Van Essen RGC920 Tide Gauge - 22
Description
Driver to decode tide height observations and response codes from a Van Essen RGC920 tide gauge receiver.
The Qinsy driver interrogates the receiver for new data.
It can handle multiple tide observations from more than one transmitter and more than one channel.
Transmitter, channel and tide gauge are entered as slots.
Driver Information
| Driver | Van Essen RGC920 Tide Gauge | Interface Type | Serial | Driver Class Type | Unknown |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
UTC Driver  | No | Input / Output | Input (two-way) | Executable | DrvRGC920.exe 1P |
| Related Systems |
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| Related Pages | |||||
Decoding Notes
The response codes are transferred to the quality indicators of the tide observations that are defined for a certain transmitter-channel combination. These quality indicators can be shown in a Observation Physics display.
If a response is negative (or positive with a non-valid data code), i.e. in case of an error, the quality indicators will give the negative code and the tide value and time will not be updated.
For positive responses, the quality indicator will give the positive code.
If an observation did not update, the indicator will be 0.
The driver checks the observation code for "CM" or "DM" and if found, converts the tide value to meters.
Interfacing Notes
Because the Qinsy driver needs to send commands to the RGC920 receiver to get a response, it is important that the cable wiring between the receiver port and the COM port is bi-directional to allow two-way traffic.
The cable wiring must follow the full RS-232C protocol, i.e. connect also the Request to Send and Clear to Send wire (see APPENDIX A: RS-232 Connector Pin Assignments).
According to the RGC920 manual the I/O parameters should be 9600 baud, 8 databits, 1 stop bit, no parity.
Database Setup
Slot 1
Slot 1 of a tide observation must be the first part of the identification field in a response message. Usually this is the name of the tide gauge. It is not required to enter a full name, as long as the first characters match exactly.
E.g., tide station Dintelhaven identifies itself with DINTELHAVEN, but you can fill in for slot 1 the name DINTEL. Notice that a slot 1 number must be unique for a transmitter-channel-method combination.
Slot 2
Slot 2 of a tide observation must denote the transmitter (zender) number for the corresponding tide station.
Drivers IO Notes
The channel number (kanaal) will be default "1" and the method is default "P".
To change the default values for channel number and method, use different command line parameters in the Drivers.io file, located in the Qinsy program folder.
Search in this file for the driver entry "DrvRGC920.exe 1P".
The first parameter (1) is the channel number and the second parameter (P) indicates the method. Do not alter the length of the line.