How to use push arm

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xaviso
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Apr 08, 2009 3:33 am
Organization: Company

How to use push arm

Post by xaviso » Wed Apr 08, 2009 4:00 am

Hello,

First of all, sorry for my english writing.

I have rifidi designer 1.4.0.
I have followed step by step the Designer user's guide but I don't know how must I configure push arm to work with it.
When I press start button on designer, boxproducer starts to create boxes and the gate (with reader and 2 antenas) reads the TAGs on these boxes, but, even though the gate and push arm are connected through the GPIO, push arm never works.
I have tried it with another versions of designer (1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4.1) but I can't.
I was seeing the video on youtube but video's designer is totally diferent than mine. On the video, you can group TAGs on different groups but I can't do this on my designer soft.
Somebody can help me?

Thank you very much!

Matt
Posts: 362
Joined: Fri May 02, 2008 11:56 am
Organization: Pramari

Re: How to use push arm

Post by Matt » Wed Apr 08, 2009 6:37 pm

Hi xaviso,

Which reader are you using for the push-arm? Right now the only readers we support which can activate a push-arm are the LLRP and the Alien. I'm going to assume you are using the Alien.

If you are using the Alien, have you set the reader up so that it activates the GPIO when a new tag is read? If you are stuck, I wrote a short guide which might hep you here:

http://wiki.rifidi.org/index.php/Alien_GPIO

Following those instructions to the letter should give you a working pusharm. If not, could you post these on the forum:

1. A screenshot of the design view, showing the reader, pusharm, and the IR ports.
2. A screenshot of the GPIO view.
3. The commands you submitted to the Alien

You should probably ignore the video you saw on youtube, as it is probably out of date. I'm going to upload a better video on youtube which should give you a better idea of how to use the pusharm.

xaviso
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Apr 08, 2009 3:33 am
Organization: Company

Re: How to use push arm

Post by xaviso » Tue Apr 14, 2009 4:07 am

Hi Matt,

thanks for your quick answer.
Where must I write these commands to the Allien?
I have posted a screenshot of the design view, showing the reader, pusharm, and the IR ports and a screenshot of the GPIO view.
Attachments
Rifidi_screenshots.jpg
Rifidi_screenshots.jpg (131.18 KiB) Viewed 10098 times

xaviso
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Apr 08, 2009 3:33 am
Organization: Company

Re: How to use push arm

Post by xaviso » Tue Apr 21, 2009 5:23 am

Hello,

I have got how I must connect to the reader with a telnet window.
I have been sending all the commands of : http://wiki.rifidi.org/index.php/Alien_GPIO to the reader but push arm doesn't anything. Is it necessary activate or deactivate any other actions? How can I do to push arm runs only for concrete TAGs?

Thanks!

Matt
Posts: 362
Joined: Fri May 02, 2008 11:56 am
Organization: Pramari

Re: How to use push arm

Post by Matt » Wed Apr 22, 2009 6:05 pm

xaviso,

Have you hooked up the GPIO ports correctly in the GPIO view? The GPO port of the infrared just before the reader should be hooked up to the first GPI of the reader itself, and the GPO port of the infrared just after the reader should be hooked up to the second GPI on the reader. The first GPO of the reader should be hooked up to the pusharm you want to push. Let me know if you are doing these things correctly, we will try some other things if you are.

-Matt

xaviso
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Apr 08, 2009 3:33 am
Organization: Company

Re: How to use push arm

Post by xaviso » Mon Apr 27, 2009 12:03 pm

Hi Matt,

Thanks for the quick answer.
The GPIO ports are correctly hooked up in the GPIO view (image attached)
I have checking the commands of http://wiki.rifidi.org/index.php/Alien_GPIO and I think there are wrong commands:
RFAttenuation = 90;
NetworkTimeout = "9000"; --> 9000 seconds? why?
AcquireMode = "Global Scroll";
PersistTime = "-1";
AutoAction = "Acquire";
AutoWaitOutput = "0";
AutoWorkOutput = "4"; --> with this value we activate the third pin of the output (0100). I want to activate the first on (0001), then "1"
AutoTrueOutput = "1";
AutoFalseOutput = "2";
AutoStartTrigger = "0,1";
AutoStopTrigger = "2,0";
AutoStopTimer = "-1";
AutoTruePause = "3000";
AutoFalsePause = "3000";
ExternalOutput = "0"; --> to activate the first one pin we have to use "1" (0001), don't we?
AutoMode="on"

I have used these changes but the pusharm doesn't anything. If you will try some other things will be great!

Thanks!!!
Attachments
GPIO.jpg
GPIO.jpg (25.98 KiB) Viewed 10065 times

Matt
Posts: 362
Joined: Fri May 02, 2008 11:56 am
Organization: Pramari

Re: How to use push arm

Post by Matt » Mon May 04, 2009 1:06 pm

Hi xaviso,

It seems your GPIO ports are hooked up correctly. The one thing that might be wrong is that the infrared ports might be in the wrong order on the designer screen itself. So, the IR port "Infrared" would need to come before "Infrared0", or you would be setting off the wrong GPI ports on the Alien.

As for your questions regarding the commands, I can assure you the commands are correct. ExternalOutput must be set to 0 at first, because it is automatically set to 1 when a box passes through IR1, is read by the reader, and passes through IR2. That is what the "AutoTrueOutput" does. The "AutoWorkOutput" command holds the ExternalOutput at 4 while the reader is working, which is not ideal.

So what I would try doing now is firing the pusharm manually by not running the commands and simply running a "set externaloutput=1" manually. If the GPIO is hooked up correctly, the push arm should fire when a box crosses its path.

There are a few other things which could be going wrong, such as your "tagtype" option isn't set to read the tags you are producing, or the box production rate is too short, or the distance between the IR fields is too long. If one box crosses IR1 before another one can get out of IR2's beam, the pusharm won't behave as expected.

Sorry this is taking so long, but there are a thousand things which could prevent you from getting a working push arm. Here is a video where I successfully fire a push arm:

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/145150/PennState.rar

It is a demo for one of our partners. The "configurator" tool just connects to the reader and sends those commands listed on the wiki. Maybe it will help you find out what the issue is. Anyway, try all the things I listed and come back if you have any more issues.

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