Watlow EZ-Zone PM ENET RS-485

I am having trouble talking to Watlow EZ-Zone PM controllers with labview.
I cannot get the ENET to RS-485 to show up in Max. I discovered that this is due to 64 bit windows? However I can talk to the ENET to RS-485 using VISA Resource Name: ASRL::xxx.xxx.xxx.xx::1::INSTR where xxx.xxx.xxx.xx is the IP of the ENET to RS-485.
I also tried using the Watlow driver however if I put the above resource name in for the PC Comms Port in the example included with the driver and try to initialize the port, I get the following error:
Error 1 occurred at an unidentified location
Possible reason(s):
LabVIEW: An input parameter is invalid. For example if the input is a path, the path might contain a character not allowed by the OS such as ? or @.
=========================
NI-488: Command requires GPIB Controller to be Controller-In-Charge.
I assume this is beacuse the ASRL::xxx.xxx.xxx.xx::1::INSTR is not a valid input to the Watlow driver.
Please let me know if you have any solutions. Thanks!
System:
Windows 7 64bit
labview 2011 32bit
Max 5.5.0f0
ENET to RS-485
Solved!
Go to Solution.

So I borrowed a USB to RS-485 from another project and got it working with the Watlow controllers. I also used Free Serial Analyzer to "sniff" the serial commands sent/received over the serial port. Here is what I found out:
Seems like the .DLL sets up the serial port with the following parameters:
Baud Rate=38400
WordLength=8
StopBits=1 stop bit
Parity=No parity
EofChar=0x0
ErrorChar=0x0
BreakChar=0x0
EventChar=0x0
XonChar=0x11
XoffChar=0x13
ControlHandShake=1
FlowReplace=64
XonLimit=2048
XoffLimit=512
ReadIntervalTimeout=4294967295
ReadTotalTimeoutMultiplier=0
ReadTotalTimeoutConstant=0
WriteTotalTimeoutMultiplier=0
WriteTotalTimeoutConstant=0
Then the .dll continuously sends a purge command:
Purge mask=TXCLEAR: Write requests
Followed by a write command:
55 FF 01 03 00 00 00 E4
This must be some kind of connection check?
When I try to read a value from the controller, in this case the controller at address 1, parameter 4001, instance 2, the DLL writes this:
55 FF 05 10 00 00 06 E8 01 03 01 04 01 01 E3 99
It then reads:
55 FF 06 00 10 00 0B 88 02 03 01 04 01 01 08 C2 09 D3 75 AA 85
Which is a float on the order of -100 (the value is bouncing around).
I tired sending the read value hex to the controller with VISA however, I never got a response.
Any ideas on how to re-engineer this driver/get it to work with VISA?

Similar Messages

Watlow EZ-Zone (R) LabVIEW Driver

I'm using the Watlow EZ-Zone LabVIEW Driver Example.vi to read the temperature of my Watlow controller with the "Parameter" set to 4001. Does anyone know how to find the Parameter to "SET" the temperature from the massive list "EZ-ZONE ALL Modbus register list in Excel" located on Watlow's website http://www.watlow.com/literature/manuals.cfm?prodmktcat=3&famid=15 ?
mcnearymw

Hi mcnearymw,
I will be glad to help you with any LabVIEW issues you're having, but this issue seems to be related to Watlow's documentation. It is possible that someone else on the forums is familiar with using Watlow devices in LabVIEW and can give you some advice. You may want to contact Watlow about this issue.
Good luck with everything!
Regards,
Jared R.
Precision DC Product Support Engineer
National Instruments

Watlow 96 Labview VI's

I need to control 2, 96 watlow controllers via a rs232 to 485
interface. I only have to be able to set several set points to do
calibration of sensors. Does anyone have a labview library for this
version of this controller.
Thank you very much in advance for any help

On 10/14/2010 8:42 PM, billsspace wrote:
> I need to control 2, 96 watlow controllers via a rs232 to 485
> interface. I only have to be able to set several set points to do
> calibration of sensors. Does anyone have a labview library for this
> version of this controller.
I've not used it, but the following might be of interest:
http://sine.ni.com/apps/utf8/niid_web_display.model_page?p_model_id=4598
http://www.morechemistry.com/labview/driver-watlow/series-96.html
http://www.morechemistry.com/labview/driver-watlow/watlow%20-%20basic%20driver.llb

Watlow 96 controller VI's needed

I need to control 2, 96 watlow controllers via a rs232
to 485 interface. I only have to be able to set several set points for
calibration of sensors. Does anyone have a labview library for this
version of this controller. Thank you very much in advance for any help.

