SMC04 - Serial Connection to PC RS-232

In preparation of my forth coming shipment of SMC04 MC, I am building a few wirings to help me save some time.

I read in the manual that could use the pin 3 (S-Out) and 5 (GND) on my PC’s RS-232 DB9 and connect that to SMC04’s RS-232 N and GND respectively. This is in lieu of the logic level circuit that is shown in the SMC03 documentation. The documentation also suggests that I could go either or the other route. I’d like to go w/ the former.

Can someone confirm that this is an accurate understanding.

Thank you in advance

Hello,

I think your understanding is accurate. (The circuit you used with the SMC03 is built into the SMC04.) The SMC04 has serial output, too, and if you want to read that with a computer serial port, you’ll need a bidirectional adapter.

- Jan

thank you - I have incorporated this into a few of my “helper circuits”.

wrt, serial feedback (or serial output of motor status from SMC04 to PC), I read thru the description provided in the documentation (v briefly). I understand that the serial output from SMC will provide PID param values back to the controller (in my case PC). This is valuable - but, once I figure out the PID config, in my case, my settings are pretty much set. Am I right in saying that the serial output will not be required once I figure out the PID config params and “baked” in ???

thank you in advance

The motor controller sends back the error and status bits every time through the PID cycle. This can be used in your main application as verification that the motor controller is still running and to respond to unusual situations, such as a stalled mechanism. For instance, if your controller sees that the error isn’t changing after some amount of time, it could shut off the motor or change its direction to try to get unstuck. However, you don’t have to use the feature.

- Jan

thank you - I have incorporated this into a few of my “helper circuits”.

wrt, serial feedback (or serial output of motor status from SMC04 to PC), I read thru the description provided in the documentation (v briefly). I understand that the serial output from SMC will provide PID param values back to the controller (in my case PC). This is valuable - but, once I figure out the PID config, in my case, my settings are pretty much set. Am I right in saying that the serial output will not be required once I figure out the PID config params and “baked” in ???

thank you in advance