburg Host SIO operation.
SIO Protocol
The DynaFlow Interface Module communicates
with a host computer using RS-232C or as de-
scribed on the previous pages.
Each protocol packet begins with the "#" (0x23)
ASCII character. After the initial character, the
message length is sent next. The length is the
number of data bytes that follow and does not
include the initial character, length, or the ending
character, which is always a carriage return (0x0D).
Data may be sent in any of three sizes. Byte size
data is sent simply as the hex value 0x00 to 0xFF.
Sixteen (16) bit words are sent as two bytes with
the high order byte sent first. Thirty-two (32) bit
integers are sent as four bytes with the high order
byte sent first.
All gun, channel, and job numbers are sent as
zero-based values. In other words, gun or channel
numbers are sent as 0 to 7 and job numbers are
sent as 0 to 99.
Some data must be sent in a special manner. For
example, the number of Channels and the Gun
number may be concatenated into one byte with
the upper nibble containing the Channel number
and the lower nibble contains the Gun number.
Each protocol packet sent by the host computer
must be confirmed as received by the Interface
Module before the host computer attempts to
send another packet. Failure to adhere to this
standard will result in the loss of data received
by the Interface Module and may lead to the in-
ability to communicate properly with the Interface
Module. If the Interface Module responds with an
acknowledge packet (i.e. ACK) but fails to respond
with the requested data after 500 milliseconds, the
host computer should resend the request for data.
If the Interface Module replies with a NACK
message, the host should resend the previous
message.
27
DynaFlow Programer's Manual - Introduction
Ransburg
LN-9406-00.3