Xicom XTS-200C, Operation And Installation Manual

Page: 79 / 168

MNC-0500-010 7 Revision D
Solid State Power Amplifier Communication and Protocol
Protocol
Overview
Xicom digitally controlled devices monitor their serial and ethernet ports for
incoming messages and respond to messages as soon as they are
verified. Response time varies, typically less than 20 milliseconds.
Although devices will respond to messages with invalid parameters, they
ignore messages with invalid address bytes or check bytes.
Message Format
•
Commands, Queries, and Responses are formatted according to Table
1 “, Standard Packet Format, ” on page 9 and Table 2 “, Packet Format
(Redundant Controller — XTSC-100 Family),” on page 9
•
Messages are delineated using start and stop characters, followed by a
check byte.
•
The address byte allows a master device to selectively communicate
with individual devices that are sharing a RS-485 bus.
•
Each message has a mandatory message byte, followed by a variable
number of parameters. Some messages have no parameters, while
others can have many. The variable length parameter field is also used
to hold message responses.
•
For Ethernet only. Each message must be terminated with a carriage
return character (CR) or carriage return line feed character pair (CRLF.)
RS-485
Using RS-485, a master device can maintain status and control of multiple
devices, which share send/receive lines. Slaves may transmit only in
response to a command or query from the master. Each device is
assigned a unique address between 'A' and 'Z' to differentiate it from other
devices.
RS-485 device addresses are selected on rack SSPAs using the front
panel interface. They are selected on digital outdoor SSPAs using Xicom's
"wRemote" utility.
Note
If a device is not responding to your messages, check the RS-485 device
address.