Using RS232 with Parker/Compumotor Zeta 6104

[Bill_5335]

Has anyone used  RS232 to communicate with a Parker / Compumotor Zeta 6104 indexer driver?  I will be using a maximum of 3 axis.

My goal is to use the RS232 port on the Zetas so I don't have to by a motion board and the UMI interface.

Thanks,

Bill

[AnalogKid2DigitalMan]

Isn't the 6104 a standalone controller AND drive? Thus no need for a motion card. They also ship with Motion Architect software which is the basic gateway to communicate, tune, download, and set up GUI's I believe.

[Bill_5335]

Yes, the 6104 is a stand alone.  I have used Motion Architect from Parker, but I was hoping to use Labview (via RS232) instead of Motion Architect for programming.

[AnalogKid2DigitalMan]

POBA

I have no experience (yet) with LV direct to Parkers controllers, and limited experience with the 6K series (no Zeta). Try searching this forum for compumotor, you may find some relevant info to assist. Have you searched Parker's site for downloads and FAQ's?

Good Luck

AK2DM

[Scott_R]

Hello,

Depending on what type of serial control signals your drive requires there may be several ways to control it through NI software. If the serial connection to the drive is only used to transmit string information with coordinates for the next move, then you could use VISA functions to send strings to the drive from LabVIEW. In this case, a control algorithm must be in place on your drive.

 If your serial port requires that the control algorithm for the motion system be implemented on the PC, then you would need to use the NI Softmotion software to develop your own controller through the serial port. The major downside to this is going to be that the serial communication will be strictly software timed. So all updates that are transmitted across the serial port will be dependent upon the loop rate of your program.

Regards,
Scott R.
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

[ybeoje]

hey, i bought new zeta 6104 and it comes with the software cd and i install it successfully. unfortunately i wasn't able to connect via rs232 connection.i tried to another PC and the result is the same.anybody who knows why?

thanks..

[Bill_5335]

Did you buy the 6104 from the manufacturer or distribnutor?  My experience has been that the local sales engineers are very helpful.

Try switching the transmit and receive lines at the 6104.  Are you using Motion Architect from Compumotor?  If I rmember right, you need two screens open within Motion Architect; Terminal and Editor.  I think Editor will show something when you power up the 6104.

Good luck,

Bill

[cebailey]

I'm using LV to talk to a 6104 and it's working fine. I'm sending and receiving ASCII strings using VISA and not even using Motion Architect.

The whole Series 6000 product line can do whatever it does using only ASCII strings back and forth, with nothing else but LV on a PC and a serial port connection. You can write 6000 Language programs into the 6104 over serial and call them by name over the serial link to execute them, or write them and associate them with pins on the IO connector and drive the pins to execute them, or send individual motion commands from LV to 6104, without any programs loaded into the 6104 and all the logic happening inside LV (though the timing depends on LV's execution this way).

Could there be a startup program already loaded into the 6104? If there is, it may be trying to finish executing that and ignoring the serial port. If you send it a !K command it will kill execution of that program and start listening to you again. You can then send it an ERASE command and it will erase all its stored programs. I got several 6104's recently that had been used elsewhere and had startup programs - AFAIK new ones will not have any but not sure.

Also, you want your PC's serial connection to not use any handshaking. The 6104 has no handshaking lines, and while it can use XON/XOFF handshaking over TX and RX, by default this is off.

The 6104's serial connection can be turned off. I think you have to send it an E command to turn it on again. Again, I don't know why this might be in the wrong state on a brand new 6104.

You might try sending RESET and watching for what comes back. You should get about 3 or 4 lines of text. You have to wait maybe 5 seconds for this to come back to you before you send anything else - if you send it things while it is RESETing I think you can confuse it.

Good luck.

[cebailey]

One more thing. The 6104 has two serial ports, and by default the second one is set up to operate an RP240 remote panel. Use the first one to talk to the 6104. The first one is closest to the top of the chassis.

[Bill_5335]

Would you be willing to share a simple motion VI so I can try this on a 6104?  If not, can you recommend an ASCII VI (from NI) that will get me started?

Thanks,

Bill