1.80 Brainbox-EDxxx

This page describes the device driver and the device window for the Brainbox ED series data acquisition module family. The device driver monitors and controls the digital inputs/outputs of various Brainbox EDxx modules. It supports:

• ED004 - 4 digital inputs/outputs
• ED008 - 8 digital inputs/outputs
• ED024 - 4 digital inputs/outputs
• ED588 - 8 digital inputs/outputs
• ED516 - 16 digital inputs

It was tested with a ED-508

• SW Version: 6.15

The driver does not support: ED-527,ED-538,ED-038 modules.

The Brainbox-EDxxx device driver is part of the sat-nms framework for M&C of plain digital I/O functions. Monitoring alarm circuits or controlling waveguide switches are indicatives for applications of this framework.

The application configuration normally does not access the Brainbox-EDxxx device driver directly.

There are a couple of application level logical devices (e.g. Input , Output or WG-Switch ) which may use the Brainbox-EDxxx device driver as a low level driver to access the physical I/O ports.

Input ports

The variable inputs.0 refers to the input ports provided by the device. The least significant bit denotes the state of DI0.

The variable reports the physical state if the input. A bit is set to '1' if the input is open or externally driven to high level. The bit reads '0' if the input is connected to GND or externally driven to low level.

Output ports

The variable 'outputs.0' reports the actual state of the digital outputs and also sets the output states. The least significant bit in the variable corresponds to output DO0.

Configuration settings

If used with the sat-nms framework for M&C of plain digital I/O functions, the Brainbox ED module acts like an unprogrammed PLC device. It is intended, that the device driver processes switch settings and changes of input circuits as fast as possible. The following settings are necessary to achieve this:

• When defining the device in the device setup window , there must not be defined any other devices beside this module for this interface.
• The Brainbox ED modules are controlled through Terminal-CR-CR protocol. The device's IP address must be set as an interface name like with serial devices controlled through a network terminal adapter: "aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd:9500" where 9500 is the standard TCP port number.
• The IDLE time for the interface must be set to 200 msecs for a fast response of the driver.

The unit has to be configured to use ASCII protocol with the following settings:

• Address 1 (Hex 01)
• Checksum = Disabled

Device window pages

The following table shows which device window pages are available with this individual device type. Tool-bar functions not mentioned here are described at the general description of device windows .

• --- Shows / commands I/O port states.
• --- The faults page.
• --- The device info page.
• --- The maintenance page. The configuration parameters described below are set at this page.

Configuration parameters

At the maintenance page of the device window there are a couple of configuration parameters which must be set to make the software talk to the device.

Variables defined by this device driver