Level Developments LCH-45 Operating manual

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A First Use Guide for LCH Inclinometers Using the RS232 Serial Interface.
Hello Angles...
A First Use Guide for LCH-45 & LCH-360 Inclinometers:
RS232 Interface with
LD Standard Communication Protocol.

A First Use Guide for LCH Inclinometers Using the RS232 Serial Interface.
Who Is This Guide For
The purpose of this guide is to show the correct procedure for connecting and using digital LCH
inclinometers with a Windows PC for the first time.
This document can be followed by users of all skill levels including absolute beginners.
Preface:
Take care while making all connections. To avoid damaging your product do not allow any wires to
make contact with anything you do not intend (especially a source of power).
Once your connections have been made and the unit is responding correctly, please refer to the product
datasheet for the full command list(s) and more information about the communication protocol.
Quick-start Guide for the LCH Series Inclinometer:
Step 1: Ensure You Have a Working COM Port (Hardware).
Many PCs and Laptops have a built-In
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COM (communication) port which looks like this:
The above connector is known as a DB-9 Male & shouldn’t be confused with “VGA” which looks like this:
If your PC or laptop doesn’t have this connection you can buy a separate USB to COM adapter. For this
guide we have used the “StarTech ICUSB 3 DB 5” which is inexpensively available online:
✔


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A First Use Guide for LCH Inclinometers Using the RS232 Serial Interface.
Step 2: Ensure You Have a Working COM Port (Software):
On your computer go to “Device Manager” which can be accessed via the control panel:
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For Built-In COM ports:
In most cases the driver will be installed and working already. Typically this will be called “Communications
Port (COM1)” meaning that “COM1” is the port we would use to communicate with the inclinometer.
If you have bought a separate USB to COM Port:
Follow the manufacturer’s instructions to install your driver and check that it has installed properly.

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A First Use Guide for LCH Inclinometers Using the RS232 Serial Interface.
The name & port number that’s automatically allocated to this device can vary. Make a note of the port
number that the device has been allocated. Our example USB to COM device is using “COM9” so this is the
port number we would use to communicate with the inclinometer.
1 &
For both Built-in or Separate types:
If the COM device symbol looks like this: then you will need to troubleshoot the device driver problem.
(A good place to start is the website for the manufacturer of the hardware).
Step 3: Connect the Inclinometer wires to the COM Port:
Full RS 3 connections for the LCH-45 inclinometer are as follows:
LCH
Wire Colour
LCH Wire
Function
Connects to…
(Function)
…On DB-9 Pin
Number
Red +ve Power Input +ve Supply
(9 to 30V)
Not connected to
DB-9
Blue 0V Power input &
RS 3 GND
0V Supply
& COM GND. 5
Yellow RS 3 Transmit RS 3 Receive
Green RS 3 Receive RS 3 Transmit 3
As the built-in COM port / USB to COM device is fitted with a male type connector you will need a female
type connector to make the necessary solder connections for communication only as shown below:
( ack side of the female D -9 connector & the required Inclinometer connections)
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5
6
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A First Use Guide for LCH Inclinometers Using the RS232 Serial Interface.
Step 4: Connecting the Inclinometer to the Power Supply / Power Source:
Ensure the power source is switched off & connect the Inclinometers red wire to the +Ve node.
The power source should provide between 4.9V (minimum) & 15V (maximum).
If you are using a battery or have no on/off option available then leave the red wire disconnected for now.
Connect the blue wire to the 0V (-Ve) node of the power source whilst it’s still connected to pin 5 of the
DB-9 connector as shown in the illustration below.
Once you’ve made all of the necessary connections you can switch on the power source or connect the red
wire to “+” if using a battery.
Step 5: Connecting an Inclinometer to the Level Developments Inclinometer App:
We recommend using the inclinometer app before attempting to create your own more advanced
commands, this ensures that you have the correct connections and your hardware is working as it should.
Download and install the application from our website:
https://www.leveldevelopments.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/software/Inclinometer_App.zip
Run the Inclinometer App and select the port number that was
determined earlier in Step .
By default the inclinometers baud rate setting is 38400(bps),
ensure this is selected and click on “Connect”.
You should now see angles being displayed on the screen.

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A First Use Guide for LCH Inclinometers Using the RS232 Serial Interface.
Step 6: Sending Your Own Commands Using an RS232 Terminal / Serial Monitor Program:
To create your own commands you will need a serial monitoring application. For the purpose of this
demonstration we are using Docklight but there are many to choose from. The layout and terminology
used in your terminal program may vary.
A free trial version of Docklight can be downloaded from https://docklight.de with some minor limitations.
Please see their website for more information.
Open your application and locate the project settings window. In Docklight this can be accessed by double-
clicking the highlighted area below or going to tools, project settings.
You can then change the COM channel (port number) to match the value determined in step .
The default baud setting for all LCH-45 sensors is 38400, with
8 data bits, 1 stop bit and no parity.
Click OK then open the port by clicking on the  button:
Once the port is open, the  button should be visible as
shown below:
The  button can then be used to close the port if required.
(Note: the port can only be open in 1 application at a time).

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A First Use Guide for LCH Inclinometers Using the RS232 Serial Interface.
You can now begin to create the commands to send to the Inclinometer. To do this go to Edit,
Edit Send Sequence List…
This will open the window shown below. You can see that we’ve given our first command a description
(highlighted) and created our first command in the sequence window.
By default all LCH-45 inclinometers are set to respond in 3 bit signed integer mode which can’t be read by
eye, so the first command we will send to the device is “setoasc”. This will change the output (response)
mode to ASCII format.
Note that all send sequences in the LD command set must be 7 bytes long and lower case.
Once you have filled in the send sequence press OK.

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A First Use Guide for LCH Inclinometers Using the RS232 Serial Interface.
This will save the new command into the sequence list as shown below. You can now send the command
to the Inclinometer by clicking on the “—>” button. This will print the command “setoasc” (Tx) into the
monitor window & and the inclinometer should respond (Rx) with “OK” to indicate success.
You can now create a nd command to request the angles from the Inclinometer.
Open the “Edit Sequence List…” as shown before and click on the “>” button to go to a new blank
command.
Create the new command “get-x&y” as shown below then click on OK.
(If you are using an LCH-360, use the command “get-360” instead)

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A First Use Guide for LCH Inclinometers Using the RS232 Serial Interface.
Send the new command to Inclinometer by clicking on the “—>” button.
The inclinometer should now respond with an 18 byte string in the following format:
±xxx.xxx,±yyy.yyy<CR>
(For 360° products this will return a 9 byte string such as ±025.430<CR>)
& That’s It!
You can now use the “get-x&y” command to read angles from your Inclinometer and these techniques to
build on your collection of send sequences using the full list of commands as described on the product
datasheet.