Watlow has a LabVIEW driver. It's linked on the Instrument Driver Network.

Using MB Ethernet master VI with multiple Modbus devices

Hi,
I am not sure if this is the right place to ask this question; hope I'll get some help anyways. So, I basically have couple of Watlow EZ-ZONE PM controllers with ethernet and ModBus/TCP support. I am trying to talk to each of them using the MB ethernet Master Query VIs. However, since I need to talk to them simultaneously, I have them hooked up to my router. However, in that case, I am not being able to use the open TCP connection VI anymore, as there is no port no. to specify for that VI. I tried creating new VISA-TCP/IP resources through MAX, but i'm not sure how to use the VISA VIs to interface with the ethernet master VIs, as the latter need TCP refnums. Can anyone suggest some alternative in this case? Sorry, I am pretty naive about the networking features in LabVIEW and so any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

If you have multiple devices on the network that you are trying to communicate with, they all need to have unique ip addresses. You mentioned port number, but if your devices use the modbus, the port number have to be the same, which is 502.
Yik
Kudos and Accepted as Solution are welcome!

Temperature programming

Hello Experts,
I have Watlow Ez Zone temperature controller for lab furnace heater. Its been succesfully connected to the computer and i can give the setpoint and read the process value in Labview.
But i need to add the program in labview in a such way that there will be different temperature for different time intervals.
e.g. at 200 C hold for 4 hours then
go to 300 C and hold for 3 hours
go to 400 and hold for 4 hours and like that.
But i dont know how to start with that.
Please help me !
Best regards
Atul
Solved!
Go to Solution.

What you could do is using an array of clusters.
1) Create a cluster with 2 elements : Temperature ; Time
2) Create an empty array
3) drag the cluster into the array
Following you can fill out this array by the values you require :
200 hold for 4 hours then
300 hold for 3 hours
400 hold for 4 hours
After that you can apply this in a state engine.
As an example to get you started I set up a state-engine with some documentation, if you have any questions, just let me know
Kind regards,
- Bjorn -
Have fun using LabVIEW... and if you like my answer, please pay me back in Kudo's
LabVIEW 5.1 - LabVIEW 2012
Attachments:
OvenExample.vi ‏18 KB

TCP communication fails

I have a VI that communicates to six devices simultaneously over Ethernet. Three of these devices are on a serial port server so the PC recognizes them as serial ports and I use Visa Serial for this communication. The other connection is to a PLC. The problem is with the two watlow controllers connected via ethernet. After a couple hours of continuous run, the information from the Watlows gets garbled or fails completely while my other devices communicate just fine. If I stop and restart Labview the communications come back properly.
The program opens three TCP connections each to a different IP Address. then goes into two while loops. One while loop is faster and talks with the PLC. The other while loop is slower and talking to the Watlows. I use the same remote ports for all three and asked the customer to change them to be 502, 503, 504 but this caused an immediate loss of communications.
Anybody have any ideas? These are Watlow EZ-Zone controllers.
Attachments:
SIP Main Interface Beta IV.vi ‏535 KB

Hi Technics,
Did you try to use the Process Monitor from Microsoft to see why the communication hangs up ? There are many more programs that can be helpful, if you search for "procman" or "procmon. with those programs you can monitor the system and see waht goes wrong. also if your program uses NI-VISA. you can use NI spy to monitor the system.
Thanks and have a great day.

