Technical information

38
230V FX Series Positioning Drive Reference Manual
Failure to follow safe installation guidelines can cause death or serious injury. In the Pulse
Mode, the Stop Input (Input function #11) must be held “Active” to prevent motion. If the
Stop Input is not held “Active”, you must stop incoming command pulses to avoid
motion.
Serial Interface
All FX drives are equipped with two RS-423 serial interface connectors which are signal
compatible and optically isolated. The serial interface has a DIP switch selectable baud rate
ranging from 110 to 19,200 bps (bits per second) and is connected using a simple three wire
hook-up: transmit, receive and signal ground.
Transmission is accomplished using standard, printable ASCII characters. The FX drive can
communicate over the serial interface with a simple ASCII terminal.
The serial cable should be shorter than 50 feet in order to comply with RS-232C
specifications. However, longer cable lengths can be used at slower baud rates (less than 4800
baud).
Serial A
All programming is done through the 9-pin “D” connector designated as “SERIAL A”.
Serial B
The basic FX drive also includes a second 9 pin, optically isolated, RS-423 serial connector
designated as “SERIAL B”, which is used for multi-drop networking to other FX drives. This
second connector cannot be used for programming other than in a multi-drop FX set up.
Multi-Drop Configuration
When using multi-drop configuration, the FX drive can automatically detect when there are
other units “down the line” and redirect serial signals to the other FX drives. The serial
commands are sent to the appropriate drives based on each drive’s axis identifier dip switch
settings. Each FX drive in a multi-drop configuration must have a unique axis identifier code
and must be set up for full duplex mode.