Formal Documentation for Industrial Relay Controller 8-Channel SPDT

Products
1

Hi,
I am in the need to of the full formal documentation (datasheet and full command set) for:

Industrial Relay Controller 8-Channel SPDT
SKU: ZUXPR85PROXR

I am looking for a pdf like, similar to an engineering family reference manual or datasheet.

1.- I need to know how to identify the 4 relay vs the 8 relay by the EEPROM identification?.

2.- And also need to know what the timers will exactly do. (arguments and return description?).

The reason is that I need to add a safety check (redundancy). For example: Turn ON relay via command. Then start a timer in my own code, then on expiration of 10 seconds, it will turn OFF the relay via command, but also, I need to start a timer inside the relay controller firmware, so the relay firmware turns itself back to off in 10 seconds (redundancy). This is in case the computer gets a blue screen and no longer can turn off relays.

I work for a company as firmware engineer. Personally I like how they have tutorials and tons of quickstart guides. These work great for the younglings that are getting into this. (they even have libraries to help you out do thigs quick). But professionally, all that info is not helping. I need the bare metal so I have full control of the project, not to mention the company project codebase is confined to its own rules and regulations, I cant simply add a third party library like the quickstarts suggest.
Therefore we use are own virtual comm port driver to do exactly and only what is needed. Which I need a reason I need engineering -like documentation. (huge pdf).

This product looks really good and I like the website, its clear they have invested a lot to make it user friendly, its full of DYI like examples for home or school project experiments.

But I just cant the find the right documentation that I need. I see snippets for some commands but wont cover for all questions I have.

Hope somebody can help.
Israel

2

I found the documentation. Its part of the Base Station software. When you are playing with it. it provides you a link as a quick start guide " NATIONAL CONTROL DEVICES ProXR Enhanced Quick Start Guide"

Which has the info that I need.

Now, I only need to know if there is a command or eeprom register so I can tell a 4 relay board apart from a 8 model board. (I need two separate ones and I need which one is which.). (I will keep looking).

3

  1. It is not possible to distinguish a 4 and 8 relay board. Both devices utilize the same firmware.
    This guide outlines all EEPROM memory which can be accessed to gain more information about the connected board:
    EEPROM Memory Map Quick Start Guide - ncd.io

  2. Relay timers are covered in this guide:
    ProXR Quick Start Guide - ncd.io
    If there is something about the timer commands you are not sure about please let me know. Duration timers simply turn relays on for a specified duration. Pulse timers will turn the relay on for approximately 1/4 second after the timer expires(often used for reboot applications if a computer locks up). I recommend experimenting with the timers in the Base Station software to gain a deeper understanding.

4

Travis thanks a lot for the clarification. and for the guides. I will put them to use.

Ok, I just read in the eeprom memory map that Location 9, gives the interface type. I have a RS-232 controller, and it reads me back 0, which matches the documentation. I al waiting for a another relay controller which I ordered with USB controller. That means it should return 03 to Address 09. I think I will use them to tell them apart. right?

As a last resort I will have to use the eeprom scratch pad. but I hope the hardware interface -identification works so I can keep the devices as “stock” as possible.

Thanks again.

5

In previous versions of firmware we had a different version of firmware for every communication interface type(USB, RS 232, Ethernet, etc). All interface devices use the same firmware now so I cannot say for certain that the interface type register will be different between devices. You can check but I don’t believe it will be accurate. Scratch pad or the COM port number on the computer may be a better alternative to identify the connection type.