cFP newbie

[Methis Elddir]

I plan to use CompactFP for my first time on an upcoming project.

There are 6 particle counters being used for a clean room environment.
Data will be collected from the devices over a RS485 bus from a cFP-2020.

I would like to have one or more client PCs receive pseudo-RT data from
the cFP-2020 over ethernet.

What are my options for this when using LabVIEW with cFP controllers? I
plan to download a LV-RT app but I'm not clear on which data server
technology to use. I suppose these are my options:
1) data socket server
2) tcp/udp client/server
3) LV client apps directly query the RS485 devices

Thanks!

[Tiptop]

Hey Methis,


You seem to be right on track with your three options listed. You can use DataSockets, but do not forget that cFP has a built in OPC server that you can read values from. From inside of LabVIEW, you could create a graph, right click and go Data Operations-> DataSocket Connection. From this dialog you can browse Measurement data and then navigate to your cFP system, as long as the system has been added in MAX. Then you have a graph that reads from the cFP system OPC server.

As well as this solution, you could program DataSockets in LV-RT or you could write your own TCP/IP or UPD client server application. Also you could use the RS-232 ports that you are not using to send data to the client computers.

Hopefully this gives you an idea of
what you can do.

Have fun writing the application and Good Luck!

Justin Tipton
National Instruments

[Aaron_G]

Justin,

Your answer is slightly misleading. The OPC Server resides on the host computer and is part of the NI-FieldPoint installation. When you use DataSockets to browse to the OPC Items that were configured via NI-FieldPoint, you are configuring the system to use the OPC Server that resides on the host computer and not on the cFP controller. The FP and cFP controllers do not have OPC Servers built into them. The host computer (NI-FieldPoint Server and OPC Server) communicates with the cFP system via the NI ethernet protocol.

DataSocket, in addition to communicating via OPC, DSTP, HTTP and FTP can also communicate using the NI Ethernet protocol. In this way, you can actually use DataSocket to speak directly to the cFP module as described in the fo
llowing KnowledgeBase Article. http://zone.ni.com/devzone/conceptd.nsf/webmain/A6617392B393C4B886256ACB0053AEBE?opendocument

Regards,
Aaron

[Methis Elddir]

Thanks Aaron and Justin,

This looks like great info. Heading to work right now but I'll do some
more reading in the areas you spoke of. I'll probably come back with more
questions...