Using Serial Control Plus

Serial Control Plus is an application that comes pre-installed on all JNIORs. It allows you to connect either serially or through TCP to a JNIOR, and give it commands to activate the JNIOR’s I/O. This post will explain how to setup and use Serial Control Plus on your JNIOR.

As mentioned before Serial Control Plus is already pre-installed on all JNIORs. To activate it, you need to go to the JNIOR DCP. This can be accessed by either right clicking the JNIOR in the JNIOR Support Tool and going to Tools/Open Web Page, or by typing the JNIOR’s IP address into the URL of your computer’s web browser. Once on the DCP, you’ll go to the applications section on the configuration tab and click the checkbox next to Serial Control Plus and reboot your JNIOR. This will allow you to use Serial Control Plus on that JNIOR.

Configuration tab for the JNIOR Web Page

Once you have activated the Serial Control Plus application on your JNIOR, you can now send commands to the JNIOR through it. We are going to open the command line from the support tool to activate commands on this JNIOR for this example. To open the command line from the Support Tool, you’ll go to the Tools bar at the top of the Support Tool and select Command Line.

Command Line button on Support Tool

Once you have the command line open, you’ll need to configure the settings of the command line to send commands to the JNIOR. To have the right settings to communicate with the JNIOR, we need to select how we communicate to the JNIOR. Serial Control Plus can communicate with the JNIOR two ways. Either you can connect to the JNIOR with a serial connection or a TCP connection.

To connect serially with the JNIOR, you need to plug a serial cable into the Aux Port of the JNIOR. Once you do that we need to select the correct settings in the command line window. As in the picture below, next to the connect button for the connection type you’ll select COM, baud type is 9600, Data bits is 8, Stop bits is 1, Parity is none, and hardware/software is set to none. For the Option drop-down, select all the choices.

serial settings for JNIOR telnet session

To connect through TCP, you just need the JNIOR to be on the network to connect. As in the picture below next to the connect button for the connection type you’ll select TCP/IP, you’ll set the JNIOR’s IP, and the Port to connect on is 9202. For the Option drop-down, select all the choices.

TCP settings for JNIOR telent session

Once you’ve decided on your connection type and configured the command line accordingly, you should be able to send commands to the JNIOR. Here are commands for controlling and monitoring I/O.

Controlling I/O

The following commands can be used to close, open and pulse outputs.

cX: Close the output (relay is “on” closing the contact)
where x = 1 through 8 for the internal relay outputs on the JNIOR
and x = +1 through +8 for the external relay outputs on the 4 Relay Output Expansion Modules

oX: Open the output (relay is “off” opening the contact)
where x = 1 through 8 for the internal relay outputs on the JNIOR
and x = +1 through +8 for the external relay outputs on the 4 Relay Output Expansion Modules

p=yyy Pulse duration (milliseconds) and is used in conjunction with the ‘close’ or ‘open’ command


Examples:
c2p=1000 close output 2 for 1 second and then open again
c+2p=1000 close output 10 for 1 second and then open again
o3p=10000 open output 3 for 10 seconds and then close again
c* Close all outputs at the same time (includes internal and external)
o* Open all outputs at the same time (includes internal and external)


These commands can be abbreviated and used in combination, such as:
c1 close relay output 1
c+1 close relay output 9 (first output on first expansion module)
c+5 close relay output 13 (first output on second expansion module)
c1+1+5 combination of the above all in one command
c1234 close relay outputs 1 through 4
c1368 close relay outputs 1, 3, 6, 8
o125 open relay outputs 1, 2, 5
c1+1p=1000 close relay outputs 1, 9 and pulse each for 1 second simultaneously

Monitoring I/O

Whenever an input (or output) changes status (low-to-high or high-to-low), the following is sent out by the JNIOR:

INx=1 Input x (1 – 8) has gone high (on)
OUTx=1 Output x (1 – 16) has gone high (on)
INx=0 Input x (1 – 8) has gone low (off)
OUTx=1 Output x (1 – 16) has gone low (off)


The default setting for the Registry Key AppData/Serial_Control/SendCounts is false. If you change this key to true and reboot, with each message stating the input status, a count value will also be included. Whenever an input changes status (low-to-high or high-to-low), the following is sent out by the JNIOR:

INx=1,yyy Input x (1 – 8) has gone high (on), counter value = yyy
INx=0,yyy Input x (1 – 8) has gone low (off), counter value = yyy


Note: These monitoring messages are sent out individually over the serial port or Ethernet. The JNIOR does not report the status of more than one input/counter in the same message.

With this, you should now be able to use Serial Control Plus to control and monitor a JNIOR’s I/O!

By | Updated On November 3, 2023 1:05 pm | No Comments | Categories: | Tags:


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