Technical data

A-B SuperBridge Technical Reference

UartBase

Base address for the UART, port N, hexadecimal. Default is 2F8 for section [Port0], which is the

base address for COM2 in a normal PC. COM1 has normally base address 3F8. Sections

[Port1]..[Port3] does not have a default; the base address for those ports have to be specified

when a multiport adapter is used.

DLABReg

This entry indirectly specifies the baud rate used for each port. It is possible to run different ports

with different baud rates. Old MC² applications supports baud rates up to 9,600, newer up to

19,200, and MC³ can communicate up to 38,400 baud. The entry is in hexadecimal format.

Default is 06 for 19,200 baud. Use the following table:

Baud Rate DLABReg value

4,800 0018

9,600 000C

19,200 0006

38,400 0003

Retries

This is the number of times SB will try to recover from a MC communication error. Default is 2.

Increase this number if the communication lines are very long and noise is present. There is a

performance penalty associated with high values.

[MCN] SECTIONS

These sections define properties associated with a particular MC. N is the controller index, which

start at 0 and end at Controllers (page 41) minus one.

Used

Valid entries are 0 and 1. 1 is default. A 0 means the controller with index N is never to be used.

This is useful when data must be allocated for a growing number of controllers, and the A-B file

elements must remain the same.

Timeout

This is the time in PC ticks (Approx. 52 ms) that SB waits for responses from MCs. Default is 6.

WatchDog

An MC can be set to generate a general alarm if SB communication becomes silent for a set

time. This time (in 0.1 s increments) is set here. Default is 200, corresponding to 20s. If this value

is set to zero, the MC will never generate a general alarm for lost SB communication.

ReviveTime

If a fatal communication error occurs for a MC, SB will ignore it (to avoid performance

degradation), and later attempt to re-establish communications. This is the time (in ms) that SB

will wait. Default is 20000, corresponding to 20s.

ControllerNumber

The controller number is set in the MC. MCs on the same port may not have the same controller

number. Default is the controller index (N) plus one.