User manual

ManualsBrandsEA ELEKTRO-AUTOMATIK ManualsPower Supplies & Mains AdaptersEA-IF-A1 Analogue-Interface

About the interface cards

 parallel Default: 1

={1..30} Set the position of the device in the system.

Example: one slave device is connected in serial to the ma-

ster and three additional slaves are connected in parallel to

that one slave. Those four devices in parallel have to be set

to 2 for the value serial and to 1...4 for the value parallel.

Also see the figure for another example:

Attention! The position serial=1/parallel=1 is dedicated

to the master and may not be set for a slave unit, which

won’t accept it anyway.

The SIO2 port also requires a termination if the slave unit is

at the end (one of the two ports is left blank). The termination

is set with this parameter:

 bus terminate Default: NO

= NO No termination.

= YES The SIO2 is terminated

7. Communication in detail

7.1 Terms explained

Telegram: Chain of bytes, with varying length. Is either sent

to the device or received from it.

Singlecast: Request or simple message to a single unit. If

devices are linked in a chain, like for instance at CAN, this

telegram is received by all units, but only accepted by the

adressed one. Only related to CAN.

Broadcast: Request or simple message to all units. This

means any unit connected to the PC, no matter if by USB,

CAN or RS232, is receiving this message at once. Only

related to CAN.

Multicast: similiar to broadcast, but only for a certain group

of units, address by the relocatable identifier (RID). Only

related to CAN.

Object: with its properties it describes the object address

and initiates defined reactions at the target unit.

Message: CAN specific data packet

7.2 Prologue

The communication protocol with its object orientated tele-

gram structure is very complex. It is thus recommmended

to use the ready-made LabView components, if possible.

The integration into other environments like Visual Basic, C

or .NET requires programming knowledge about the setup

and use of hardware interfaces like CAN or USB and the

adressing of its drivers. Here we only explain the structure of

the data packet (the telegram) and not how it is transmitted

correctly.

7.3 General notes about the communication

The firmware of the different types of devices is programmed

to consider any circumstances, as far as possible, that may

occur when controlling multiple units at once. Thus it is not

always possible to perform any action at any time and any

state of the device. For example, the data of the function

manager of the series PSI 9000 (see user instruction manual)

is only transmittable in standby state of the unit. Else an error

message would be returned, which is pointing the user to

the fact that the device is not in standby mode.

7.4 About the USB driver

The manufacturer of the USB-Chip on the IF-U1 card offers

two seperate drivers for Windows 98/ME, which are combi-

ned in one driver on Windows XP/2003/Vista. One of them

is a genuine USB driver, the other one creates a virtual serial

COM port (VCP) for every USB card, that is connected. While

using LabView to create custom applications, you need to

choose which driver you want to install on Win98/ME. If the

VCP driver is used and thus the COM port, you need to

place the RS232 communication VI for the USB card (on

LabView).

The implementation of the VCP driver is easier, but this driver

is more susceptible to communication problems and errors.

It also creates a new COM port for every USB card, which

complicates the port management and disables plug‘n‘play.

The USB driver requires the user to create own routines,

which handle the USB low level communication, in order to