Command syntax for PR4000B

[Stepann]

Hi, i've seen in this forum that many people had problems to "comunicate" with MKS PR4000. But still, I'm not able to take the advantage from discussed problems concerning comunication with mentioned device. Thus, I really appriciate if you can give me any suggestions or help to solve the problem which i present bellow.

I have PR4000B with single-channel which controls one barotron trancducer. I'm trying to comunicate with PR4000B via serial port (RS232). The problem is that i really trying (like trial-and-error), because the manual from MKS for sending the command to PR4000B is very bad understandable for me (and even not only for me, as i could see from forum on NI) as well as the answer from PR400B. I produced the simple program for reading the measured value by barotron (command representing by ASCII character $). If i compare value displayed on the PR4000B with value displayed in my program indicator "Measured value"), they are different. The program and manual are attached.

Please, could somebody give me a suggestion what I'm doing wrong?

Thank you fo your reply in advance.

Stepan 

[BZajec]

Dear Stepan,

 I can't help you much with this, I guess you had a look of this thread:

http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/MKS-PR4000-CONTROLLER-driver-for-labview-8-6/td-p/1130469/page/2

  I have PR4000F  and manual for it.  For this device communication is very simple and easy to understand. No cryptic commands.   I was hence very surprised when I learned that also other versions of PR4000 exist, having complitely different command structure.

best regards,

 Bojan

[Stepann]

Hi Bojan,

you are right! I was also suprised that other versions of PR4000 have complitely diferent command structure! I have some experience with programing controller for stepping motors (ISEL C142-4) and there was NOT any problem with command syntax.

Thank you for the link, however i studied it before and was't more "wise" from it (the program sent by DenisL isn't working - by the way, it's pretty messy due to PR4000 comunication protocol).

Anyway, thank you for your suggestion! 

[Stepann · Accepted solution]

The problem is solved! 

Afterwards I wasn´t able to decode the comunication with PR4000B single channel I wrote to MKS technical support. They were very kind and reply to me.

They admit that (as Andreas Meier from MKS wrote to me): "The remote communication with the PR4000-Single Channel and PR4000-Dual Pressure Channel is indeed a bit difficult to attain. When we developed these PRs we were very limited with regards to capacities of ADDA converters and of course memory."

And this is very important message: "To ease things at least a little bit the very first command to the PR should be " %1 ". This will tell the PR to accept ASCII-letters; If you don't send the command the PR will only accept binary signals." This is not stated in manual for PR4000!!

After sending the command   " %1 " the communication with PR4000B is really easy! E..g. if you want read a measured value, write command "$" (ASCII) and from "read bufer" string indicator for function VISA read.vi the actual value measured by PR4000B is displayed. Then, it is not difficult task to convert it whatever want, moreover you can easily check if the output from PR4000B is correct. 

I'd like to express my thanks to Andreas again and hope that this information will be helpfull for somebody else!

Stepan 

[kumuch]

Hello Mr.stephan,

                         Thank you for posting regarding PR4000B. I was tried to communicate PR4000B with LabVIEW. i struggled so many days due to improper command syntax for PR4000B which is given in the manual but after i seen your post only i am able to communicate with my instruments. Really you gave very important useful information who are all using the PR4000B instruments. 

[Jake787]

Would you be able to send me the working code for the PR4000B? Thank you!

[Jake787]

Would you be able to send me your code for the PR4000B? Thank you!