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TRIAC 1986 Baud Rate DIP Switches
Posted: Thu 16 Nov , 2006 16:12 pm
by hpdrifter
Hi
Can anyone tell me precisely on the PCB where the baud rate DIP switches are and what configuration relates to 9600.
I wish to change this to try and increase the program upload speed.
Posted: Thu 16 Nov , 2006 18:42 pm
by davidimurray
I've probably got something somewhere as I have done it before - give me a few days to have a look. Ours is set to 9600 and it will still take about 40min to download and fill the memory.
Posted: Fri 17 Nov , 2006 12:28 pm
by hpdrifter
Hi
Can you explain why it takes about 15 min to upload a 700 block program to the machine and only something like 20 Sec to download a program of similar size?
Regards
Posted: Fri 17 Nov , 2006 12:28 pm
by hpdrifter
Hi
Can you explain why it takes about 15 min to upload a 700 block program to the machine and only something like 20 Sec to download a program of similar size?
Regards
Posted: Fri 17 Nov , 2006 15:17 pm
by davidimurray
I'm guessing it is beacuse on a download it sends a line down then waits for the acknowledgement code and also does a certain amount of error checking of the code.i.e. as it downloads it, it interpets what it is receving as it get it.
On the upload side, the PC simply holds one line high to signify it is ready for data - as long as this line is high the Triac just spews the data out.
I now have the manual to hand so I will see if I can take some pictures of it in the next few days.
Cheers
Dave
Posted: Sun 19 Nov , 2006 20:55 pm
by Mr Magoo
Here are some settings to play with in the TRIAC.OPT file.
Add these lines and play about with the numbers to see if you can improve things. The values shown are the default values (so these are the values assumed if the entry is missing in the .OPT file) and are in milliseconds. They will have been conservative values so you may be able to reduce them to improve transfer times
DOWNFEED 10
DOWNFEEDEOL 50
Descriptions...
DOWNFEED = delay inserted between each character sent to the machine when downloading
DOWNFEEDEOL = delay inserted between each NC Block sent to the machine when downloading
Posted: Tue 21 Nov , 2006 11:15 am
by davidimurray
One interesting point - what PC are you using? We have a robot system at work (SCARA) that needed an 8086 to run it. For many many years they tried to find a replacement but discovered that the port timing was critical. Recently however they discovered that modern high-speed PCs run so quickly that the port timings have had to be tightened up to slow the whole process down. This tight control of the timing means that they have been able to swap out the 8086 for a new PC.
If your using an older PC (probably before P3) you may want to try a faster machine in conjunction with Mr Magoo's tweaks to the comms protocol.
I wrote some windows software years ago to transfer programs to the Triac and getting the timings right was a nightmare. I could never get it as fast as the original software so gave up.
Cheers
Dave