Linking Hardware Operators to Hardware Resources

In order to link a generic hardware operator to a specific hardware resource, the schema document must be linked with a controller module in a hardware interface document. (Recall that if the schema document has a white background, it isn't linked to a controller module---see Section 4.1.) The modules included in a hardware interface document define the hardware resources that are available for linking to the hardware operator.

Figure 4.12. Connect Operator to Hardware Dialog.

To associate the generic Analog Input hardware operator in your schema document with a specific analog input hardware resource, click the right mouse button on the operator image and select the Connect To Hardware item from the drop-down menu. (Note that if the schema document is not linked to a hardware interface document, the Connect To Hardware command will not appear in the drop-down menu.) Design Pad G4 will display the Hardware Connection dialog box shown in Figure 4.12. The dialog box contains a tree control that lists the modules available in the controller node that contain hardware resources that can be linked to the selected operator. The list control also contains an entry labeled "Disconnected"---select this option if you wish to disconnect an operator from its associated hardware resource. In this example, only the PCM-1 module contains analog input resources, so the tree control only contains the PCM-1 module and its four analog inputs as possible selections. You can hover over any of the hardware resources to view a description of that resource.

To complete the connection, double-click on the PCM-1 module's "AIn2" hardware resource and click the OK button. The background color of the Analog Input operator will change to light green to indicate that the PCM-1 module is the source of the analog input operator signal. Next, connect the Relay operator to the output channel 3 of the DAM-1 module as follows:

• Click the right mouse button on the Relay operator
• Select the Connect To Hardware item from the drop-down menu
• Double-click on the "Rly3" resource in the "DAM-1" branch of the tree control
• Click the OK button

The background color of the Relay operator should now change to light yellow, corresponding to the title bar color of the DAM-1 module. Follow the same procedure to connect all of the other hardware operators to specific resources in the available modules.