I have an application where I use a CR1000 with 4 RS232 serial sensors. To do this I use the main RS232 port and C1-C2,C3-C4,C5-C6 with those control port pairs set up as com ports using the serialopen etc.. commands in the program. This setup works well.
I purchased a CR1000X in order to upgrade and also to add more sensors but I am now finding that it looks like the CR1000X only has the ability to set up two of the control ports as RS232 com ports, is this true? If so, that means the max capability of the CR1000X is 3 RS232 sensors rather than 5 like the CR1000 which had the ability to use C1-8 and also the main RS232 port.
Can anyone tell me how I could connect 4 independent RS232 sensors to the CR1000X? I had tried using a
SDM-SIO4A module but never could get it to work with the eosGP sensors we use.
I can not use the CS I/O port for my application as it is already used for a radio telemetry connection.
Thank you for any info that confirms the number of RS232 ports available and any info on my application!
The CR1000X has the same number of available RS-232 ports as the CR1000 does. The CPI port can be configured as RS-232 if the datalogger program is not using it to communicate with CDM peripherals such as the VOLT-108. In addition, RS-232 ports can be configured to work on C1-C2, C3-C4, C5-C6, and C7-C8. On the CR1000X, the ports for C5 and C7 can also be configured as RS-485 or to work with different voltage levels. Finally, C5 can be configured to work as a full-duplex RS485 port (two sets of transmission lines) that uses C5, C6, C7, and C8.
One other option that is available is to attach one or more SC105 devices to the CS I/O port and configure these to use SDC addresses that do not interfere with any devices that you may already have attached to the CS I/O port.
Probably, the easiest way to see the available options is to connect to your CR1000X using the Device Configuration Utility and look at the "Com Ports Settings" tab under the "Deployment" tab.
Wow! Thank you! I am reprogramming things now and it looks like it might work. The issue was that with CR1000X programming, the syntax for the com ports has changed from eg. "Com2" to "ComC3" and thus my original program was giving errors. Then when I went to the CR1000X manual, on page 7 in wiring panel functions it specifies that RS232 is only available on C5,C6,C7,C8 and the CPI terminal. So, per your response, I will utilize the Com ports and change the syntax in the program and hope to get things working.
Thanks again for the advise and maybe the manual needs to be updated so that others are not fooled by the specifications table and will know that C1-2 and C3-4 can be configured as RS232 Com ports.