4.1 Installation

  1. Download and install the LabVIEW Runtime Engine
  2. Download and install the NI-VISA Driver
  3. Download and run the BotBlox ARIES executable file, available on GitHub.

4.2 Hardware Setup

  1. Connect your BotBlox board to power, following datasheet supply voltage recommendations.
Board SKU Required power Sanity checks
SwitchBlox Industrial BB-SWI-A-1 5-60 VDC, 0.75 Watts Maximum Verify that the main RGB LED is bright green, which confirms that firmware is running on the board. (A board that does not have firmware flashed will show dim red on the RGB LED, all boards shipped have firmware loaded and so you should see bright green).
  1. Connect the board’s serial port to the PC either directly or through a USB to Serial Converter. (Where is the serial port? Refer to the page below).

SwitchBlox Industrial

4.3 Pre-flight checks

  1. Check that your serial port appears in Windows Device Manager. If you have multiple COM ports, you may wish to disconnect/reconnect your device to clarify which one you are using.

ARIES Diagrams.drawio (1).png

  1. It is a good idea to use a third-party serial tool (we recommend PuTTY) to check that your Serial device is working. Wire TX to RX on your serial device an open up a serial terminal. When you type a character, you should see that character echo’d on window, confirming your USB to serial device is setup.
  2. Once you have confirmed that your serial device is working, you can proceed.

4.4 Connecting to the board and reading the board ID

  1. Connect your serial device to the board with the following connections
    1. Serial TX on the BotBlox board (output) to Serial RX on the external serial device (input)
    2. Serial RX on the BotBlox board (input) to Serial TX on the external serial device (output)
    3. Ground on the BotBlox board to ground on the external serial device
  2. From the downloaded files, Open BotBlox ARIES.

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  1. On the Serial Port Settings panel, click the Serial Port Name dropdown and locate the COM port associated with your serial device.

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