Serial Controller

Sepasoft MES Module Suite

Serial Controller

The serial controller ihandles serial communications and parsing functions to provide instrument device communications. The component is invisible in runtime meaning that this component appears during design time only. The serial component helps to send and receive information from RS-232 devices. 

In design time, the last raw data received from the communication port can be sent to the selected template defined by the Instrument Interface Name by right clicking on the component in the Ignition designer and selecting the Send to Template menu item. This will also select and display the template and replace the existing textual data with the last raw data received.

In runtime, if the Instrument Interface Name property is set, raw data received from the serial communications port will be sent to the parsing engine on the gateway to be parsed. The template used to parse the raw data is named the same as the value of the Instrument Interface Name property.

Component Palette

Component Properties

Properties are provided that can be set to affect the operation and look of the component. They can be set through the Property Editor in the Designer or through scripting.

Example

Copy Code
Python
results = event.getParseResults()
if results != None and results.isRequiredValid():
 reading = results.getValue("reading")
 event.source.parent.getComponent('Numeric Text Field').doubleValue = reading.getValue()
 event.source.parent.getComponent('Sample Entry').populateMeasurement("Viscosity", reading.getValue(), 1)
else:
 system.gui.messageBox("Error reading value from instrument.")


Port Config

Name Scripting Property Type Description
Port portName String Name of the system serial port to use.
Baud Rate baudRate int Serial communication baud rate.
Auto Open Port autoOpen boolean If true, automatically open the serial port.
Instrument Interface Name instrumentInterfaceName String Name of the instrument interface configuration name to use.
Clear Buffer Before Send clearBufferBeforeSend boolean Clear the receive buffer before sending data.
Correct CRLF correctCRLF boolean Correct any combination of end of line characters to carriage return (CR) and line feed (LF).
Default Read Timeout defaultReadTimeout int Default number of milliseconds to wait while reading.


Request Handling

Name Scripting Property Type Description
Encoding encoding String Character encoding.
Unsolicited Requests unsolicitedRequests boolean If true, accept unsolicited requests from the device.
Enable Polled Requests enablePolledRequests boolean If true, requests are made at a fixed timed interval.
Polling Rate pollingRate int Interval in milliseconds to issue poll request.


Logging

Name Scripting Property Type Description
Enable Capture enableCapture boolean If true, write all received and sent data to a capture file.
Capture File Path captureFilePath String File path on the local computer to create the capture file.


Port Status

Name Scripting Property Type Description
Serial Module Loaded serialModuleLoaded boolean If true, the serial module has been installed and is loaded.
Serial Port Open serialPortOpen boolean If true, the serial port is open.
Last Data Sent At lastDataSentAt DateTime Date and time of last data transmission.
Last Data Received At lastDataReceivedAt DateTime Date and time of last data received.
Error Message errorMessage String Error message.


Event Handlers

Event handlers provide the ability to add custom script when a user interacts with a component.

parse

onBeforeParse

Is fired before raw data is sent to the parsing engine to be parsed. This provides a method for the raw data to be modified before being parsed. It can be useful to remove unwanted characters or merging more data into the raw data before parsing.

Property Description
.source The component that fired this event.
.data Modified data to send to the parsing engine.

onAfterParse

Is fired after the raw data has been parsed.

Property Description
.source The component that fired this event.
.parseResults Object containing all the values that were parsed from the raw data.
.data Parsed data.


Code Snippet

Copy Code
Python
results = event.getParseResults()
if results != None and results.isRequiredValid():
 reading = results.getValue("reading")
 event.source.parent.getComponent('Numeric Text Field').doubleValue = reading.getValue()
 event.source.parent.getComponent('Sample Entry').populateMeasurement("Viscosity", reading.getValue(), 1)
else:
 system.gui.messageBox("Error reading value from instrument.")

serialPort

onOpen

Is fired when the serial communication port is opened.

Property Description
.source The component that fired this event.
.errorMessage Is fired when an error occurs on the the serial communication port. The errorMessage property can be read to get the error message.
.stringData The string data read from the port.
.byteData The byte data read from the port.


onClose

Is fired when the serial communication port is closed.

Property Description
.source The component that fired this event.
.errorMessage Is fired when an error occurs on the the serial communication port. The errorMessage property can be read to get the error message.
.stringData The string data read from the port.
.byteData The byte data read from the port.

onSend

Is fired when data has been sent to the port.

Property Description
.source The component that fired this event.
.errorMessage Is fired when an error occurs on the the serial communication port. The errorMessage property can be read to get the error message.
.stringData The string data read from the port.
.byteData The string data read from the port.


onReceive

Is fired when data has been received from the serial communication port.

Property Description
.source The component that fired this event.
.errorMessage Is fired when an error occurs on the the serial communication port. The errorMessage property can be read to get the error message.
.stringData The string data read from the port.
.byteData The byte data read from the port.


onPoll

Is fired when the serial communications port has been polled for data.