485 modbus communication with Watlow PM trouble

I have a Watlow PM that I can see over MAX now and using the EZ zone code can get manufacture info from. I also am using (for the first time) the add-on Modbus over serial tool from Saphire to try to write or read anything from it and I always get a "time out" error from the slave. I tried to do a simple VISA read as I found on some posts and I get the same time out error. It seems if I try anything from Labview I get this error. I even tried writing Hex to the thing with the same results. Can someone throw me a bone?
Solved!
Go to Solution.

There are a couple of free libraries.
http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/201711
https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-30140

Detection if ENET-485/2 if active in application

How can i detect if the ENET 485/2 device is active and i can connect to a port. When i request a connect, for example serial.open, and the ENET 485/2 is switched off, the detection time for testing if the port exist takes a long time.
Then i have to restart my computer when i want to connect it later, even when i had turned on the enet device by now.
What have i to do to prevent restarting my computer after a try to connect a enet device what is switched off?
Thanks so far.

Hi,
There was a more lengthy answer to a very similar question at http://exchange.ni.com/servlet/ProcessRequest?RHIVEID=101&RNAME=ViewQuestion&HOID=5065000000080000003C6F0000&ECategory=Instrument+Connectivity.GPIB . In the end, SanJay was correct, and a ping operation would work the best.
I am not sure why you would need to reboot to bring communication back up. It could be that DHCP is assigning the box a different IP. You should try refreshing the device list in MAX (Use the F5 command).
Hope this helps out!
Best Regards,
Aaron K.
Application Engineer
National Instruments

Drivers not loading on Windows XP for ENET-485.

I'm no dummy or I wouldnt have gotten this fare. Checking "device manager" and the "diagnostic utility" I cant seem to get my newly purchased NI-485 to work on my Windows XP machine for lack of recongnized drivers. I cant even fine the ".inf" file myself. Any ideas? Software package loaded just fine, several times.

Thanks for the kind reply. However I still have the problem, after a few weeks of hacking at I seem to understand what the problem is but I cant seem to fix it. I see it with the diagnostic utility, as it if fails identify the right ports, and I can see the ports assigned in the device manager, but the devices are failing to actually connect as a com port. Ie any programs cannot see the actual com port as the device mananger has them assigned. I've tried this on two different computers now,two different OS's same results. I'm convinced it's something I'm doing wrong on the set up.

Hi ALL, I need to control the temperature of a furnace. The Thermocouple ouputs are available as RS-485. What Hardware and system configuration should I prefer?

I need to automate the control of a gas carburising furnace. The available signals are Thermocouple K-Type (4 nos., one each from the three zones and one from the geometrical center of the furnace) and Oxygen Analyser. That makes it a total of 5 signals, all available in RS-485 format, which I need to acquire (10 samples/second) and then initiate a control action as per the rule base. Reliability is a major issue and the system has to work in harsh conditions.
What hardware would suit my purpose? I would prefer NI hardware which can be programmed via VB or VC++. LabVIEW may be considered as the last option.
Ap
art from using the thermocouple/Oxygen analyser signals for controlling it is also desired to store them on a PC for analyses and visualisation (via graphs etc etc)
My need is URGENT and would appreciate any help. Thanx in advance
Gurdas

Hi Gurdas,
I can give you some ideas to start with:
- a cheap solution - a rs232/rs485 converter(http://www.rs485.com/pconverters.html) and do the code in VB [you have to do both communication and data management)
- a medium solution - a AT-485 or PCI-485 NI board (I think that you'll get some NI libraries to control it from VB/VC++) [just data]
- a better solution - a LabVIEW or Measurement Studio with a NI 485 card in order to avoid wasting time with too much programming
- a much better solution - LabVIEW/Measurement Studio with an ENET-485 NI card (of course, you'll need a network passing by your lab :-))
Regarding harsh conditions, I think that rs485 allows you to stay far enough.
Hope this helps somehow.

