Outback Power Systems MATE User Manual

Mate Serial Communications Guide

This guide is only relevant to Mate Code Revs. of 4.00 and greater

For additional information contact [e-mail]

Mate Serial Communication Guide Copyright 2007 © OutBack Power Systems, Inc.

19009 62nd Ave NE, Arlington WA 98223 USA

Page 1 of 20 Rev 4.04 10/21/08 Tel [phone] Fax [phone]

Revision History

Revision 2.0:

1. Added revision history.

2. Corrected some typos.

3. Added more typos.

4. Added Hub description to Mate Overview.

5. Added Baud rate description to Hardware section.

6. Changed inverter address description in FX Status Page.

7. Added to FX mode descriptions in FX Status Page.

8. Added to AC mode descriptions in FX Status Page.

9. Changed bit 5 warning mode description in FX Status Page.

10. Added MX Status Page.

11. Changed the description in Commands section.

12. Added information to Command Timing.

Revision 3.0:

1. Added Grid-Tie comm. information to FX Status Page section.
a. Changed FX operational mode bytes to reflect GT info.
b. Removed GT info from AC mode bytes.

Revision 3.01

1. Added to the Misc. byte definition for the FX (pg. 8)
a. Added note to divide all currents by 2 if the Unit has 230VAC output.

Revision 3.02 1. Clarified MX60 chksum calculations. (pg .12)

Revision 4.00 1. Add FLEXnet DC

Revision 4.01 1. Added battery temperature to FLEXnet DC.

2. Added Accumulated AH and kWH for all shunts to FLEXnet DC.

3. Added days since full to FLEXnet DC.

4. Added daily AH field MX.

Revision 4.02 1. Added clarifications for FLEXnet DC status bytes.

Revision 4.03 1. Minor naming convention updates.

2. Fixed reversed FNDC relay mode text.

3. Fixed reversed table entries “Relay State” and “Relay Mode” in Figure 14.

4. Added Net AH and kWH to FNDC extra data stream.

5. Added manual mode value to Figure 10.

Revision 4.04 1. Removed manual mode value from Figure 10.

Mate Serial Communication Guide Copyright 2007 © OutBack Power Systems, Inc.

19009 62nd Ave NE, Arlington WA 98223 USA

Page 2 of 20 Rev 4.04 10/21/08 Tel [phone] Fax [phone]

Mate Serial Communication Guide Copyright 2007 © OutBack Power Systems, Inc.

19009 62nd Ave NE, Arlington WA 98223 USA

Page 3 of 20 Rev 4.04 10/21/08 Tel [phone] Fax [phone]

Introduction

The purpose of this document is to describe the hardware and software protocols required to
communicate with the OutBack Power Systems MateTM remote controller via a PC. This information is
only relevant to Mate Code Revisions 4.00 and greater.

Mate Overview

Power Systems power conversion equipment. The Mate communicates with OutBack products through a
proprietary serial communication link, and receives pre defined status pages from whatever type of
OutBack product it is connected to. The Mate is also capable of issuing commands to OutBack products.
At this point, commands are limited to controlling an FX inverter. The Mate can be directly connected
to a single OutBack device, or to multiple devices using an OutBack HUB.

device directly connected to the Mate can be controlled.

STACK board. This is a low cost stacking board that allows the
FX’s to communicate with each other as is required for stacking.
The STACK board also has jacks to connect each device to a Mate.
The Mate can only communicate with the device that is plugged
into a corresponding jack. By manually plugging and unplugging
the Mate, all the devices can be setup and programmed. Plugging
the Mate into the master inverter, allows the Mate to control the
entire system via the master FX. In figure 1B FX1 would be
programmed as the master, and FX 2 as the slave. To control the
system as a whole the Mate would be normally left connected to
FX 1. In this configuration the Mate would only report the status of
FX 1, it does not have any ‘knowledge’ of FX 2. FX 1
communicates with FX 2 directly as a stacked pair, so when the
Mate tells FX 1 to turn on/off or change modes, FX 2 will follow
suit. At this time OutBack offers a STACK2 and a STACK4, for 2
and 4 FX units respectively.

communicate with up to 10 products simultaneously. All products connected to the HUB can report back
status to the Mate, but PC control of all the products is still via the master.

The Mate controller is designed to report status and control the operating modes of OutBack

Figure 1A shows the Mate directly connected to an OutBack FX or MX, obviously only the

Figure 1B shows the Mate connected to an OutBack

A

MATE FX or MX

MATE

B

MATE

C

STACK2

or

STACK4

HUB4or

HUB10

FX 1

FX 2

FX 1

FX 2

Figure 1

Figure 1C shows a Mate connected to an OutBack HUB. The HUB allows the Mate to

Mate Serial Communication Guide Copyright 2007 © OutBack Power Systems, Inc.

