How do I interface with RS485 SDLC in LabVIEW?

[RonnieG]

I need to communicate with a sensor that only communicates by RS485 and SDLC. Is there a LabVIEW solution?

[Ben]

Hi RonnieG,

I had two projects that req'd SDLC to talk to instruments.

In both cases we located a suitalbe hardware provider that included a dll for their device.

Appropriate wrappers were developed to use the supllied dll's.

SDLC adapters are also available from companies like Black Box provided the transfer rate is low enough.

In my applications, I need to be able to handle some non-standard baud rates on multiple channels operating at high rates, so we went with the board based solution in both cases to handle the flexibility and performance issues.

I would suggest you talk to the people who are going to be supporting the dll before you buy. You want to have a resource that will not "go critical mass" when you mention LV.

I hope this helps,


Ben

[Ben]

Addeed comment for those that do not know SDLC.

SDLC is a sub-set of HDLC originally devloped by IBM. The technology uses a form of bit-stuffing that prevents the sync pattern from ever occuring in the data stream by inseting bits as required to prevent false sync's from occuring in the data packet.

There are a number of chips available that support many flavors of HDLC and sub-sets. The chips handle the lower 3 levels of the OSI 7-layer model and when complemented by the appropriate bus interfaces and dll can make interfacing with SDLC devices very similar to normal serial devices.

Ben

[remerlin]

Ben,

I know this is an old thread but need some info on SDLC hardware and software.  I need to simulate communications from a flight computer to an electronic control unit.  The physical interface has been described as synchronous serial (SDLC) at 500K bits/second.  Is there any hardware that you know of, that has LabVIEW RT support, that might be a solution for me ?  Also, there may be some consulting work for your company on this project - I am located in Western NY.

thanks - Rick

http://www.moog.com