Property Description
.source The component that fired this event.
.errorMessage Is fired when an error occurs on the the serial communication port. The errorMessage property can be read to get the error message.
.stringData The string data read from the port.
.byteData The byte data read from the port.


onError

Is fired when an error occurs on the the serial communication port. The errorMessage property can be read to get the error message.

Property Description
.source The component that fired this event.
.errorMessage Is fired when an error occurs on the the serial communication port. The errorMessage property can be read to get the error message.
.stringData The string data read from the port.
.byteData The byte data read from the port.


 

Extension Functions

This component does not have extension functions associated with it. 

Custom Methods

Custom methods allow you to add your own component functions to a component that can be called through scripting. This is a useful and clean method of re-using script that is specific to the component (say you want to update a visual aspect of the component in the same way whether a user clicks on the component or a window property value changes). See Component Custom Methods in the Ignition Help Manual for more information.

Customizers

This component does not have any custom properties.

Component Functions

This component provide the following functions that can be called on it. If this component has been dropped onto the windows root container, the path and an example call would be event.source.parent.getComponent('Serial Controller').openPort().

openPort()

  • Description

Attempts to open the port. If an error occurs the errorMessage property will be set and an exception will be thrown.

  • Parameters

None

  • Return

Nothing

  • Scope

Client


closePort()

  • Description

Attempts to close the port. If an error occurs the errorMessage property will be set and an exception will be thrown.

  • Parameters

None

  • Return

Nothing

  • Scope

Client


writeString()

  • Description

Write value of the text parameter to the communication port. If an error occurs the errorMessage property will be set and an exception will be thrown.

  • Parameters

String text - The text to write to the port.

  • Return

Nothing

  • Scope

Client


writeBytes()

  • Description

Write value of the data parameter to the communication port. If an error occurs the errorMessage property will be set and an exception will be thrown.

  • Parameters

byte[] - The byte array to write to the port.

  • Return

Nothing

  • Scope

Client


readString()

  • Description

Reads and returns string data from the communication port. If an error occurs the errorMessage property will be set and an exception will be thrown. If no data is received within the default timeout setting, then an empty string will be returned.

  • Parameters

None

  • Return

String data - The data read from the port.

  • Scope

Client


readString(timeout)

  • Description

Reads and returns string data from the communication port. If an error occurs the errorMessage property will be set and an exception will be thrown. If no data is received within the value specified in the timeout parameter, then an empty string will be returned.

  • Parameters

Integer timeout - The time in milliseconds to wait for a response from the port.

  • Return

String data - The data read from the port.

  • Scope

Client


readBytes(count)

  • Description

Reads and returns byte array data from the communication port. If an error occurs the errorMessage property will be set and an exception will be thrown. If the number of characters specified by the count parameter are not received within the default timeout setting, then any characters received will be returned.

  • Parameters

Integer count - The number of bytes to read from the port.

  • Return

byte[ ] The data read from the port.

  • Scope

Client

readBytes(count, timeout)

  • Description

Reads and returns byte array data from the communication port. If an error occurs the errorMessage property will be set and an exception will be thrown. If the number of characters specified by the count parameter are not received within the value specified in the timeout parameter, then any characters received will be returned.

  • Parameters

Integer count - The number of bytes to read from the port.

Integer timeout - The time in milliseconds to wait for a response from the port.

  • Return

byte[ ] The data read from the port.

  • Scope

Client


readUntil(delimiter, includeDelimiter)

  • Description

Reads and returns string data from the communication port up until the character specified by the delimiter parameter. If an error occurs the errorMessage property will be set and an exception will be thrown. If the delimiter character is not received within the default timeout setting, then any characters received will be returned.

  • Parameters

Char delimiter - The delimiter to read until.

  • Return

boolean includeDelimiter - If true the delimiter will be included in the return value.

  • Scope

Client

readUntil(delimiter, includeDelimiter, timeout)

  • Description

Reads and returns string data from the communication port up until the character specified by the delimiter parameter. If an error occurs the errorMessage property will be set and an exception will be thrown. If the delimiter character is not received within the value specified in the timeout parameter, then any characters received will be returned.

  • Parameters

Char delimiter - The delimiter to read until.

boolean includeDelimiter - If true the delimiter will be included in the return.

Integer timeout - The time in milliseconds to wait for a response from the port.

  • Return

byte[ ] The data read from the port.

  • Scope

Client

clearBuffer()

  • Description

Clear all data existing in the communication port receive buffer. If an error occurs the errorMessage property will be set and an exception will be thrown.

  • Parameters

None

  • Return

Nothing

  • Scope

Client


isSerialSupported()

  • Description

Determines if the client serial module is loaded and available to be used with this component.

  • Parameters

None

  • Return

boolean True if serial support is available.

  • Scope

Client


parseText(templateName, text)

  • Description

Parses the given text by using the template of templateName.

  • Parameters

String templateName - The template to use for parsing the text.

String text - The text to be parsed.

  • Return

ParseResults - A ParseResults object (see ParseResults object for information about accessing parsed values contained in the parse results.)

  • Scope

Client


Sepasoft MES Module Suite