communicating with serial peripherals via cFP 2120

[sandrino82]

Hi, I'm using a cFP 2120 for taking measurements from RTD's and I connected the cFP to my PC using an ethernet cable. Since I have to read data also from a temperature controller which communicates using a serial port RS232, I want to know if I can plug it to the cFP, and how can I configure it with MAX or read from LW.
Thanks
sandrino82

[Kimberley]

Ciao sandrino82,

you don't have to set any particular configuration on MAX to use your serial instrument in the cFP. It works the same as when you plug a serial instrument into the pc. You'll see the COM port, which you can check, and communicate with, maybe using a LV example (serch for "serial" in the example finder).

Hope this helps!

Best Regards

Raffaella

[Wayne.C]

I have several applications that do this very thing.

You can use the RS232 port on the cFP to talk to your instrument.   There are a couple of issues to consider.   The cFP does not have a VISA Server in it.  That means that the cFP can't make the COM port available to the network.  The cFP COM port must be accessed by a vi running on the cFP and the data passed on to the remote PC.  The COM port should always be fully configured by your vi.  There is no need to use MAX.

Can you describe your existing software?  Does it include a host and target?

[sandrino82]

The problem is that with the VI with which I take temperature data, I have to call the "create tag".vi, which asks for comm resource, item and channel; with the serial port in cFP there is nothing similar. I don't think I can use a VISA as the cable was connected to the PC.

[Wayne.C]

What version of labview are you running?

[sandrino82]

8.0

[Wayne.C]

This application will require 2 programs that communicate with each other using shared network variables.  One vi runs on the cFP as an embedded executable.  The  vi on the cFP handles the COM port communications and publishes the data using a shared network variable.  The other vi runs on the host pc and reads the shared network variable to get value returned from COM port.