Industrial Engineer · phase 5 of 16
Baud Rate / Parity
Serial communication settings that define bit timing and optional error checking and must match at both ends.
The Explain card
- Plain English
- Baud rate is how fast the bits are sent on a serial line, and parity is an optional extra bit that lets the receiver catch a corrupted byte. Both must be set identically at every device on the link.
- Example
- A meter set to 9600 baud, 8 data bits, even parity, 1 stop bit. The PLC port set to 19200 hears nothing but noise from it.
- Why it matters
- A mismatch produces silence or garbage rather than an error message, so serial troubleshooting starts by reading every device's settings off its label or its menu. Write them on the panel drawing while you are there.
- Hook
- Same speed, same rules, or nobody hears anything.
Where it sits in the deck
Phase 5: PLC Industrial Communications
The protocols that let controllers, drives and operator panels talk, plus the addressing and description files that make them agree on what was said.
