ASCII protocol

Appendix N

Jupiter ASCII Communications Protocol

Revision E 1/11/2000

Hardware connections for an external computer are shown on page 2–76.

Set–up in the Jupiter Control System File Server includes defining one or more port pairs as being ASCII in the Seri-
al Protocol Table (page 5–27).

The control computer is identified on the MPK Devices table (page 5–149). You will need to define each port as be-
ing type “Serial”, and give each port a CP Level, Input, and Output Set. These sets will determine which levels, in-
puts, and outputs are available to each ASCII port to control and status.

The ASCII Computer Interface is assigned to a SC 3000, SI 3000, or VM 3000 serial port pair and uses a simple
ASCII data format defined below. The serial protocol defaults to 9600 Baud, 8 Data Bits, No Parity, and 1 Stop Bit.
Baud rates of 2400, 4800, 19.2K and 38.4K are also user–configurable from the Jupiter Control System File Server.
The control port uses XON (0x11) and XOFF (0x13) to control command pacing if necessary.

All commands are in upper case ASCII. Space (0x20) characters are optional and will be ignored. Each command is
followed by a carriage return (0x0D). If a line feed (0x0A) is included it must follow the carriage return.

The controlling computer must take care to wait for a ZY or ZN response after each command before attempting to
send a subsequent command. Failure to do so will result in a ZN response, and possibly an XOFF condition. If
switcher status is received, wait for all levels to be statused before sending another command.

Here is a key to help you understand the following command descriptions:

OOO –––> Router Switcher OUTPUT. This corresponds with the “Selection” number defined in this
ASCII port’s CP Output Set. The range is from 000 to 999. (Previous releases had a range
from 000 to 249.)

III –––––––> Router Switcher INPUT. This corresponds with the “Selection” number defined in this
ASCII port’s CP Input Set. (Previous releases had a range from 000 to 249.)

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 ASCII protocol

LLLLLLL –––> Router Switcher LEVELS. This corresponds with a logical position in this ASCII port’s
CP Level Set. The range is from 1 to 7. For example, 1 refers to the first entry in the CP
Level Set, and 5 refers to the fifth entry in that same set. If no levels are specified, then
the take is assumed to apply to all levels defined in that set. Level number entries are
NOT position–dependent.

ASCII General Purpose Commands

ZA Acknowledge This command is used to see if the ASCII interface

exists and is running. A response of ZA is returned
whenever a ZA is received.

ZZ Reset This command forces the ASCII controller to reset.

This causes the interface to cancel all previous ZP,
ZV, and ZW commands. A ZX response is returned
to the external computer upon command completion.
This ZX is also returned whenever the interface is
manually reset.

ZY Command Accepted This response is returned after the serial port has
(ACK) successfully parsed the command and in the case of a
switch command has successfully issued the TAKE to
the system and received a switch response back from
the system. This does NOT mean that the command
was successfully executed. The remote computer
should not issue a new command until receiving a ZY
or ZN from the current command. The amount of
time for the response will vary depending on system
complexity and current system activity. Also the
number of switches involved in the command will
affect the amount of time it takes to receive the ZY
response. Multiple switches sent in one command
may result in ZR response(s) being returned before
the ZY response.

ZN Command Rejected A ZN will be issued when a condition occurs where

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 ASCII protocol

(NAK) the current command cannot be executed. A ZN re-

sponse can be issued for several reasons such as an
invalid command, an invalid command format, or an
invalid input, output or level. Invalid inputs, outputs
and levels are logged to the system logger. Also if the
system is busy a ZN will be issued followed by
XOFF. When it is again ready for the next command
a XON will be issued. Note that after the XON, re-
sponse(s) from the prior command may be issued
(e.g. ZR response(s)).

Router Switcher Control and Status Commands

ZSOOOIIILLLLLLL Switch Request This command causes the interface to issue a TAKE
Switch Request to the routing switcher control system
and affects a single routing switcher output. If no
levels are specified, then ALL defined levels are as-
sumed.

Note: Passwords are not honored by automation pro-

tocol handling.

A remote computer can send a command with multi-

ple Switch Requests (older releases do not have this
capability). A single command can be up to 180 char-
acters long which allows switching of from 12–22
outputs (depending on the specified levels). An ex-
ample of a multiple Switch Request follows:

ZS00000112ZS00100212ZS00200312<CR>

This example command would switch outputs 0, 1,

and 2 on levels 1 and 2.

ZROOO Status Request This command requests current switcher status for a
single output. The response is in the format:

ZROOOIIILLLLLLL.

If the status for the output is “split”, multiple re-

sponses will be returned.

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 ASCII protocol

ZWOOO Watch Output This command causes the interface to watch the
specified output for any changes and report such
changes. A request to watch output “999” is a request
to watch all defined outputs in that port’s serial output
set. All responses are in the “ZR” format described
above. When issued, this command also may result in
an immediate ZR response for the requested out-
put(s). No ZR response(s) will be returned if the re-
quested output(s) do not have any inputs assigned to
them.

ZPOOO Lock Output This command LOCKS the specified output from
being changed by any system control device.

ZVOOO Protect Output This command PROTECTS the specified output from
being changed by any other system control device.

ZUOOO Unlock Output This command removes the LOCK or PROTECT

from the specified system output. If another system
control device or interface locked or protected this
output, this command will fail.

ZJOOO Report Lock Status This command will return a code based on which
kind of system control device or interface LOCKED
or PROTECTED the specified output. If the output is
not locked or protected, no response will be sent. The
response codes are as follows:

ZJ000 Jupiter Control Panel

ZJ001–004 Party Line Control Panel

ZJ999 THIS ASCII INTERFACE

Note: Lock status returned for the first level only in

the CP Level Set for this ASCII port.

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