Monitoring a Watlow F4 Controller

Hey Everyone,
I have an ESPEC humidity chamber that uses a Watlow F4 controller. I am using this to run environmental tests on a device. Ideally I want to monitor the conditions inside the chamber and my device in the same VI. So far I have been having trouble communicating with the chamber using labview. It is using a serial port on the chamber and a serial to USB converter on the PC side. I have created a small Vi that will just act as a chamber monitor for me. I have attached the monitor VI below. It doesn't sense the chamber at all and give me the set points or current conditions. Any help you guys can give would be greatly appreciated!
Regards,
PChemist
Solved!
Go to Solution.
Attachments:
ESPEC Monitor.vi ‏162 KB

I am not familiar with Hyperterminal. I was searching around and found this from another company who uses these contollers from the same thing.
http://chamber.testequity.com/rs232.html
RS-232 Troubleshooting
Tips for TestEquity Chambers
We receive many calls
each week regarding RS-232 communication issues. There are several
issues which must be addressed in order to communicate successfully
with the chamber. With thousands of chambers in the field, we have
never had a verified case of a bad serial interface in the controller.
Below are several of the most common communication issues.
Are you
using the correct cable?
The DB-9 connector is wired to accommodate a null-modem cable. A null-modem
cable has pins 2 and 3 swapped on each end. You CANNOT use a straight
through cable.
Is the baud
rate set correctly?
All TestEquity chambers
shipped since mid-2003 have the baud rate set at 9600. Older chambers
have the baud rate set at 19200. The baud rate of the controller MUST
match the baud rate in your communications program. The baud rate is
changed in the controller's Go to Setup\Communications menu. You may
require a password to enter the Setup menu. If so, call TestEquity to
get the password.
Does your
software communicate using the Modbus RTU protocol?
To communicate with
the controller from a PC, you need to run software that uses the Modbus
RTU protocol. You CANNOT use Hyperterminal.
Modbus Registers
Each controller
function has a "register" number which can be read or written to (when
applicable). These registers are listed Chapter Seven of the Series
F4 User's Manual (pdf, 4M) .
Common Modbus
Registers
The actual chamber
temperature reading is Modbus register 100 (Input 1 Value).
The static temperature
set point is Modbus register 300 (Set Point 1).
The temperature
set point during a profile is Modbus register 4122 (Set Point 1,
Current Profile Status).
The decimal points
are implied. For example, 1005 is actually 100.5 and -230 is -23.0.
The Digital Output
1 (Event 1) function is Modbus register is 2000
It appears that I can't use Hyperterminal for testing with the F4.
Since is says that I cannont use a straight through cable I wired up a quick cross over adapter ( http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/websearch/1EE0DD8AF67922FA86256F720071DECF?opendocument&Submitted&&... ) and tried it. I am getting error codes for function in MAX now. Do you guys know if the F4 requires Handshaking? I didn't wire that into the adapter, just pins 2, 3 & 5.

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