Serial Ports Settings - Clarity SN-4610-1080 User Manual

3.5 Advanced Options

3.5.4 Serial Ports Settings

This applies only if you use RS232 commands to control the Bay Cat.
If you wish to control Bay Cats remotely with RS232
commands from a computer, read this section. Other-
wise, skip it.
Bay Cats can be linked together for RS232 using
straight-thru 8-conductor cable with RJ-45 connec-
tors. This is the common type of LAN connection
cable, not null-modem, sometimes call Cat-5 cable.
Adapter from computer to RJ45
At the computer end, you will need an adapter to
go from the computer's 9-pin serial output connector
to a female RJ45 connector. Electronics stores have
these ready-to-wire types. Buy one with a female
9-pin sub and connect the wires as shown.
Wiring the adapter
To go from 9-pin D-sub serial connector on the back of
the ccomputer to an RJ45 connector, use a standard
RJ45-to-9-pin adapter. Wire it internally as shown. The
wiring shown for this adapter is correct for straight-thru
cables. Straight-thru cables are wired 1-to-1, 2-to-2,
etc.
Yellow wire
Black wire
Green wire
RJ45
6
5
3
3 2 1
5 4
9 8 7 6
Connect all the Bay Cats together through their
RS232 ports: from the computer to the first Bay Cat
RS232 IN; from the first Bay Cat RS232 OUT to the
next Bay Cat RS232 IN, etc. It doesn't matter what
order you string them together. Most RS232 signals
easily travel up to 150 ft. (50 m) between Bay Cats.
58
pin 3
pin 2
pin 5
9-pin
3
5
2
female 9-pin
Setting the ID
Each Bay Cat in the RS232 series needs a unique
ID so it can be individually addressed. The ID is in
two parts, Group ID and Unit ID. Each of these has a
range of 0–9, A–Z. This range results in 1296 possi-
ble addresses.
You can group the Bay Cats by using the same let-
ter or number of the Group ID, such as 8. In this way
you can address the group as 8*, and all the Bay Cats
in the string that have Group ID 8 and any Unit ID
will execute the command. See the RS232 program-
ming guide for Bay Cat (part number 070-0108-02 or
later) on www.ClarityVisual.com/login/.
1. Click the lower, blue button.
2. Use the name "tech" and password "help".
Response type and terminator
The ASCII Response Type determines what type
of data will be returned to the computer. For human
readable text in a serial program choose Symbolic. For
computer-read data you can use Numeric or Data
Only.
The ASCII Response Terminator will be deter-
mined by what you serial program wants to see at the
end of every transmission from the Bay Cat.
Baud Rate must be the same as that used by the
controlling computer. The baud rate is not automati-
cally set, as it is with modem communications. It
must be manually set here and at the computer to
match each other.
Diagnostics for RS232
The Fans & Diagnostic Values menu has two
items that concern RS232:
• Last RS232 Packet Type will usually be Operation
or Event, but it might be Error.
• RS232 Packets Received is a counter of the num-
ber of messages received by this Bay Cat, whether
they were addressed to it or not. It is not resetta-
ble. It counts up to 32767 and then wraps to 0.