19009 62nd Ave NE, Arlington WA 98223 USA

Page 4 of 20 Rev 4.04 10/21/08 Tel [phone] Fax [phone]

Hardware

In addition to a LCD and buttons for display and control, an OutBack Mate provides an isolated
RS232 port for PC communication in the form of a female DB9 connector, running at a baud rate of
19200, 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit. The Mates’ serial port is optically isolated from the rest of the
OutBack products it is connected too. This isolation requires
that the Mate ‘steals’ power from the PC in order to

RX pin 2 of a DB 9

communicate. Figure 2 shows which lines of a standard PCs’
serial port are used. All pin numbers and names are referenced
from the PC.

The Mate requires that the DTR (pin 4) be driven high
(set) and that RTS (pin 7) be driven low (cleared), in order to
power the port. The Mate transmits data on the RX (pin 2) line,
and listens for commands on the TX (pin 3) line. GND (pin 5)
is ground. No other pins are used by the Mate.

PC Serial

Port

Figure 2

TX pin 3 of a DB 9

DTR pin 4 of a DB 9

RTS pin 7 of a DB 9

GND

Pin 5 of a DB9

Mate Serial

Port

The Mate uses the same USART to communicate with
Outback products that it does to talk to the PC. This requires that all PC to Mate comms must be
initiated by the Mate. Once a second the Mate will transmit a string of ASCII formatted data to the PC.
Simultaneously the Mate will listen for PC sent commands.

Communication Protocol

information dumped from devices connected to the Mate. This scheme will also allow for simple
commands to be passed from the PC to an OutBack product via the Mate. I’ll use the term status page to
indicate the data from a single device. The status pages sent from an FX have a different content then
those from an MX/FM, however the format is the same. I’ll start with describing the FX Status page.

FX Status Page

The status page the Mate emits for each FX connected is 49 Bytes long. Referring to the Figure 3
the byte definitions are as follows:

The only communication protocol supported at this time is an ASCII formatted status

separator

separator

Inverter current

Inverter Address

Start of Status Page

ASCII code

10 X 44 X X 44 X X 44 X X 44 X X X 44 X X X 44 X X 44 X X 44 X X X 44 X X 44 X X X 44 X X X 44 X X X 44 X X X 13

Byte 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49

separator

Charger current

separator

Buy current

AC input voltage

separator

AC output voltage

separator

separator

Sell current

separator

FX operational mode

AC mode

separator

Error modes

separator

Battery voltage

Misc

separator

separator

Warning modes

Chksum

separator

end of status page

Figure 3

Mate Serial Communication Guide Copyright 2007 © OutBack Power Systems, Inc.

19009 62nd Ave NE, Arlington WA 98223 USA

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BYTE

1. ASCII (10) New Line character denoting the start of the status page.

2. This is the Inverter address.

3. ASCII (44) a comma as a data separator.

4. Tens digit of Inverter current.

5. Ones digit of Inverter current.

6. ASCII (44) a comma as a data separator.

7. Tens digit of Charger current..

8. Ones digit of Charger current.

9. ASCII (44) a comma as a data separator.

10. Tens digit of Buy current..

11. Ones digit of Buy current.

12. ASCII (44) a comma as a data separator.

13. Hundreds digit of the AC input voltage.

14. Tens digit of AC input voltage.

15. Ones digit of AC input voltage.

16. ASCII (44) a comma as a data separator.

17. Hundreds digit of the AC output voltage.

18. Tens digit of AC output voltage.

19. Ones digit of AC output voltage.

20. ASCII (44) a comma as a data separator.

21. Tens digit of Sell current.

22. Ones digit of Sell current.

23. ASCII (44) a comma as a data separator.

24. Tens digit of FX operating mode.

25. Ones digit of FX operating mode.

26. ASCII (44) a comma as a data separator.

27. High byte of FX Error mode.

28. Middle byte of FX Error mode.

29. Low byte of FX Error mode.

30. ASCII (44) a comma as a data separator.

31. High byte of FX AC mode.

32. Low byte of FX AC mode
ASCII (44) a comma as a data separator.

33.

34. Tens digit of FX battery voltage.

35. Ones digit of FX battery voltage.

36. Tenths digit of FX battery voltage.

37. ASCII (44) a comma as a data separator.

38. High byte of FX Misc.

39. Middle byte of FX Misc.

40. Low byte of FX Misc.

41. ASCII (44) a comma as a data separator.

42. High byte of FX Warning mode.

43. Middle byte of FX Warning mode.

Mate Serial Communication Guide Copyright 2007 © OutBack Power Systems, Inc.

19009 62nd Ave NE, Arlington WA 98223 USA

Page 6 of 20 Rev 4.04 10/21/08 Tel [phone] Fax [phone]