PanelPilotACE Support

This link will take you to it: PanelPilotACE Univeristy 

Details for all the connectors required can be found by downloading this file.

Please contact our sales team if you have any questions.

The RS232 works using three elements, one hardware element (Serial COM Port) and two function element (RS-232 Receive and RS-232 Send).

Within the hardware element you must specify standard RS232 properties (baud rate etc.). You must also specify the service type; native if you wish to communicate with another PPA device, Terminal otherwise. The “Terminal Mode” property specifies whether the data should be wrapped with a prompt (easy to use within a terminal) or should be raw (device to device). Then you will need to specify send/receive terminators and separators. The terminator signifies the end of a given RS232 command and the separator is the character used to separate multiple values.

The RS-232 Send element allows you to specify a serial port (the hardware element) and then numerous “Send Values”, this element can be called much like any other action and when it is it will send each value (enclosed within specified pre and post messages) separated via the “Send Separator” specified in the hardware element and ended with the “Send Terminator” specified in the hardware element. The values will be sent in sequential order from top to bottom.

The RS-232 Receive element allows you to specify a serial port (the hardware element), when this has been selected you will be able to specify an “Alias”. In order for an RS-232 Receive to be used it must have a unique identifiable command at the beginning, if no alias is specified then the name of the RS-232 Receive element will be used as the command; if an alias is specified then the Alias will be used as the command. A Receive Separator should follow this and then all values you wish for the device to receive also separated by the Receive Separator and then finished with the Receive Terminator. Then you will specify a list of receive properties/variables, this is where the values will be stored again sequentially from top to bottom as first received to last received.

For example if the Alias was set to “rx”, separator set to comma and terminator set to [CR][LF] and the specified receive value was a text boxes Text property then the following would set the text boxes text value to “Test”:

RS-232 Receive also gives you the option to perform an action once the receive has been completed so you could store a value as a variable and then call an action to display it or modify it with a maths builder before displaying it.

N.B. we are in the process of creating further tutorial videos to aid in development with new features.

Once you have installed the new version of the design studio you will have access to the automatic update feature. This works for both the design studio and the device software. If you have a device connected that does not have the latest version of device software then you will see a cog icon next to the device. Simply click on this and follow the steps in order to upgrade your device software. You can also manually upgrade your device by clicking the device menu icon (3 white stripes) and selecting upgrade device software.

Yes but not directly, an interface circuit would be required to convert the PWM output to a 4-20mA output. There are third party devices which can do this, please contact us for further help.

A maths builder has been added to the Design Studio in V2 of the software to provide this functionality. See the Spinner example in the list of Project Templates on our PanelPilotACE University page.

The software is free to use and you can install it on as many PC’s as you like. What you’re not allowed to do is sell the software, reverse engineer or modify it in any way.

While the current software release does not allow you to make use of these our software team is busy adding these features. This feature is our top priority and we expect to make it available in the next few months.

This is an issue with Windows 8 and requires you to disable driver signature enforcement. Instructions for doing so can be found in our Installing Panel Pilot Driver On Windows 8 documentation.

Open up the Panel Pilot ACE design studio and connect your device. Assuming your device has connected correctly you should be able to select it in the Device drop down box in the top right of the studio. Click the button to the right of the device selection that looks like three white horizontal lines. From the dropdown menu that appears select “Device Configuration”. Then tick the “Set Real Time Clock” check box and ensure the correct time is selected (+1 refers to GMT+1). Hit the configure button and the application will be updated.

The mounting bracket is located in the box below the white tray which holds the SGD 43-A in place.

The development board (SGD 43-A-DK+ – this includes a display) generates all of the inputs and indicates all of the outputs that are available on the SGD 43-A. Analogue inputs can be varied using dials, digital inputs can be turned on using switches, digital, PWM and alarm outputs are shown by status LEDs. Screw terminals are also available for quick connection of actual signals.

Yes the Panel Pilot ACE does support animated GIF’s!

Certainly! Using our PanelPilot Custom Design service, we can make bespoke configurations that are tailored to your requirements. Please contact our sales team to find out more.

Unfortunately the rendering engines used on the emulator and on the embedded display are not exactly the same. This can lead to very minor differences in the positions of graphics. Normally this is not noticeable but it can sometimes mean that the rotation of a needle, for example, is slightly off.

This is because the 70-A already has the hardware built in and so no add-on board is required.

Currently ascii based raw data and MODBUS, however we are working to add new protocols such as CANBUS, if you have any protocols you would like to see then please contact us.

PL1 is used to specify which additional pin will be used in order to use RS485, you can either use PWM3 or DIG8 which are marked as PWM and DIO respectively.
PL2 is used to connect or disconnect the terminating resistor from the circuit.

SGD 43-A

Go to your project settings (select your project and look at the properties editor). Towards the bottom of these settings you should see “Enable RS485”, by enabling this property you will see that PWM1 and PWM2 are disabled for the RS485 and that there is a drop down to select the third pin that will be disabled. Select either Digital Channel 8 or PWM Output 3 and ensure the corresponding jumper position is selected on the board. Now you are ready to use RS485 in the same way as you use RS232 (but with an RS485 COM PORT instead).

SGD 70-A

The SGD 70-A has dedicated pins for RS485 and therefore no project configuration (or add-on board) are required. Simply use it in the same way as you used RS232 (but with an RS485 COM PORT instead).

CAN bus can only be used on the SGD 70-A, and requires add-on board S70-CAN. CAN bus is not available on the SGD 43-A.

The J1939 protocol.

One channel.

1. Open the PanelPilotACE Design Studio software make sure there is an active internet connection.

2. Ensure the PanelPilotACE device has the supporting Ethernet hardware. This is included with an SGD 70-A model, but will require an Add-on board for the SGD 43-A.

3. Connect the PanelPilotACE device to the PC via a USB cable. Once successfully connected, the device will be visible in the Device Settings menu for the PanelPilotACE. This is located in the top-right hand corner of the Design Studio workspace. Click on the burger menu button on the far right to view the drop-down menu. Select Device Configuration from this menu to access the MAC address settings. If a MAC address has already been configured for the device it will be displayed in the Get MAC Address field. If not, this field will display 00-00-00-00-00-00 or be blank (see image below).

4. If you want to allocate a MAC address, check the box next to Get MAC Address (see example below).

A MAC address will then be requested from the PanelPilot Server. The MAC Address field will then populate with a MAC address (see image below). Note: this may take up to a few minutes.

5. Click on Configure. The Device Configuration menu will close and the PanelPilotACE device will reboot.

6. Go back to the Device Settings burger menu and select Hardware Information. The MAC address will be displayed in the Physical Address text box (see image below).