ASI Communication Protocol (Serial)

Create a new device

To create a new device, select ‘Tools’->’I/O Devices’ or click the icon in the toolbar.

The following picture shows the first step in creating a new device.

I/O Device Name: Assign a device name. This name will be used in the tag configuration window of the database, accompanied by the ‘Station Name’.

Select a device type

Device Type: ASI Communication Protocol

After selecting the ‘OK’ button in the previous step, the ‘Serial Communication Configuration’ dialog box will appear as shown in the picture below:

In this window, select ‘ASI Communication Protocol’ as the device type and configure the remaining communication parameters. Ensure that these parameters match with the PLC configuration. See the Communication Configuration section for more information.

Local ID: Designate the host address of the Xpanel in this window. Choose a 16-bit value between 1 and 65535. There are reserved address ranges that cannot be used by the Xpanel or DDC. Please refer to the DDC manual from ASI Controls for more information about this address.

Create a station

Move to the ‘Station’ tab of the ‘Serial Communication Configuration’ dialog box.

In this dialog box, the connected PLC stations can be configured and registered to the Xpanel. Each field can be configured with the following rules.

Station Name: Give a name to the PLC. This name will be used in the database window, accompanied by the ‘Device Name’.

Station Type: Choose the type of connected PLC. Only “ASIC“ is available.

Station No.: Specify a decimal number between 1 and 65535. This number must be matched with the node address of the DDC.

16-Bit Data Swap: This option swaps bytes for all word- or double-word-sized data. The following diagram shows an example of byte swapping.

Almost all data types will be influenced by this option except INT8 / UINT8 / BCD8 / UBCD8.

32-Bit Data Swap: This option swaps words of all double-word-sized data. The following diagram shows an example of word swapping.

Tag values with data types INT32 / UINT32 / BCD32 / UBCD32 / FLOAT will be influenced by this option.

String Data Swap: Swaps the upper and lower bytes of string word data.

Using CheckSum: This field has no effect; the ASI communication driver always uses a check-sum.

Comm. Error Message Pop Up: If this item is checked, Xpanel displays a communication error notification message for every Rx and Tx error. Otherwise (unchecked), Xpanel does not display the message for communication errors. Only when there is a data transmit error (writing a tag value to the station) will the notification message pop up. The message box will close automatically after 5 seconds.

Object

O[ Obj No ].[ Size ].[ Index ].[ Attribute ](:Bit No)

Table

T[ Table No ].[ Offset ](:Bit No)

Obj No / Table No

Designate the object (or table) number for the data. Please refer to the object definition of the connected DDC for more information.

Size

Designate the data type. It can be 1 (BYTE) or 2 (WORD).

Offset

Designate the byte offset within the table.

Index

Designate the assigned index number within the given object.

Attribute

Designate the attribute number of the data.

:Bit No

Designate the bit number. This bit address notation is used for digital tags. Note that tags with this bit number only can be read. That is, digital tag writing is not supported by the ASIC protocol driver.

The bit number must be within the range of the data size. In the case of a table (T) or object (O) with size 1 (BYTE), the bit number can be between 0 and 7. For tables or objects with size 2 (WORD), bit numbers can be between 0 and 15.

Address Examples

Address

Description

O33.2.0.0

Object 33, WORD, Index 0, Attribute 0

T10.0

Table 10, Byte offset 0

O32.1.0.8

Object 32, BYTE, Index 0, Attribute 8

O3.2.11.0:0

Object 3, WORD, Index 11, Attribute 0, Bit 0

Tag Data Type

ASIC DDC supports two types of data: BYTE and WORD. If the data type of the tag is larger than 16 bits, Xpanel will automatically read or write the corresponding bytes. For example, if a tag of type UINT32 starts at address T1.2, Xpanel will read T1.2, T1.3, T1.4 and T1.5 to assemble the UINT32 data.

RS-422/485