Shepard Engineering

Concepts

    INTERFACE & RS-485 NETWORK PROJECTS

                   NEW...Serial Interface products below...

    RS-485 allows you to connect up to 256 modules over a distance of up to 4,000 feet using a single twisted pair of wires! This is the standard used in industrial control systems to network process control computers together. We will be offering several Visual Basic 5 sourced projects to utilize this new system. If you have any ideas that you would like to see as we develop these systems, please Email us.

    We have just released our first article on Visual Basic 5.0 It introduces MSComm, an ActiveX component of Visual Basic which allows communication to the serial port of your computer. We start off with the five most important properties of MSComm and will cover the remainder of the 32 properties including hardware I/O for the RS-232 Standard Serial Port in a subsequent article.

    As we continue, we will develop a series of projects that will use Windows features such as buttons, slider controls, up-down controls and others to let "you" have custom control of setpoints and control  parameters such as timing, greater than or lesser than analog parameters, event logic, etc. Let's get started first with:

                           An Intro to Visual Basic 5.0 Programming

                     Exploring the Registers of MSComm


  CheapNet has been released ... It consists of two identical modules; one set for Master; the other set for Slave. The Master will initiate communications and send the input registers to the Slave, which will display the results on the output register of the Slave. Then the Slave will read the inputs and send them back to the Master, to be displayed on the output register of the Master. This ia a photo of the actual prototype...we used DIP switches for inputs and LED's for outputs.

    Specifications, setup, and use will be covered fully; as well as interface circuits for hooking  the system up to the real world. Essentially, what this first project does is to allow you to monitor and control 8 outputs from 8 inputs in EACH DIRECTION over a distance of up to 4,000 feet over a single twisted pair of wires.

    For example, you can turn on a device at a remote location and confirm that action in a fraction of a second! We're selling kits of all semiconductors for a complete system (1 Master/1 Slave) for only $ 25.00, including shipping and handling !

                 CheapNet Control System