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Help Topics

Help Topics for SBProbe

SBProbe


About:

SBProbe is an interactive user tool for reading and writing to SAIA Ether SBus field devices. It can be used for testing, troubleshooting, and commissioning of field devices such as valves, sensors, PLCs and other equipment.

SBProbe is server based and is accessed via a web browser. The server and the web browser do not have to be on the same computer.


SBProbe

Starting SBProbe:

The SBProbe program can be started as follows:

For Linux:


	./sbprobe.py

For MS Windows:


	c:\python25\python sbprobe.py

For MS Windows, the first part of the path ("c:\python25\python") will depend on where you installed Python, and what version you have installed. If you have installed it in a non-standard location you will need to specify the path to where you have actually installed it. If you have installed a version other than 2.5, you will need to change the "python25" to match the appropriate version (e.g. for version 2.6, use "python26").


Start Parameters:

When starting the system as shown above, the defaults will be used as the initial parameters, and any others must be changed manually. It is possible to specify certain parameters on the command line in order to have the system automatically use those parameters on start up. The start parameters are defined as follows:

Example for Linux:


	./sbprobe.py -p 8680 -h localhost -r 5050 -u 1 -t 30.0 -c y -a y

Example for MS Windows:


	c:\python25\python sbprobe.py -p 8680 -h localhost -r 5050 -u 1 -t 30.0 -c y -a y


Accessing the User Interface:

The user interface is accessed via a web browser. The user interface consists of four web pages:

To access any of the web pages, enter the URL of the web page into your web browser, including the page name, the host for the web server (not the one for the field device), and the port number for the web server (not the one for the field device). For example:


	http://localhost:8680/help.html

The host name ("localhost" in this example) and the port number ("8680" in this example) may be different depending upon how and where you have installed the system. The example shown above will access the help web page.

Once you have accessed on web page, the others are accessible via a menu located near the top of each page. It may be a good idea to bookmark the web page to make it easier to access next time.


Setting Communications Parameters:

The web page for "Set Communications Parameters" can be used to set or change the parameters for communicating with the field device.

On the left side of the page are a series of input boxes which allow you to specify the following information.

Below the input boxes will be a large push button labelled "Apply". When this button is pressed, the parameters specified above will be applied.

To the right of input area is a column showing the current parameters. These may differ from the parameters in the input area if the values were edited but not applied. In addition, there will be a message in large text indicating whether the system is currently connected or not.

The following error message may be displayed: "Error - Could not establish contact with remote host." This indicates that the system attempted to connect with the field device, but either the field device could not be contacted, or else it refused the connection.

This page does not allow you to change the port number used by the web server. That must be set as a command line parameter (see above).


Reading Data:

Data may be read from the field device by using the "Read Ether SBus Data" web page. This page has 20 sets of inputs allowing you to read up to 20 different addresses at the same time. Each input area specifies a single data table value.

Specifying Parameters:

Each input area provides a drop down list allowing you to specify input, output, flag, register, or none. If you select "none" that input area will be disabled. In addition, you can enter the SBus data table address.

When you have specified the desired address type and address, click on the large "Read Data" button located at the bottom of the screen. The system will then send a series of SBus requests to the field device. When the field device has responded to the queries, the web page will be refreshed to show the data which was read beside each of the input areas (or blank if that input area was unused). If there were any errors, an error message will be displayed in place of the data.

Clearing (Resetting) the Page:

Beside the "Read Data" button is a pair of "radio buttons" allowing you to select either "Read Data" or "Clear Page". Selecting "Read Data" allows for normal operation. Selecting "Clear Page" causes the input areas to be reset to their default values when the "Read Data" button is pressed. When clearing (resetting) the page, no messages are sent to the field device and no data is read.

SBus Commands Used:

The system will send an individual SBus request for each address specified. The following SBus commands are used:

Each command is used with a quantity of 1.


Writing Data:

Data may be written to the field device by using the "Write Ether SBus Data" web page. This page has 20 sets of inputs allowing you to write up to 20 different addresses at the same time. Each input area specifies a single data table value.

Specifying Parameters:

Each input area provides a drop down list allowing you to specify output, flag, register, or none. If you select "none" that input area will be disabled. In addition, you can enter the SBus data table address and the data to be written.

When you have specified the desired address type, address, and data, click on the large "Write Data" button located at the bottom of the screen. The system will then send a series of SBus requests to the field device. When the field device has responded to the queries, the web page will be refreshed. If there were any errors, an error message will be displayed to the right of each input area.

Clearing (Resetting) the Page:

Beside the "Write Data" button is a pair of "radio buttons" allowing you to select either "Write Data" or "Clear Page". Selecting "Write Data" allows for normal operation. Selecting "Clear Page" causes the input areas to be reset to their default values when the "Write Data" button is pressed. When clearing (resetting) the page, no messages are sent to the field device and no data is written.

SBus Commands Used:

The system will send an individual Ether SBus request for each address specified. The following SBus commands are used:


Errors:

Internal Errors:

The following error messages are generated internally in the system.

Auto Reconnect:

If auto reconnect is selected and a connection error occurs while attempting to read or write data, the system will attempt to reconnect once for each data item until either a successful connection is made or until attempts (and failures) for all the data items have been made.

SBus Errors:

The following messages represent SBus errors which were returned by the field device.