Campbell CCFC Instruction Manual - 14. Rs-485 Communications

CCFC Field Camera 

76 

14. RS-485 Communications 

The optional RS-485 communication interface of the CCFC can be used in 

conjunction with the MD485 to interface a datalogger to one or more cameras. 

Refer to the MD485 Manual for additional information.  

This value is displayed on the web interface under Settings>File 

Transfer>PakBus.  

The MD485 is useful for connecting more than one camera to a datalogger or if 

long cable lengths are involved. If multiple cameras are connected to an 

MD485, it would be beneficial to offset the capture times of the photos so that 

only one camera is attempting to transmit a file at any given time. 

The camera can download photos or video via an RS-485 port using the 

PakBus protocol. An MD485 is required to interface the camera to a 

datalogger. The following items are required for RS-485 PakBus 

communications and can be confirmed by either the web interface of the 

Device Configuration Utility: 

x  Confirm that the PakBus port parameter of the Communications 

Setting is reading RS-485. 

x  Set the RS-485 BAUD rate to match the BAUD rate of the device 

being connected to the camera. 

x  Set the parameter PakBus Address of Communication Settings to a 

unique value in the PakBus network. 

x  Set the parameter PakBus Destination Address of the device that the 

camera needs to send photos to. 

x  Include PakBus Security Code, as required. 

15.  Send Via PakBus: PakBus Communications 

The CCFC camera uses the PakBus protocol to send photo or video files from 

the camera to a Campbell Scientific datalogger or other PakBus compatible 

devices. The Loggernet Tool PakBus Graph can be used to change the 

configuration of a camera. The use of the PakBus Graph is discussed in Section 

15.2 Send Via PakBus: PakBus Graph Operations. Refer to the Loggernet 

literature or software for more details.  

PakBus can also be used to control specific operational parameters and to 

transfer variables or text between the datalogger and camera. When a photo or 

video file is ready to be transmitted, the camera will initiate communications 

and send the photo or video via the selected serial interface. 

The CCFC is capable of producing video files that exceed 30MB. Trying to 

send such a large file to a datalogger using PakBus can be problematic. For this 

reason, the CCFC is setup to not send any files using PakBus that are larger 

than 2MB.