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Using VEE to talk to RS232 Hot Plate

Question asked by bOb.ng on Aug 1, 2011
Latest reply on Aug 4, 2011 by bOb.ng

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Hi, I'm planning to use VEE to communicate to a EchoTherm Programmable Digital Hot Plate Model HS40 via RS-232. This is not a IEEE-488 compliant device and therefore doesn't respond to SCPI commands like "*IDN?". It uses only simple single-lettered ASCII commands like "a", "B" or "c". I have successfully communicated with the hot plate using a USB-RS232 cable (COM4) and Windows Hyperterminal program with the following settings: 2400 Bauds, 8 Data Bits, 1 Stop Bit and No Parity.

My question is how do I get VEE to communicate with this hot plate via RS232? :?: I have tried using Instrument manager with I/O Libraries but wasn't successful. The Agilent I/O library couldn't even detect the hot plate.

Thanks for your help!

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changmeikuan Aug 3, 2011 8:15 PM

If Agilent I/O library is not able to see the hot plate, I guess VEE won't be able to detect it as well.
To continue to use VEE, I would think to use Active-X or .NET then. I have not did serial programming using that yet, not much hints on which DLL/class to use. Good luck.

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odanzy

Aug 3, 2011 8:33 PM

I've done something similar with a RS232 turntable. VEE should be able to still send commands to the device even though it is not IEEE compliant. The only issues I ran into was making sure all the lower level serial port settings were set properly in the device configuration in VEE and that the termination characters were set properly.

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bOb.ng Aug 3, 2011 9:50 PM

Thanks for the replies, Mei Kuan and Odanzy!

Odanzy, what VEE programming blocks did you use to talk to the RS-232?

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odanzy

Aug 4, 2011 9:29 PM

I mainly used DirectIO blocks. The key was making sure that the device's properties in VEE (e.g. baud rate, parity, etc...) matched the settings required by the device.

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bOb.ng Aug 4, 2011 10:52 PM

I managed to get it done by importing .NET System.IO.Ports Namespace, which contains classes for controlling serial ports.

One tip for those who are trying it, make sure you put some delay between your write and read blocks. If the delay is too short, you may end up reading nothing.

Thanks for all the feedback!

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changmeikuan Aug 3, 2011 8:15 PM
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If Agilent I/O library is not able to see the hot plate, I guess VEE won't be able to detect it as well.
To continue to use VEE, I would think to use Active-X or .NET then. I have not did serial programming using that yet, not much hints on which DLL/class to use. Good luck.
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odanzy Aug 3, 2011 8:33 PM
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I've done something similar with a RS232 turntable. VEE should be able to still send commands to the device even though it is not IEEE compliant. The only issues I ran into was making sure all the lower level serial port settings were set properly in the device configuration in VEE and that the termination characters were set properly.
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bOb.ng Aug 3, 2011 9:50 PM
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Thanks for the replies, Mei Kuan and Odanzy!

Odanzy, what VEE programming blocks did you use to talk to the RS-232?
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odanzy Aug 4, 2011 9:29 PM
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I mainly used DirectIO blocks. The key was making sure that the device's properties in VEE (e.g. baud rate, parity, etc...) matched the settings required by the device.
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bOb.ng Aug 4, 2011 10:52 PM
Mark Correct
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I managed to get it done by importing .NET System.IO.Ports Namespace, which contains classes for controlling serial ports.

One tip for those who are trying it, make sure you put some delay between your write and read blocks. If the delay is too short, you may end up reading nothing.

Thanks for all the feedback!
Like • Show 0 Likes0
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Using VEE to talk to RS232 Hot Plate

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