Preface
E870-EG01 is an edge computing gateway with a featured feature of nodred visual programming. The product has three different ways to access the network, namely 4G, Ethernet, and WiFi. At the same time, in terms of output, the device has the function of routing, supporting AP mode and Lan port Ethernet switching. In terms of other interfaces, the device has RS485 serial ports, RS232 serial port, and an 8-28V DC power input. Provides hardware support for different application environments.
In terms of featured functions, E870-EG01 supports nodered visual programming operations. In addition to most official nodes, there are also advanced nodes developed by us. In order to distinguish from competitors, each of our self-developed nodes has unique characteristics. This time, we will give priority to introducing our two self-developed nodes with obvious external characteristics.
Featured Node Introduction
1. Serial Port Node
There are already many products that support nodered on the market today, so how to stand out with their own characteristics? The first thing to bear the brunt is our serial port node:
The main function of the serial port node is to achieve efficient and stable communication between devices. It connects various sensors, controllers or terminal devices through standard serial interfaces (such as RS232, RS485, etc.) to provide reliable physical layer support for data transmission. The simplest application method is to connect an injection node, a serial port node (note that the wait response function in the node configuration must be turned off), and a debug node. After deployment, click Inject. At this time, our serial port will receive the data sent by the injection node. If we send back a packet of data through the serial port, the data will be displayed in the debug window through the debug node.
Then some friends will ask, what are the special features of our serial port node? I believe everyone has noticed why our serial port node has three output ports. This is our uniqueness. The first output port is a debugging output port. We can use this output port to obtain the status and output information of the serial port node. The second output port is the receiving port. This output port is generally used to output the data sent by the serial port to nodred and output it. The third output port is the reply port. This output port needs to be used in conjunction with the waiting response function. Speaking of the waiting response function, after it is turned on and actively sends data, a reply must be received within the time configured by the user, otherwise the serial port will report a timeout. This function is generally used for modbus command interaction. The following figure shows the normal status of using modbus nodes and serial port nodes.
It should be noted that in the application of the above figure, we need to connect the parsing node to the third output port of the serial port node, and the waiting response function needs to be enabled in the serial port node. The above preparations will take effect normally only after they are completed.
2. LED node
The main function of the LED node is to control the LED lights on the device to flash or stay on as required through special instructions. The EG01 gateway comes with 4 controllable LED lights. The action of this node will change the state according to the values of ontime and offtime. We can control the flashing frequency of the LED lights by adjusting the values of the two.
According to the above description, we can even make the 4 LED lights flash at different frequencies to achieve the purpose. Of course, the most basic usage of this node is to use three injection nodes and change the variables of these injection nodes to ontime and offtime as shown below.
When both ontime and offtime have values, the LED light will flash according to the configured value after injection. When ontime has a value and offtime is 0, the LED light will be always on. When the values of ontime and offtime are both 0, the LED light will be off. Therefore, we can configure all LED lights as shown in the figure below, but it should be noted that all nodes will be reset each time they are deployed, which means that the LED lights will be off. At this time, we need to re-inject parameters to activate the LED.
Since E870-EG01 is a new product, there is a long period of update and optimization time. We will add more and better nodes to the product in the future, and finally realize an industrial product with complete functions and excellent user experience.