This connection type implements the WheatNet Blade ACI protocol.
At this time, the following parts are supported:
- Software LIOs (SLIO)
- Physical LIOs
- Salvos
Configuration
Network Connection
Enter the IP adress or hostname of the Blade, and the port number (default is 55776).
The keepalive interval (in seconds) defines how often BTConnect will send a
dummy <SYS?>
command to the Blade in order to keep the TCP connection alive.
Device Properties
Click Retrieve from Device to connect to the blade and retrieve the relevant properties of the particular model, in particular:
- The number of Software LIOs (SLIOs)
- The number of physical LIOs
- The number of Utility Mixers (for future use)
You can also enter the numbers manually, although it is recommended that you use the retrive from device function to make sure they match the actual configuration of your particular Blade.
SLIO
On this tab, you can configure the available Software LIOs. In particular, the following settings are available:
- Mode: Choose between Disabled (SLIO is not available in BTConnect), Tally or Pulse.
- Direction: Can be Input or Output (from the Blade’s point of view)
- Description: An optional description
SLIOs that exceed the number of SLIOs set on the General tab will be displayed grayed out.
LIO
This tab provides configuration for the physical LIOs. See SLIO above for a description of the settings.
Parameters
The connection provides the following parameters:
slio/<id>
(boolean or trigger, read-only or write-only) - provides access to a Software LIO (SLIO). Depending on the mode set in the configuration, the parameter type will either be boolean (for tally) or trigger (for pulse). Input SLIOs are write-only, output SLIOs are read-only.lio/<id>
(boolean or trigger, read-only or write-only) - provides access to physical LIOs, similar to the SLIOs above.salvo/<id>
(trigger, write-only) - fire the Salvo with the specified ID (1..256).
Note: For input SLIOs and LIOs, sending a Trigger value to the
parameter will always result in a pulse (SLIO set to 1
and then
back to 0
immediately), even if the mode is set to Tally.