GE-FanucIC600BF949LSeries Six ASCII/BASIC Coprocessor Module, 28K User Memory, Dual Serial RS-232C / RS-422

Product Description

What this part is

GE Fanuc IC600BF949L is the 28K ASCII/BASIC Module for the Series Six programmable controller. BASIC in the catalogue name is the programming language. The module is a serial coprocessor with a full BASIC interpreter on board, plus two serial ports, running its own user-written program alongside the PLC ladder without consuming CPU scan time.

Order code breakdown

IC600: GE Fanuc Series Six / Series Six Plus family. BF: supplied as circuit board and faceplate together, the YB prefix on this platform being the bare board without faceplate. 949: the 28K byte user-memory version of the ASCII/BASIC module, IC600BF944 being the 12K byte version of the same board. Trailing letter L: hardware revision level, not a capacity or function change.

Published specifications

Function: ASCII/BASIC coprocessor module with resident BASIC interpreter. User program memory: 28K bytes, battery-backed RAM. Serial ports: two, independently configurable, Port 1 RS-232C and Port 2 RS-232C or RS-422. Data rates: 110 to 19,200 bps, switch selectable. Data format: 7 or 8 data bits, even, odd or no parity, 1 or 2 stop bits. Maximum cable length: 50 ft (15 m) on RS-232C, 4,000 ft (1,200 m) on RS-422. Isolation: 1,500 V rms transient, port to logic common. Power: 5 V DC from the rack supply at 20 units of load, with no +12 V required. Interrupts: 16, software, timer and event driven. Real-time clock: on board, for time-stamping. Rack space: one I/O slot in a Series Six CPU rack or High Capacity I/O rack. Operating temperature: 0 to 60 °C. Humidity: 5–95% non-condensing. Altitude: to 10,000 ft.

Specifications in application

The BASIC interpreter provides floating-point maths, trigonometric functions (SIN, COS, TAN, LOG, ABS, INT), and string handling (STR$, CHR$) that Series Six ladder does not cover. Typical duty is formatting reports to a printer, logging batch data, parsing serial strings from a bar-code reader or scale, translating a foreign serial protocol, or running recipe arithmetic.

It is a coprocessor rather than an instruction extension: the module holds its own program in its own 28K of RAM, and ladder logic passes variables to it and reads results back through %I, %Q and %R references using special CPU commands. Scan time is unaffected by the size of the BASIC program, which makes the board a retrofit route for logging or protocol conversion on an existing machine without altering control-program timing.

Port choice follows distance. RS-232C on Port 1 covers 50 ft, which reaches a printer in the same panel or an adjacent cabinet. Port 2 in RS-422 covers 4,000 ft and supports a daisy chain. The 1,500 V rms port isolation holds those links stable in a bay with arc welders or large drives on the same supply.

Program memory

User memory is battery-backed RAM. On a surplus board of this age the backup cell is at end of life and no BASIC program is retained.

What is included

Circuit board with faceplate, as pictured, which is what the BF prefix denotes. This listing does not include a rack, backplane or CPU rack power supply; a CPU, memory module or Communications Control Module; serial cables or mating D-type connector kits for either port; a printer, modem or terminal; a fresh backup battery; the ASCII/BASIC Module Manual (GEK-25398); or Logicmaster 6 programming software. Both serial cables are built to the connected device’s requirements and are not supplied.

Mounting data

Rack space: one I/O slot in a Series Six CPU rack or High Capacity I/O rack; a standard low-capacity I/O rack does not support the module. DIP-switch addressing and the per-port baud rate, parity and duplex options are set on the board, both ports configuring independently. The board is fitted and removed with the extraction/insertion tool supplied with the CPU. Faceplate LEDs show module OK plus per-port transmit and receive activity. Terminating-resistor configuration applies at the end of an RS-422 run. The module is static-sensitive.

Interchange guidance

All IC600BF949 revision letters, -A through -Z including this L, are the same catalogue item. IC600BF944 shares the footprint and function with only 12K bytes of user memory, so a 28K program exceeds it, while a 12K program runs in this board. The bare-board variant without faceplate is listed under IC600YB944 for repair use. Related Series Six items sold separately include the IC600LX624 combined memory module, IC600CB516/CB536 Communications Control Modules, and IC600BF/IC600YB discrete and analog I/O boards. Also searched as IC600-BF-949L, IC600 BF 949, BF949, IC600BF949M, and GE Series 6 ASCII BASIC module.