Bronkhorst®
Instruction Manual FLEXI-FLOW™ Compact
9.17.158A
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4
Communication interface
4.1
Fieldbus communication
The power connector is equipped with a FLOW-BUS or Modbus RTU communication interface as ordered (see
).
FLOW-BUS
Digital Bronkhorst® instruments can be monitored and operated using the free
FlowWare
software tools for Windows.
These tools provide a graphical interface to the
protocol (used by FLOW-BUS), for monitoring and editing
parameter values.
The FlowWare toolkit provides functionality for monitoring and operating digital instruments (FlowSuite, FlowPlot) and
selection of the active fluid and configuration of the fieldbus connection (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:
Modbus
In a Modbus system instruments can be monitored and operated using third party software as a master device, such as
LabVIEW, ModScan, or a Modbus PLC.
4.2
Parameters
A summary of all digital parameters in this section can be found in the back of this manual.
This section describes the most commonly used parameters for digital operation of the FLEXI-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 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
[y]
Maximum value
FlowDDE
Parameter number within FlowDDE
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