How to use shared variables to address multiple Watlow controllers on the same COM port

Hello,
I am trying to use LabVIEW 2010 to control 4 Watlow temperature controllers on one COM port. 3 are Model 96 and 1 is an EZ zone controller. Each controller has a unique modbus address, and I am trying to read from and write to individual registers (such as closed loop setpoint) using shared variables. I am getting return data when reading (although the data appears to be invalid), but am unable to change the value in the register by writing. How can I be sure that the Modbus server is sending commands to the correct controller?
Chuck
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Peter,
Thanks for the reply. I have actually solved that problem. I realized that the Modbus server address has to be the same as the controller's Modbus address.
I have, however, run into another problem. Perhaps you could help me with that. I have a system with 4 Watlow controllers, 3 are series 96 controllers, one is PID only and 2 are ramping. The 4th controller is an EZ zone. I am using RS485 for communications and the controllers are all wired in parallel for communications and power.
I have set up 2 Modbus servers for 2 of the controllers.
This is the first I have ever worked with Modbus based communications. I have successfully programmed using the Modbus read/write VIs, and am wanting to move to shared variables. My questions right now revolve around addressing, Modbus I/O servers and COM ports. Specifically, at this point, I know the addresses need to match up between the server and the slave device (Watlow controller in my case), how many servers can I create and use on one COM port? If the number is limited, is there a way I can specify an address that I want the server to talk to? Will the broadcast mode work to request data values from the controllers?
I'd appreciate any information you can help me with, or if you could point me to some sort of concise 'How-To' for Modbus communication.
Thanks.
Chuck

While performing a loopback test, how do I determine wether the connection is RS-232 or RS-485?

I know that for the RS-232 loopback test I should short pins 2 to 3. For the RS-485, short the pins 4 to 8 and 5 to 9. I do this, but the only test that works is the RS-232 one. I was wondering if I had to specify for what connection I was performing the test. All help is appreciated, thanks.
P.S. All of this is for the D-sub 9 pin port.
I'm sorry for posting this message under the wrong topic. This probably has nothing to do with Field Point. Even so, if someone could help, I would really appreciate it.
-Sergio
Message Edited by s.garcia on 07-06-2009 11:28 AM
Solved!
Go to Solution.

I found this page in NI.com (http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/3450), where there is a diagram of the DB-9 pin definitions for both RS-232 and 485. It says that pins 4 and 5 are the recieving pins, and pins and 8 and 9 are the transmitting ones.
pin 4 -> Recieve +
pin 5 -> Recieve -
pin 8 -> Transmit +
pin 9 -> transmit -
Therefore the loopback test should be done by connecting pins 4 to 8, and 5 to 9.
Hope this helps you understand my confusion.
Thanks.

How is ENET-232/4 Supported Now that NI-Serial 14.0 has Removed Support for ENET?

Dear smarter people than me, I have been pulling my hair out trying to get my brand new ENET-232/4 units running under the lastest and greatest LabVIEW envirenment (2014).
After finding that none of the instruction matched what I was seeing in MAX etc, I discovered the following line in the NI-Serial 14.0 driver release notes;
Release Notes
Removed ENET support
NI-Serial 14.0 removes support for all NI Serial ENET Interfaces (ENET-232/2, ENET-232/4, ENET-485/2, and ENET-485/4).
So my question is if NI-Serial no longer supports or configures the ENET-232/4, then what does? At the moment I just have 5 rather exspensive boxes sitting on the shelf unable to be configured.
Smart brains please help
Dave

Hi Dave,
As per the NI-Serial 14.0 Readme, as you have already discovered, support for all NI Serial ENET devices has been removed. This is a result of the NI Serial ENET devices being discontinued. As mentioned by Michel_Gauvin, the NI Serial ENET devices can be used without the presence of the NI-Serial driver on the system. Instructions for using NI Serial ENET devices via the NI-VISA driver can be found in this KnowledgeBase. As a note, the ENET device will still need to be configured on a system that has NI-Serial with ENET support. My recommendation would be to stick with NI-Serial 4.1 for ease of use and configuration if you plan on continuing to use the ENET devices.
Michel,
Changes to your LabVIEW code could be required when moving to a 64-bit Windows operating system. One change that may be required is the "VISA resource name" input because MAX will not discover/show the NI Serial ENET device on the 64-bit OS, so if an alias was being used during development it would not be recognized when moved over.
Best,
Jake B.

