Forging Position Feedback /
RIT Senior Design Group 2012-2013: Shimona Gorelick, John Knight, Nick Perrotte, and Min Han Zhao /
Table of Contents
Hardware
Cable
Laser
ILR Tool
Software
Helpful Links
Hardware
If it is a hardware issue, the first step is to determine if it is a problem with the laser or the cable. Try to switch out the cable for one you know works. If it still doesn’t work, try to switch that cable to another laser.
Cable
Use a multimeter to check continuity between the laser connector and the power connector. Power and ground have broken for Cables 1 and 3 and were re-soldered. The connections for the custom-made cables are shown below:
Laser Connector (Image Credit:
Power Connector on Laser side (not power adapter side). (Image Credit:
If there is a laser outside of its enclosure, it is easy to verify that power is being transmitted through the cables. When plugged in, the green light on the back of the laser will light up. If that light doesn’t turn on, there is very likely an issue with the power or ground wire.
Female DB9 Connector (Image Credit:
Laser
Use the ILR Tool (described in its own section below).
Use of HyperTerminal or another terminal program (I’m biased towards RealTerm) is described in the laser manual. Be aware that even though the manual says the baud rate is 9600, use 38400. Also, in whatever terminal program you choose to use, it is very helpful to turn on Local Echo or Half Duplex or whatever capability allows you to see the characters you send in the display. The commands are listed right below the HyperTerminal directions. The most commonly used were DT (enter) for continuous distance tracking and DM (enter) for a single distance measurement. The ESC key stops distance tracking.
Truthfully, the ILR Tool is more helpful. The graph in the measurement program that shows the trend in distance tracking values provides more insight than the decimal values spit out in the terminal.
If the Laser connectors twist around too much in the enclosure, there is a chance some of the internally soldered wires will pop off. Take the laser out of the enclosure and check the wires if it gets to the point where it is a likely issue. As seen in the assembly diagrams, the enclosures are quite a hassle to assemble/disassemble. If a wire did indeed come unsoldered, simply remove the old heat shrink, put more on, re-solder it, and shrink the heat shrink with a lighter or heat gun.
ILR Tool
1)Open the ILR Tool and change the language (sprache) to English.
2)Enter the Sensor Configuration Mode. (Can also be accessed through the Measurement tab.)
3)File > Refresh COMlist. Connect to the laser. Make sure the baud rate is set at 38400. If it is not, it will say: Error interface cannot be opened: There is no compatible device at the selected port, or it is already in use.
4)To restore to factory defaults, click Restore Factory Defaults in the lower left area of the screen. The laser defaults to units of meters. Make sure you change that back to inches on this screen (Distance unit dropdown menu on the left side) if you do restore the factory defaults. There is a separate dropdown on the next screen in the Measurement program that indicates graph units. That must be changed back to inches as well.
5)If you make any changes to the laser configuration, you must click Write Configuration to Sensor.
6)To enter the measurement program, click Switch to Measurement Program, right below Restore Factory Defaults. To avoid accidentally resetting the laser and causing yourself a fun amount of problem-chasing, you can also switch to the measurement program from the Measurement tab on the top left, next to File.
7)From the measurement page, you can Start and Stop Distance Tracking (continuous measurement) and Distance Measurement (single pulse).
Software
For the software, make sure the COM ports are correct. In order to determine the COM ports used in the program:
Start > Devices and Printers
The COM ports used will be identified as the Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port.
Check the upper part of the code (around Line 100, about 1/8 of the way down) to make sure the COM ports declared match the ports used in Devices and Printers.
Helpful Links
Laser Manual:
Micro-Epsilon Site with all available documentation: