When testing your ASCII instruction code using a computer running Hyper Terminal or other similar software:

1) Make sure you have the correct cable. 1761-CBL-PM02 to connect the computer to the controller.
2) Make sure the settings of controller match the settings of the computer running Hyper Terminal. For example,

HyperTerminal Settings:

Controller settings with Term Chars also selected:

You will also want an ASCII code reference such as http://www.asciitable.com/ If you look at the bottom of this ascii
table you will notice that 255 (or 0xFF) is the only one that does not have a symbol. The 0xff is used to end termination in
packets on the network and other such things. Term character 0x0D is a carriage return and 0x0A is line feed.
3) In the controller code when using ACL instruction is used to clear the Transmit (TX) and Receive (RX) buffers,
make sure you set the appropriate input tags to true. So in the example below the base name of the input tag of
the ACL instruction is FS_ACL_input. So if I want to clear both the RX and TX buffers, I must first set the channel
number as well as set the .RXBuffer and .TXBuffer tags to true. Below this is done via 1 gain instructions.

4) When reading the RX buffer you will need to populate the .Length input. This can be done via the ACB and 1 gain
instructions:
5 ) And finally refer often to the instruction help. Click on an instruction to select it and then hit F1 to bring up its help
file. The ACB instruction help file is shown below:

Connected Components Workbench

ACB

Description
This function block determines the total characters in the buffer.

Arguments

Parameter Parameter type Data type Description

IN Input BOOL If Rising Edge (IN turns from FALSE to TRUE), start the
function block with the precondition that the last operation
has been completed.
ACBInput Input ABLACB The channel to be operated.
See ABLACB data
type.

Q Output BOOL FALSE - The function block is not done.

TRUE - The function block is done.

Characters Output UINT The number of characters.

Error Output BOOL FALSE - No error.

TRUE - An error is detected.

ErrorID Output UINT See ABL Error Codes.

ACB function block language examples

Function Block Diagram (FBD)

Ladder Diagram (LD)

Structured Text (ST)