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Preparation of PI units

Units are provided with the Microcontroller pre-programmed and all necessary components except relays and optocoupler. The engineer in charge of preparing the unit is responsible for adding relays to those GPIOs destined to be GPOs and optocouplers to those serving as GPIs. Although we can configure GPIs and GPOs in any order, it is recommended to place GPIs in consecutive order starting at GPIO-1 and GPOs to the end.

Once these components have been installed on the board, the unit address needs to be set by jumpers. The address is a 4-digits binary number; a jumper represents a binary 1, no jumper represents binary 0. Some units do not have jumpers because the address is set via serial port using a configuration utility (supplied) called gpconfig.

When the unit is power-up, if the address is zero, the Firmware configures GPIO ports automatically: by sensing the ports pins, it discovers which pin has a relay attached and which, an optocoupler. Initially, the unit is not setup. This is signaling with a blinking ALARM LED. To do the setup, set the address to zero, make sure there is no external GPI connected and power cycle the unit. The ALARM LED will blink for a short while, then it will turn off.

For jumperless units, connect the serial port to a RS-422 port (or suitable adapter) of a Configuration PC where gpconfig and other utilities are installed; then run gpconfig to do the appropiate setup.