P
As the title says, we have an environmental chamber with a Watlow F4D controller in which we had a computer connected with an RS232 cable and a LabView based program in which we could monitor and/or control the temperature and humidity of the chamber.
When we needed to add a DAQ card, we got a new computer with that capability, but it didn't have a serial port (it has a motherboard header, but no port). We added a PCIe serial port card with a 16950 UART.
On the old computer, the controller shows up with the LabView program and Watlow's WatView software no problem. Same cable on the "new" PC, both the identical LabView program and WatView can not detect the controller.
I have read through the F4 manual and various documents on UARTs.
Because the controller can be detected on the old computer, but not the new one, using the same cable, using Watlow's software, I have to conclude it's some sort of com port setting (or weird windows thing or some BIOS thing). I should add, both computers run XP SP3, the "newer" computer just runs it better.
For the time being, we have a thermocouple in place to read the chamber temperature and we're running profiles on the controller itself, but it's a bandaid solution.
When we needed to add a DAQ card, we got a new computer with that capability, but it didn't have a serial port (it has a motherboard header, but no port). We added a PCIe serial port card with a 16950 UART.
On the old computer, the controller shows up with the LabView program and Watlow's WatView software no problem. Same cable on the "new" PC, both the identical LabView program and WatView can not detect the controller.
I have read through the F4 manual and various documents on UARTs.
Because the controller can be detected on the old computer, but not the new one, using the same cable, using Watlow's software, I have to conclude it's some sort of com port setting (or weird windows thing or some BIOS thing). I should add, both computers run XP SP3, the "newer" computer just runs it better.
For the time being, we have a thermocouple in place to read the chamber temperature and we're running profiles on the controller itself, but it's a bandaid solution.