Bronkhorst®
Instruction Manual ES-FLOW™ 1xxC
9.17.153A
23
6
Digital communication
RS-232 communication
Digital Bronkhorst® instruments can be monitored and operated via RS-232 using the free
FlowWare
software tools for
Windows. These tools provide a graphical interface to the
protocol, for monitoring and changing instrument
parameters.
The FlowWare toolkit provides functionality for monitoring and operating digital instruments (FlowPlot, FlowSuite),
selection of the active fluid and fieldbus configuration (if applicable). For instruments that support the definition and use of
multiple fluids FlowTune™ can be used to define and store fluids in the instrument and select the active fluid.
Digital instrument parameters are made accessible by
FlowDDE
, a Dynamic Data Exchange server (DDE) that handles
communication between the instrument and (dedicated) client software in Windows (e.g. FlowPlot). FlowDDE can also be
used by other client applications, such as Microsoft Office or custom made software, built with third party development
software like LabVIEW or a SCADA platform.
The FlowWare tools and associated documentation can be downloaded from the product pages on the Bronkhorst website:
For more information about communication through the RS-232 interface, consult the
Fieldbus communication
For information about parameter access and availability for Bronkhorst® instruments in a specific fieldbus network,
.
6.1
Parameters
This section describes the most commonly used parameters for digital operation of the ES-FLOW™. Descriptions are
grouped by category in tables as shown below:
Type
Access
Range
FlowDDE
FLOW-BUS
Modbus
[type]
RW
B
[x]…[y]
[DDE par]
[Pro]/[Par]
[address]/[register]
In this manual, parameter names are printed in italics (reverted to
normal
where embedded in italics, like in this tip).
Type
Unsigned char
1 byte unsigned integer (0…255)
Unsigned int
2 byte unsigned integer, MSB first (0…65535)
Unsigned long
4 byte unsigned integer, MSB first (0…4294967295)
Float
4 byte floating point, IEEE 32-bit single precision, MSB first
Unsigned char [x] x byte array (text string)
Access
R
Parameter value can be read
W
Parameter value can be written
B
Parameter is secured and only accepts values if parameter
Init Reset
is set to 'unlocked' first
Range
Some parameters only accept values within a certain range:
[x]
Minimum value of the range
[y]
Maximum value of the range
FlowDDE
Parameter number within FlowDDE
