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Existing ax-mini frame running axcess with NI-700

jaygrovrjaygrovr Posts: 7
in AMX Technical Discussion
I have an upcoming project where I would like to add an NI-700 to my existing axcess mini cardframe to support the new touchscreens. The cards are all rs-232 cards in the mini frame. Is it possible to connect the mini frame to the new ni-700 using the axlink connection? If so, do I need to pull the master card from the mini frame? If I pull the master card would the axlink devices just use their addresses as configured by their dipswitches on each serial card? What would the definitions in the netlinx studio code look like for this?

Thanks

jason

Comments

  • GregGGregG Posts: 251
    You can't have 2 active masters on the AxLink bus, and since there is no way to disable the NI master, you'd have to pull the master card(s) in the old frame.

    This means having to rewrite, or at least update the old code to run in the NI instead. I've been forced to do a few updates and it is sometimes painful with variable names lining up with new netlinx keywords and such, so I'd vote for rewrite/update.

    The old devices would keep their dipswitched addresses in the NI code, but you would add an assumed port 1 plus system number for all of them.

    i.e. if the 232 cards were devices 1,2,3,4 etc then in the NI code they would become 1:1:0, 2:1:0, 3:1:0, 4:1:0 etc.
  • DHawthorneDHawthorne Posts: 4,584
    If the master in the mini frame is like the Axcent3, you can disable the master and put it in slave mode. You might want to look into that. Then it just pulls the device numbers off whatever you set the slave address to.
  • HedbergHedberg Posts: 671
    DHawthorne wrote: »
    If the master in the mini frame is like the Axcent3, you can disable the master and put it in slave mode. You might want to look into that. Then it just pulls the device numbers off whatever you set the slave address to.

    I've been wondering about that. The Axcent3 can be put into slave mode, but the master card on a regular Axcess card frame cannot. So, I just looked it up. The AXF-MINI takes an EM enhanced master card. Removing the master card turns it into an axlink "slave". There are dip switches for setting the device number. The regular Axcess card frame takes a card server, apparently the AXF-MINI does not.

    added: as to using the old axcess code on the new master -- we've done this several times without major problem. Just try compiling the code and editing so that errors go away and it will probably work fine just added to define_program. Rewriting code for some of the old devices (like Barco projectors and old Lectrosonics mixers) can be a pain, so if you can hold your nose while you do it, you might save yourself some grief. If the program works ok on the Axcess frame, it will be just fine running on an NI700 with a couple new panels added.
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