Re: On beamline motor control

[stein@aps.anl.gov (S. Joshua Stein)]

hoffberg@aps.anl.gov (Mike Hoffberg) writes:

> Now you have the IR interface to a serial port.  This can be connected
> to anything, a PC, IOC, PLC.  The controller can be something like a
> Newton or HP that has a built in IR serial port, and a nice interface,
> or it can be a regular remote control.


Boy Mike, this all sounds so familiar...


  I've got a very similar desire to use an IR/RS232 interface for use in 
monitoring the (local) status of my safety system. My first idea was to purchase
a low-cost and easily transportable serial port terminal, be able to walk about
on top of the storage ring, and plug into the safety system controller's 
serial interface - which is periodically spitting out various information on the
state of the system. 

 I managed to purchase an Apple Newton on closeout, and then further managed
to write a small application to just echo the data coming in on the serial port
(the Newton comes standard with a mini-din 8 serial port connection). In a 
matter of days I was able to monitor the PLC's used to control the safety 
system. At that point the idea came to me to use the IR capability of the Newton
to make the connection totally passive (reviewer's tend to frown upon electrical
connections to a piece of a safety system) - the programming on the Newton side
is trival, and on the PLC side nothing is different. The only thing stopping me
at this point is the RS232 to IR interface. Time and man-power have put this 
project on the back-burner for me, so...

 If such a 'transceiver' is indeed built, please let me know as I would most
likely be able to 'plug and play' with the system I've developed.

<Josh>