Modbus Protocol Communication using RS 485

Hi all,
I am facing one problem while communicating with Radix Instrument using Modbus RS 485 Interface.can anybody help me in this,
The instrument which i am going to communicate is Radix ISOSCAN(16 Channel Temperature Scanner).
The instrument is having Modbus RS 485 interface facility.
To that instrument,RS 485 Configuration is there.And I am using RS 485 to RS 232 Converter for communicating with my PC.
I downloaded Modbus VI Library from NI and I programmed using Modbus VIs.
I got the instrument Register Addresses also.From this instrument,I want to read 16 channel temperature values.For this,in Modbus terminology we will call as Process Variables(PV).
For this,I used Read Input Registers(Function Code 04) and I have doubt in configuring Starting Address terminal of "MB Serial Master Query.vi".Because,here if we see the datatype of this terminal,it is U16.But if we see the Instrument register addresses,it is of floating point type.
Actually first of all I am not getting any out put from "Registers" terminal of "Modbus Master Serial Query.vi"
Actually as i have to read(Read Only) 16 channel Data from the instrument,and as per the link mentioned in ni "Introduction to Modbus" topic,
http://zone.ni.com/d...a/tut/p/id/7675
I selected "Read Input Registers" with Function Code "04".
As per the link above,If starting address is 40008,we have to give 7,If it is 40009,we have to give 8 ...
So as per the instrument register addresses,what i got from the instrument design people,Addresses are starting from 40001,
So I tried in the following ways
Test 1:
Following as inputs for "Modbus Master Query.vi",
1.With Read Input Registers
2.With Starting address as "0",
Test 2:
Following as inputs for "Modbus Master Query.vi",
1.With Read Holding Registers
2.With Starting address as 1 also,
But in both the cases I am not getting any value from the Registers terminal of "Modbus Master Query.vi"
Also i have gone through the link which is in ni developer zone forums,i.e.
http://forums.ni.com...uireLogin=False
Also i observed one thing while running the code anna,
I am using RS 485 to RS 232 converter for communicating with the instrument.
From this converter,there are two output terminals(TXD) and (RXD) with boolean indicators(one for the TXD and one for RXD).I think these are send and receive commands for serial communication(RS 232)
Observation is that,whenever i am running the code,the boolean which correspond to TXD is blinking,
But there is no indication from boolean of RXD.
I think,the code which is running in my PC is sending command but because of some reasons there is no reply(as there is no indication from RXD boolean) from the instrument.
I am thinking that the with the starting address what i am giving in the VI,its not able to search for the registers...,
Regarding RS 485 to RS 232 Converter,
In front end,one side, two terminals(D+ and D-) are connected to Instrument D+ and D- Terminals.
Another side,three terminals(230 VAC,Neutral and Earth) given supply Line,Neutral and Earth Terminals.
And in front end,9 Pin Female(RS 232) Connector is there and i used one Serial Female to Male cable for connecting my PC to the Converter RS 232 port.
Can anybody support me so that i can solve this problem...,
Regards,
Bujjin
Attachments:
Modbus Communication RS 485(8.2).vi ‏31 KB
RS 485 to 232 Converter Front View.JPG ‏12 KB
MODBUS-RS485-STD.pdf ‏128 KB

If you have a 32bit Floating point number (Single Precision) in your register than you must read to U16 number, concanate them by using the "join Numbers.vi and then typecast them into a Single Precisio. See the image Below for more detailed information.
I'm not sure if you are still having problems with this if you are please re post and we will be glad to help you
thanks
Regards,
CharlesD
Digital MultimetersSchedule a Free 1 Hour LabVIEW Tutorial with an NI Applications Engineer

Watlow EZ-Zone PM ENET RS-485

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for