EBME Forums Forums Maintenance Technical Assistance Communication with Alaris/Asena Syringe Pump

Hi all!

I am trying to establish a communication between a PC and an Asena infusion pump (GH model) through the RS232 port and I am having some problems.

I have enabled the RS232 communication option on the Asena pump. I have downloaded the document that explains the "Asena Syringe Pump Communications Protocol" (page 85 of http://www.frankshospitalworkshop.com/eq...vice_manual.pdf) and, following such protocol, I have sent multiple messages to the pump via the RS232 interface using the Docklight software. However, I do not receive any response from the pump.

In the following, I show one of the messages I've been trying to send to the pump.

According to the "Asena Syringe Pump Communications Protocol", the "INF" message allows to query current infusion status. According to the protocol rules, I suppose that I should send the following message to the pump (in hexadecimal):

21 49 4E 46 7C 49 61 0D

21: start of frame marker ('!')
49 4E 46: INF message
7C: frame delimiter ('|')
49 61: CRC-CCITT function applied to "INF"
0D: packet terminator

However, after sending this message, I do not get any response from the pump. Does anybody know what I am doing wrong?

Thanks!

daft question i am about to ask, have you enabled rs232 in the config?

Hi everybody! I finally found the mistake. Each digit of the result obtained after applying the CRC function must be converted to hexadecimal. The correct message in hexadecimal for the previous example is the following:

21 49 4E 46 7C 34 39 36 31 0D

21: start of frame marker ('!')
49 4E 46: INF message
7C: frame delimiter ('|')
34 39 36 31: CRC-CCITT function applied to "INF" = 4961. Then, each character in 4961 is translated to hexadecimal (4=34, 9=39, 6=36, 1=31).
0D: packet terminator

Interesting. Well done!

Welcome to the forum, by the way.

Nice to see someone sticking at it, thinking about a problem and solving it, rather than just saying help and waiting for an answer.
Well done.
Robert

... not that we ever see anything like that on this forum, of course!

Hi...

I am trying to establish a communication between a PC and an Asena infusion pump (GH model) through the RS232 port and I am having some problems. I cannot have one response from the pump. I just try everything... I don´t know if i'm doing something wrong...

Mmartinez since you have some good results can ou help me... tell me the steps that ou have done...

Do you have to change something in the pump options?
(i have just enabled the RS232 communication option on the Asena pump)

I just read the communication protocol and i´m sending correct messages... so i don't know what i'm doing wrong... If it helps i'm using LabView to communicate and i just tryed Docklight too..

Thanks....

Welcome to the forum, Bruno.

I'm not sure that this is going to help you, but (looking at this thread again) what our Spanish friend really meant (in the example he gave) was:-

"Then, each character in 4961 is translated to the hexadecimal value of the ASCII character (4=34, 9=39, 6=36, 1=31)".

That is:-

4 : ASCII 52 dec or 34 hex
9 : ASCII 57 dec or 39 hex
6 : ASCII 54 dec or 36 hex
1 : ASCII 49 dec or 31 hex

I can't comment further as I don't have to hand the protocol document mentioned. Other than:- are you using the correct inter-connecting cable? That is, straight versus null-modem (and, to be honest, I can't remember which one you need - but I would suspect straight).

why not get a copy of the coms software from carefusion