I'm writing a labview application to drive a couple of SmartMotors. I keep noticing the syntax error flag being set, often when I haven't sent any commands. It seems to reset itself arbitrarily too. I also see it set on the second motor every time I have done a "find motors" in the SMI.
What actually causes a syntax error? As a test I tried sending gibberish to a motor but it just ignored it, no syntax error.
Communications seem to be working fine by the way. I'm using 2 motors daisy-chained on RS232.
A syntax error will occur when any invalid command comes in through the serial port.
Note: If the motors are addressed, they will ignore all data unless their address is specified. Syntax errors can also occur due to electrical noise corrupting the command.
Thanks. Today it is behaving as it should. If I send an invalid command like "1H" or "1£$%^" then it sets the syntax error flag. It wasn't doing that yesterday - very odd.
I'll try to check the RS232 link by sending repeated commands.
Edit:
I just ran the tuning utility on both motors and no syntax errors appeared. I think that counts as a thorough test!