CN
19
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Serial Cable Construction
Operators should avoid installing serial cables next to high voltage lines and should prevent any foot traffic from
occurring over or across the serial cables. The serial cable should not be involved in a situation where damage is
probable, and operators who create their own serial cables should not exceed 100’. Serial cables that exceed 100’
require the assistance of line amplifiers, and
MultiCam
has tested lengths of serial cable up to 1000’ that utilized
serial line amplification.
The following is the pin out for the
MultiCam
serial cable. In both cases, Pin #9 is not used.
Computer End, DB9 Female
Machine End, DB9 Female
Pin #
Color
Pin #
Color
1
(not
used)
1
(not
used)
2
Red
2
Blue
3
Blue
3
Red
4
White
4
Black
5
Yellow
5
Yellow
6
Black
6
White
7
Orange
7
Brown
8
Brown
8
Orange
Serial Communication
The
MultiCam
Controller can communicate with a host PC through an RS232 Serial or Com Port. The serial
port transmits one bit at a time spread out serially over time. Since only 1 bit rather than 8 is transmitted at a time,
only 1 data line exists in the cable for each direction of travel with 2 lines total. A half-duplex allows only 1 data
line enabling communication in 1 direction at a time, while the full-duplex allows 2 data lines enabling
simultaneous communications in both directions. Thus, a serial port cable is thinner than a parallel port cable.
The port is called an RS232 port because the electrical characteristics follow the EIA Recommended Standard
#232, which specifies the operating voltage (± 12V), relative to a common reference. Other details, such as
impedance and driver capacity, are specified in this standard.
The controller’s default configuration for options within the standard is 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity, full-
duplex, and hardware handshaking. Baud rates supported are 9.6K, 19.2K, 38.4K, and 57.6K bits per second with
the standard setting being 19.2K.
The controller operates better when the device transmitting the motion commands obeys DTR hardware
handshaking. The sophisticated processing and motion firmware provides continuous motion under most
circumstances. In the event that additional processing time is required by the controller and the incoming
character buffer fills, the DTR handshaking line will go low to prevent further transmissions of commands from
the host PC. When the controller has processed enough of the incoming character buffer, it will then raise DTR
and the host PC will resume transmitting.