KEPCO BHK-MG 40W (Half Rack) Series - Manual (Page 63)

BHK-1/2-MG 121313
3-19
manual which can be used to program one or more BHK-MG power supplies using a virtual front
panel observed on a computer monitor.
Download the latest VISA driver from the Kepco website at
http://www.kepcopower.com/drivers.htm
Although the software drivers supplied by Kepco are VISA compliant, they also require the
installation of the proper 16-bit VISA driver from your GPIB card supplier. Many vendors supply
this software with the hardware; National Instruments (http://www.natinst.com) has the driver for
their cards available on the internet at a file transfer site (ftp://ftp.natinst.com — find the folder
for support and VISA drivers). The driver to be installed is the win16 driver, even if your system
is running under Windows 95 or Windows NT.
3.5 RS232-C OPERATION
The BHK-MG may be operated via an RS232-C terminal, or from a PC using a terminal emula-
tion program. The default settings are as follows:
• Baud rate: 9600 (no jumper between RTS and CTS on RS 232 port)
• Parity: None
• Data Bits 8
• Stop Bits 1
• Echo ON
• XON OFF
3.5.1 SETTING RS 232 BAUD RATE
When the power supply is in local mode, command entry status , press MENU key until LCD
displays
BAUD RATE =
. The top line of the LCD indicates the current RS 232 baud rate (default
= 9600). Use and keys to scroll through the available baud rate settings (19200, 9600,
4800 or 2400). Press ENTER to accept new setting (new baud rate is effective immediately), or
CLEAR to exit without changing setting.
3.5.2 SERIAL INTERFACE
The serial interface behaves like the GPIB interface in that the command is parsed after receiv-
ing a control character of either a Line Feed or Carriage Return. The serial interface supports
three special control characters. The three special control characters are:
Backspace (08
H
) Causes the last character in the input buffer to be removed from the
input buffer queue.
Carriage Return (0D
H
) Causes the input buffer to be parsed by the BHK-MG.
Line Feed (0A
H
) Causes the input buffer to be parsed by the BHK-MG.
3.5.3 RS 232 IMPLEMENTATION
The following paragraphs are provided to help the user understand how the RS 232 serial inter-
face is implemented in the BHK-MG. Since the RS 232 protocol does not use a parity bit, the
echo mode is the default method used to ensure reliable communication between the command