Chapter 4
Installing and Using the FieldPoint Software
©
National Instruments Corporation
4-21
FieldPoint FP-1000/1001 User Manual
Using FieldPoint with an Optomux Server
The FP-1000/1001 supports many of the commands of the standard
Optomux protocol, so it is possible to communicate with the FieldPoint
hardware using an Optomux server. This may be appropriate for an
application where you are integrating FieldPoint into a system that is
already using an Optomux server, or if you are using FieldPoint with an
operating system not compatible with the other software options
provided with your FieldPoint software. (The FieldPoint software does
not include a generic Optomux server.) The FP-1000/1001
Programmer Reference Manual has detailed information on the
protocol used by the FP-1000/1001, including which standard Optomux
commands are supported and which are not. It is also a reference for
working with the ASCII protocol directly. However, a general overview
of using FieldPoint with Optomux servers is provided here as a guide.
• Standard Optomux commands do not allow for the configuration of
hardware settings, so you must use FieldPoint Explorer to set your
hardware settings (such as are set in Step 7 in the
section, earlier in this chapter). If you
make these settings the default power-up settings for the hardware
(as described in Step 10 of that section), the FP-1000/1001 network
module always powers up the I/O modules to these settings, so you
do not need to run the FieldPoint Explorer more than once to
configure your network module.
• The Optomux address of the FP-1000/1001 network module is the
network address set by the switches as described in Table 2-1,
Network Address Switch Settings for the FP-1000/1001, in
Chapter 2,
Hardware Installation and Configuration
. The
Optomux address of the I/O module in the first terminal base
attached to the network module is one plus the address of the
network module, and so on. In most cases you do not need to
communicate with the network module, expect perhaps to change
watchdog timer settings.
• Optomux analog data contains only 12 bits of resolution and is
usually represented as an integer from 0 to 4095. Data that is
returned from a FieldPoint analog channel has its minimum value
represented by 0 and its maximum value represented by 4095. In
some cases Optomux data may be represented by integers from
4096 (representing the minimum value of an analog channel) to
8191 (representing the maximum value of an analog channel).