Specifications

Crestron e-control Mail SW-MAIL
61 Appendices Installation & Reference Guide — Doc. 5798
Appendix B: Intersystem Communications and Signal
Space Considerations
The Send e-Mail SIMPL Windows
symbol is available from the
Crestron FTP site. Under
SIMPLWIN, look for “Library
update” (version equal to or
greater than that specified in
Leading Specifications” on page
11).
The DBMScroller SIMPL macro
is installed with SIMPL Windows
1.4. It is also installed into the
Modules folder. For use with
1.3, move the file to your currently
set user macros folder.
The Intersystem Communications
symbol is commonly known by its
speedkey name, XSIG.
The following discussion applies in general to all Crestron Software Server
components. Keep in mind while reading this section that use of the Intersystem
Communications SIMPL symbol is the most general approach for setting up
communications with the signal blocks defined in the server. To simplify the
control system side programming, be aware of the following alternatives to the
Intersystem Communications symbol:
For e-mailer signal blocks, we recommend the more specific Send e-Mail
symbol. Checking Using “Send e-Mail” SIMPL symbol in the signal block
definition constrains the definition to ensure compatibility with this symbol.
Likewise, Standard Scroller signal blocks can use the DBMScroller SIMPL
Windows macro.
Each active signal block exchanges data with a particular running in a control
system connected to the server. Typically, several signal blocks communicate with
the same control system, using several Intersystem Communications symbols. This
section discusses how to properly connect signal blocks to their target Intersystem
Communications symbols.
System Connections
Signal Blocks are connected to XSIGs through a physical connection (a hardware
communications port). The control system accesses the port through a driver. There
are different drivers for each kind of port:
System Protocol Hardware Port Serial Driver
RS-232
CNCOMH-2
plug in control card
A or B
CNCOMH-2
Two-way serial
driver
CNRACK
or
CNMS
TCP/IP Not available
RS-232 Built-in serial port
A
through
F
CNXCOM
Two-way serial
driver
CNRACKX
or
CNMSX
TCP/IP
CNXENET
direct processor access
(DPA) card
NET
Virtual
Communication
Port
RS-232
Built-in COM ports
or
3
rd
-party serial cards
COM1
through
COM8
PC
TCP/IP
Network Interface
(NIC) card
NET
Manufacturer-
specific
In all cases, the control system receives data as a serial data stream from the driver
and transmits data by sending a serial data stream to the driver. This is precisely the
kind of data the XSIG symbols use.