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Installation and Configuration Manual 39
Using ADView and ProLink II
Installation Using ADView and ProLink IIElectrical ConnectionsIntroduction Installation Using ADView and ProLink IIElectrical ConnectionsIntroduction Installation Using ADView and ProLink IIElectrical ConnectionsIntroduction Installation Using ADView and ProLink IIElectrical ConnectionsIntroduction
To run the simulation, choose Options > Simulate board response from the menu bar and choose
the appropriate densitometer option. Then, click on the
OK buttons, as necessary, to return to the main
ADView screen. When simulation is chosen, ADView ignores the serial port and supplies simulated
data. However, you do still need to click on the
Communications Setup button followed by the
Connect button. Then, click on the OK buttons, as necessary, to return to the main ADView screen.
Setting up serial communications
To operate with a real Modbus device, you will need to connect it to a suitable power supply (see the
technical manual for the device) and need a connection to a serial port on the PC. Full details for
connecting to the Modbus (RS-485) link on the meter are in Chapter 4.
ADView automatically configures the selected port with the correct settings for the device. For the
meter, this is 9600 baud rate, 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit, and Xon/Xoff (software) flow control.
Note for Windows NT users
An interesting feature of Windows NT is that it does not allow the RTS line to be toggled directly; any
attempt to do so will result in a crash or other problem. Unfortunately, some RS-485/232 converters
require RTS to be toggled. To overcome this difficulty, ADView reads the OS environment variable to
determine whether the operating system is Windows NT. If it is, ADView does not toggle RTS, and
you will need to use an RS-232/485 adapter which automatically switches the data direction without
using RTS.
To set the OS variable, click on the
Start button, then choose Settings > Control Panel. Click on the
System icon, and select the Environment tab. A list of environment variables and their values is
shown. If OS does not appear in the list, type ‘OS’ (no speech marks) in the
Variable text box, and
‘Windows_NT’ (no speech marks or spaces) in the Value box.
To check whether the link is working, you can use the auto-detect facility in ADView. Select the
correct PC port, and then click on the
Connect button in the Communications dialog box. ADView
will set the port communications parameters, and then attempt to establish contact with any Modbus
devices connected to the serial link, within the address limits set in the dialog box.