Sorting Gate Setup

Fusion can be set up to automatically control a sorting gate during a chuteside job as long as the sorting gate meets these requirements:

• Fusion must be able to communicate with the sorting gate over a serial port.
• The sorting gate must accept some kind of code over the serial port that tells it which direction to move.
• The sorting gate must be capable of receiving new direction signals before the last signal has completed a direction change without harming the sorting gate system.

If these requirements are met, you can set up the sorting gate as described next. Then, any chuteside job that has the sorting gate option turned on will control the sorting gate automatically.

Setup Fields

Serial Port Setup Tab

• Port. Choose the port the sorting gate is connected to. If you make changes to ports in the operating system while this window is open, click the Refresh Port List button. Fusion will ask the operating system for available ports and any new ones can be chosen from the list.
• Baud Rate - Encoding. All of these settings need to match what the sorting gate is expecting. You will need to see the sorting gate manual or contact the manufacturer if you are not sure what these settings should be. If you and the manufacturer are unsure what the Encoding field should be, leave it set to ISO-8859-1.

If you are having trouble figuring out what the Termination String field should be we refer you to the Resource Guide which goes into more depth.

Communication Setup Tab

In this tab you let Fusion know how many directions the sorting gate is capable of and the code that needs to be sent to the sorting gate for each direction. Select a direction and use the fields to the right to edit the direction label and direction code. Use the + and - buttons to add or remove directions. When you later set up a job that uses the sorting gate, you will be able to assign the pen or sort group that should trigger each direction.

Note that if the Direction Code includes hidden characters (like a carriage return), make sure you enter the ASCII equivalents surrounded by less than and greater than signs, as the default direction codes show. You will need to get the actual codes from the sorting gate manufacturer. You can use the … button to make it easier to enter these special codes.

The Settle Time setting is used to ask Fusion to wait a certain amount of time after the animal has entered the squeeze before sending a signal to the sorting gate. For example, if it usually takes two or three seconds for the previous animal to get past the sorting gate, you don't want Fusion to ask the sorting gate to switch positions before the animal is through. Make sure you set this to a safe amount of time for your particular setup.

Getting Here

You can open this window by clicking the appropriate Setup… button in the Physical Computer Management window.

Related Topics

• Physical Computer Management Window
• Serial Port Debugger Window