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The Cortex relays are controlled from fields called
Controlled Output
, as seen below. These boxes are found in many of
the Cortex menus, particularly in the inputs.
To control a relay in one of the 4 ways listed above, use the following schemes:
1 – To command a relay as a follower, use the plain relay ID.
2 – To command a relay to pulse, add the letter P at the end of the relay ID.
3 – To command a relay to latch, add the letter L at the end of the relay ID (the relay must be RELEASED before it can be
activated again).
4 – To command a relay to be released: add the letter R at the end of the relay ID.
Important notes about relays
Any relay can individually be set with its own operating mode.
When a relay is set with a mode (other than ANY), the relay will only work for the mode for which it has been set. For
example, if a relay is set to Pulse Only, it would not be possible to latch it or force it on. One example of this setting could
be the Power-Up and Power-Down inputs on a high-power transmitter. If the transmitter can be damaged by applying a
constant voltage to these inputs, it would be wise to set the relays driving these inputs as Pulse-Only.
If you wish to use this safety feature, and not leave the relays as ANY, certain constraints must be considered. When a
relay is controlled by one or more inputs, the relay’s operating mode may not be changed other than by deleting the relay
from every input that controls it, then changing the relay mode, and finally reassigning the relay to the controlling inputs.
Therefore, when controlling relays from inputs, always begin by setting the relay’s operating mode according to system
requirements, and then using the relay as required from the inputs.
It is not possible to change the operating mode of an energized relay. To do so, turn off the relay.
When latching a relay, remember to later have a release command sent, otherwise stay latched forever (as long as the
Cortex is powered-up).
Before sending a command to a relay, make sure its operating mode has been set accordingly, otherwise an error message
will appear.
The screen refresh rate of the Cortex GUI on your computer is about two (2) seconds, therefore when looking at relay states
(and their associated colors) on your screen, it may not be apparent that the relay has pulsed or changed states. Keep in
mind that the Cortex’s operating cycle is very quick at about 100mS.
4.4.2.Virtual Relays
Virtual Relays behave - and are configured - exactly like Physical Relays, but there are two differences: their ID uses a
different letter (“O“), and the number of virtual relays available is 128.
Virtual Relays are ID’ed from 1O1, 1O2, 1O3, up to 1O128. The letter O stands for Output, even though it is “virtual”.
