RJE Posted May 14, 2012 Share Posted May 14, 2012 Greetings My PC water cooling project is finally coming to an end, need some more LJ U3's and design DF layout and scripting. Its only taken a year but kept me off the streets. So I'm starting to plan my next mega project. What I always wanted to do was build modules using PIC24H micro's. Each one would do a combination of specific tasks such as temp, wind, humidity, door open etc etc. Then have all of these modules on a network, say maybe RS485 and DF act as a master and poll each one for their data. I know I could use LJ U3's but that would have the USB limitation and there would no fun in building/programming the hardware. Can DF do this? Thanks RJE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AzeoTech Posted May 15, 2012 Share Posted May 15, 2012 Certainly, and I actually just got off the phone with someone else using that PIC with DAQFactory. I'll tell you what I told him: if I was doing it, I'd try and implement ModbusRTU on the PIC. This would give you open connectivity with a wide variety of software and other devices. If you create your own proprietary protocol, it might take a little less time to implement, but won't be nearly as flexible, and will likely be harder to extend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJE Posted May 15, 2012 Author Share Posted May 15, 2012 After giving your answer some thought that makes really good sense. If I can do it and even though most of the PIC devices I would make, there may be a ready made unit that I may want to add that uses RTU. Great advice. Now I know you are not a fan of USB to serial units - with my current system using a SeaLevel unit & DF I've had no problems as long as I follow a specific procedure when I have to do a reboot. I saw your response to one thread telling them to use Ethernet to serial, what about a serial PCI or PCIe card? I would have to do some homework on the Ethernet to serial. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AzeoTech Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 Well, if you are going to use USB to serial, use a unit from SeaLevel, not a cheapy $20 unit off the web. At least if reliability matters. PCI or PCIe based serial cards are just fine. They appear like they are motherboard serial ports and do not require additional software. This is the big issue with USB -> serial: you have to install driver software. You don't for PCI/PCIe or serial to Ethernet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJE Posted June 20, 2012 Author Share Posted June 20, 2012 Greetings Well I've been doing some homework on the PIC24 and even have a programming kit coming from Microchip but this is going to be a long project. In the mean time, I know and like the LJ U3 and have several signal conditioning boards already designed for it. The question is how to get around the USB connection limitation? Would the UE204 USB over IP Server / Hub from B&B Electronics work with DF? I'm still reading the manual for it. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AzeoTech Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 No idea. You'd have to try it, or at least ask LabJack. Also, have you considered the L2E from Netburner (www.netburner.com). Low cost, relatively easy to program, has I/O already and an ethernet jack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJE Posted June 26, 2012 Author Share Posted June 26, 2012 The fine folks over at LJ say they have used the SX-2000WG unit from Silex, which seems to be the same type of thing. Although I'd use the wired unit. They say it works fine using the LJ Control Panel - so the next question would be will DF also work. Guess I'm going to cough up a couple hundred to find out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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