Dears,

We have 02 nos. of Mark-IV for the Frame-VI gas turbine control. As we know that the HCMC<C> modules gives RS232C serial output for the printer, we want to connect output of both Mark-IV serial Printer to the 02 Nos of COM port of PC and Collecting the periodic log as well as alarms.

My questions is that is there any possiblity of Virus being transferred from PC to Mark-IV?(as the PC is in our local Intranet with internet facility).

If Yes, Can we connect <b> only </b> Sx(Send terminal of HCMC)to the Rx(Receive terminal of PC) & Pin 5 to 5(GND). This to make communication only in one direction.

 

I don't believe you have anything to worry about with regard to transmitting a virus or viruses to the Mark IV via a serial printer port.

 

Dear Mr. Bagan,

We are also having the same problem. The printer which was connected to our Mark-IV was not functioning and there was no support provided by GE for repair of the printer. So even i want to connect the PC to HCMC<C> modules COM port of PC for Collecting the periodic log as well as alarms. Can you please help me out in this regard, like how to configure the interface between our normal PC to HCMC<C> module?

 

The way it's most commonly done is to make an RS-232 serial cable to connect between the printer output port of the Mark IV and a serial port of the PC.

Use a communications program (HyperTerminal or something similar) to use the port to accept data from the Mark IV and save it to an electronic file on the PC.

Those are the basic steps. The Mark IV printer output port is just sending ASCII text and line-feed characters over an RS-232 serial port to the serial port of the printer.

I have seen several line printers on the World Wide Web which can be configured to be serial printers. They're not cheap, but they are available. Any line printer than can emulate the standard Epson LQ/IBM Proprinter line printers (very old standards!) can be used.

For that matter, any serial communication program can be used to gather the ASCII output from the Mark IV printer output port. I can't recall if the cable needs to be a null modem cable or not, but that's a simple thing to change. Since you're going to be "eliminating" the printer cable, you could use a multimeter to verify the pinout of the printer cable to determine how to make yours. You'll also probably need to make a cable to go from 25-pin serial RS-232 to 9-pin RS-232.

But, there's no special communication protocol, just RS-232 serial, 2400 Baud. I think there is a printer configuration section in the Mark IV Maintenance Manual with other settings (parity, data bits, stop bits, etc.) that would have been used to configure the original printer that would be useful to configure the serial communication program on the PC.

You then just need to know how to display and/or capture the information with the communication program you are using. "Back in the day" (A long time ago), we used to use ProCOMM or ProCOMM Plus, but those were DOS-based programs and I don't know if there's any MW-Windows-based equivalent, but I've seen it done with HyperTerminal.

 

A Google search took me to the Epson site, and this page:

http://pos.epson.com/products/prodsSIDMP.htm

amd this printer:

http://pos.epson.com/products/LQ-590.htm

The serial interface module for these printers is:

http://pos.epson.com/pos/pdf/rs232_ds.pdf

The printers are rated for 110/220 VAC operation, but only 49.5 Hz to 60.5 Hz, so some parts of the world may not have the proper frequency to support full-time operation.

There are other printers, as well. In some cases, they might not be available in all parts of the world, or even fit in the Mark IV printer drawer. But one could make a longer cable and put the printer somewhere that could accommodate it. I've even seen serial modems used to extend the printer cable length several hundred meters.

 

Dear sir,

We have pin out the terminals of the 25 pin Connector, which is connected to printer. From that we have taken 02 cables(RX & GND of HCMC COM Port) to COM port of PC. Regarding Data format, you are requested to check your documents or current settings of your printer.
For data collection, you can use Hyper terminal of the Windows or even free softwares are available on the net.

The system is working fine for the both MARK-IV. Advantages of the system:
Saving Paper & so our EARTH.
Easy to collect history & Data.
Searching of the perticular data & alarm is easy.
Easy to maintain records.

Beside, for the printer, Serial printer are availble in the market. EPSON/WIPRO Model LX540 is good replacement for 80 column Dot Matrix Printer.

With Regards

 

Bagan,

Would you please share the communication program settings with us? (Baud, Parity, Data Bits, Start/Stop Bits, Terminal Emulation, etc.)

Thanks!

 

Sorry for the delay

Baud : 2400
Parity: EVEN
Data Bits: 7
Stop :1
Flow Control : None

Even one can use the HyperTerminal for the same.