Unit installation

6-23
RLC-3 V1.80 Copyright © 1998 Link Communications Inc. 9/17/98
terminal or terminal emulation software supports ANSI cursor control commands (most
do). This feature is useful for checking how much of the range of the analog to digital
converter is being used.
A status display lets you check how much storage time is used for each message and
mailbox. This can help you know what you should delete when the memory gets full.
If you have connected a terminal or computer to your RLC-3, all you have to do is unplug the cable
from the RLC-3 and plug it into the DVR. The default setting is 9600 baud, N81, the same as the
default for the RLC-3. If you do not already have a cable and your computer or serial terminal has
a DB-9 connector, you can use a straight through DB-9 cable (not a null modem cable). If you are
using a modem or TNC, note that pins 2 and 3 will have to be swapped (a null modem adapter will
do this). If you are using a modem or TNC, you will probably have to set them up to make them
work transparently - contact Link Communications if you need more information about how to do
this.
If everything you type shows up double on your serial screen like this "tteesstt", turn the local echo
off on your communications program.
The DVR is unavailable to the controller while it is executing a command entered from the serial
port. Because of this, most of the serial commands will time out if you do not respond within
about 10 seconds. Pressing the escape key will also get you out of most commands.
The default baud rate of 9600 baud works well for both uploading and downloading. Faster baud
rates are supported, but may not work reliably. Downloading may work at a higher baud rate than
uploading. When uploading, you may have to set the character pacing time (check the ASCII
transfer settings on your communications program) to avoid overruns. The line pacing can be set
relatively small, often to 0. When uploading at high baud rates, if the data that appears on your
screen has missing or incorrect characters but you are not getting error messages, the data is
probably being uploaded correctly and you can ignore the incorrect characters that you see on the
screen. Most errors in uploading are caused by trying to upload to a track that is not empty. If the
DVR is reset either by powering it down or by the serial reset commands, the baud rate is
automatically reset to 9600 baud.
Making DVR-1 Messages Polite:
Currently, DVR command 173 is similar to the synthesized voice command 036 in that they are
both impolite (see commands 063 and 064 for more information about “polite” messages). There
are no DVR commands similar to the synthesized voice commands 063 (speak politely) or 064
(speak politely and do something if interrupted) in this firmware version (they are planned for a
future version), but they can be simulated on the DVR-1 (the big DVR, not the small one) by
programming macros similar to those shown below. To make polite DVR messages, the DVR-1
must be running V1.50 or later firmware; older versions of DVR firmware will continue to work
but will not be polite and may cause the following (harmless) message to be printed to the
controller's serial port: "DVR is not responding (1), Error sending command to DVR".