Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

From: Tech-talk <tech-talk-bounces at aps.anl.gov> On Behalf Of Goetze, Kurt via Tech-talk
Sent: Monday, October 30, 2023 5:21 PM
To: Mrinal Bera <mrinalkb at uchicago.edu>
Cc: Tech-talk <tech-talk at aps.anl.gov>
Subject: RE: Cannot do successful RS-232 communication with baud rates <2400 with VME and IP module

From: Mrinal Bera <mrinalkb at uchicago.edu>
Sent: Monday, October 30, 2023 5:15 PM
To: Goetze, Kurt <goetze at anl.gov>
Cc: Tech-talk <tech-talk at aps.anl.gov>
Subject: Re: Cannot do successful RS-232 communication with baud rates <2400 with VME and IP module

On Oct 30, 2023, at 4:47 PM, Goetze, Kurt <goetze at anl.gov> wrote:

 

Hi Mrinal,

 

ioc3idb in sec.3 is running a LakeShore330 at 1200 baud, using the VME/IP-Octal.

 

Mostly these days we use Moxa “device servers” to run RS232 ports, I see some examples of the LakeShore330 being run this way here.

 

Just as a longshot, what company built your IP-Octal-232 modules?  Did these come from the old supplier (SBS?), or did they come from an “Artisan” type company that does re-pops of legacy hardware?  If the latter, I would be suspicious.

 

IIRC we actually moved away from the IP-Octal-232 in favor of an Acromag (IP520?) board, towards the end of our VME era.  These days much prefer a Moxa.

 

Kurt

 

 

 

From: Mrinal Bera <mrinalkb at uchicago.edu> 
Sent: Monday, October 30, 2023 4:15 PM
To: Goetze, Kurt <goetze at anl.gov>
Cc: Tech-talk <tech-talk at aps.anl.gov>
Subject: Re: Cannot do successful RS-232 communication with baud rates <2400 with VME and IP module

 

Hi Kurt, 

I checked the setup with two IP-Octal-232 modules, and they both showed similar behavior. I have been using Lakeshore so far but with soft IOC using on a Raspberry Pi computer. This is the first time I am trying to interface it through VME and the IP-232 module. Can you tell me which beamline at APS is using Lakeshore through VME?

 

Thanks,

Mrinal 

On Oct 30, 2023, at 3:08 PM, Goetze, Kurt <goetze at anl.gov> wrote:

 

Hi Mrinal,

 

Your loopback test results suggest a hardware problem to me.  Have you tried the test using a different (or new) IP-Octal-232 card?  Also, I would send more and different characters, to see if any patterns or other failure modes emerge.

 

LakeShore 330’s have been used here at the APS, at 1200 kbps, from what I can tell searching through ioc setup files.

 

Kurt

 

From: Tech-talk <tech-talk-bounces at aps.anl.gov> On Behalf Of Mrinal Bera via Tech-talk
Sent: Monday, October 30, 2023 1:32 PM
To: tech-talk at aps.anl.gov
Subject: Cannot do successful RS-232 communication with baud rates <2400 with VME and IP module

 

Hello,
While configuring RS-232 communication through XM-octal breakout boards with TVME-200 (with IP-Octal serial module) and MVME3100 using EPICS 7.0 and vxWorks-6.9.4, I did some quick tests with asynRecord. I found the following:
1) With loopback communication(when I sorted the 2 and 3 terminals of the RS-232 ports) with the baud rates of 2400 and above, I received the same input and output values (as shown in the 1st attached image). That shows that RS-232 communication is OK.
2) With the baud rate of 1200, the Output and Input values of asyRecord are different (as shown in the 2nd attached image). I suspect either the tyGSModule or TVME-200 with IP-Octal Serial board has some issue with communication baud rates below 2400.

When I checked the IP-Octal Serial module documentation I found the baud rate information as ‘Programmable in 18 steps to 34.8kbps’. I dug further into the information regarding the baud rate of the chip used in the module (i.e SCC2698B). I found that the chip supports 26 fixed baud rates from 50 to 38.4kbps. Hence, I think 1200 kbps should be supported by the chip and IP-Octal Serial module.


I need the baud rate of 1200kbps to interface the Lakeshore 330 temperature controller with EPICS on VME hardware. Did anybody try to interface Lakeshore 330 with VME and IP modules?


Best regards,
Mrinal

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