Cabling; Settings - AMX VISUALARCHITECT 1.1 Manual

Appendix A: Troubleshooting and Support

Cabling

Once you have a good indication from the TX LED:
1. Short pins 2 and 3 on the DB-9 or Phoenix connector on the port.
2. Send a command and watch the TX and RX (receive) LEDs. You should see both LEDs light when
each command is sent.
If only the TX LED is lighting, the unit is not sending strings and you should send it in for repair.
If both LEDs light up, move on to the next step.
3. Connect the cable that is going to the controlled device on the port and disconnect it at the terminal
(far) end.
4. Short the TX and RX pins together on the equipment end of the cable. This is usually pins 2 and 3,
but verify with the cable specs to be sure. Again, you should see both TX and RX LEDs illuminate.
If you do, remove the short and test again. The RX LED should no longer light.
If it continues, this indicates there is a short between TX and RX in the cable. Repair and re-test.
This test will verifies the continuity of the TX and RX wires within the cable, but does not
completely test the cable. The Ground conductor can only be tested using a meter.
5. Disconnect the cable at both ends and connect an ohmmeter to both the ground and RX pins.
6. Short these conductors at the terminal (far end) of the cable and watch the meter for continuity
readings. Also verify there are no shorts between any of the conductors when the ends are
disconnected.
AMX tries diligently to verify cable specs, but sometimes there are changes in equipment. It is not
unusual that TX and RX wires must be reversed to get the proper polarity. Try reversing these wires, but
replace them to the normal position if that does not help.

Settings

Once the cabling has been verified, the communication specifications must then be confirmed. These
specifications include: baud rate, parity, data bits, stop bits, and flow control.
Some AMX devices use DIP switches to configure baud, data, and stop bits (ex: Mio Moderos) whereas
some use software configuration. Confirm the setting by double checking the switch positions.
1. Cycle the switches to be sure they are firmly secured to their correct position. For software
configured ports, re-send the configuration commands.
2. Confirm with the equipment manual, what the default settings are for the controlled device. Some
devices can be changed, so be sure the default setting have not been altered.
3. You can test the actual output of the RS-232 port by connecting the port to a computer COM port
and using a Terminal Emulator to display the transmitted string to the screen.
4. For example, the Axcent3 port #1 can be connected to a laptop's COM1 port using a standard AMX
programming cable (FG10-727). This would be wired as follows; pin 2 to pin3; pin 3 to pin2; and
pin 5 to pin 5.
5. Send a string from the Axcent3 to the terminal program in HyperTerminal (configured at the correct
settings for the controlled device). Does the string display on screen? Is the information the same as
your code is sending?
If the string is received as you see it in the code, the system is working properly.
You may need to change the display mode in the terminal program. In the Studio terminal, you can
right click in the display area and choose Display from the menu. Select to display as ASCII,
Decimal, or Hexadecimal, depending on how you would like to view the strings.
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VisualArchitect v1.1