Spirit II User’s Manual
Appendix B: Serial Communication
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Appendix B: Serial Communication
Initializing the Spirit System
The Spirit system uses an RS-422 serial communication port located on the rear of the
plasma console to receive and respond to commands that are transmitted from an x/y
controller. The communications ground is isolated to prevent ground loops. System
initialization is simple. Apply power, wait until the plasma console has finished booting,
then transmit the desired material type, material thickness, and optionally the process
(cutting or marking) and the system will be ready for operation. All other parameters will
be set to their default values and may be changed at any time.
Transmitting Parameters to the
Spirit System
To transmit parameters to the Spirit, convert the following hex strings to 8 bit binary
arrays (AA = 10101010) and transmit them using a 9600 baud RS-422 serial
communication port. The port settings should have a start bit, one stop bit, and no
parity. A table can be found in this section that lists the RS-422 commands and their
descriptions. This table contains the necessary hex strings for sending different
commands and parameters to the system. For example, to switch the material type
from mild steel to stainless steel, look up the command for setting material type in the
table. You will see the following table entry:
Command
# Hex String
Additional Information
Set Material Type
1 AA nn FA 01 00 -- 0D 00 = Mild Steel – Hot Rolled
01 = Stainless Steel
02 = Aluminum
03 = Other
04 = Mild Steel – Cold Rolled
Note that spaces in the command string are shown for clarity only and should not be
sent as part of the command. A command string always begins with the value AA hex.
The “nn” is the net node (communication node) of the Spirit system that is to receive the
command. The net node value of a system is set via the Set Communication Node
selection on the maintenance screen. See Section 4 for detailed information on setting
the net node. The value FA hex is the Spirit identifier. The value 01 hex is the value
that signifies the Set Material Type command. The value 0D hex is the end of
command character. In the above example, the following hex string would need to be
transmitted to switch the material type to stainless steel for a Spirit system on node 1:
AA 01 FA 01 00 01 0D
To send a parameter, the parameter value needs to be sent as part of the command.
For example, to send a desired cutting pierce time of 1000 milliseconds to the system,
