multiIO / Supported devices / Cardinal
Cardinal Scale indicators
Seven indicators and six format cores, including two scoreboard drivers, an SMA implementation and emulations of two other manufacturers. A wider spread of output shapes than the entry count suggests.
7
Models
6
Output formats
20
Catalogue entries
Six of the seven indicators state no default for the serial format item at all, while stating one for every neighbouring item such as baud rate and data bits. That absence is recorded rather than filled in.
Models and the formats they offer
| Model | Output formats | Default baud |
|---|---|---|
| 185 | SB-400 · SMA | 9600 |
| 185B | SB-400 · SMA | 9600 |
| 190 | SB-400 · SMA · UPS WorldShip | 9600 |
| 201 | SMA ★ | 9600 |
| 205 | IQ355 · SB-200 · SB-400 · SMA | 9600 |
| 210 | IQ355 · SB-200 · SB-400 · SMA | 9600 |
| 225 | IQ355 · SB-400 · SB600 · SMA | 9600 |
The formats
Each one is a separate parser, because which format a site chose is not reliably detectable from the stream — you pick what the box's own menu is set to. Example frames below are produced by that format's own encoder and read back through its own parser.
SB-400
SB-400 scoreboard, and the ENQ weight reply
The same bytes the indicators answer an ENQ weight request with: sign, a six-digit weight with the decimal point embedded, a two-character unit, the gross/net character and Cardinal's two-character status pair.
⚠ The manuals disagree about whether there are spaces between the fields — the 185 and 185B print it with them, the 205, 210 and 225 print the same format without. Rather than pick one and mis-frame five indicators, whitespace between fields is optional: the field contents are unambiguous either way, so tolerating the separator costs nothing and assuming it costs a reading.
Example frame — 185, a stable 12.34 kg gross reading
·12.34kgG··<CR>
20 31 32 2E 33 34 6B 67 47 20 20 0D
12 bytes · decodes back to 12.34 kg
Verified against: 185 and 185B 8400-0181-OM Rev C · 190 8400-M022-O1 Rev P · 205 8200-M129-O1 Rev D · 210 8200-M585-O1 · 225 8200-0873-0M Rev A
SMA
SMA continuous output
The SMA standard response message as Cardinal implements it, offered by every indicator in the suite.
⚠ The Cardinal manuals contradict each other on the width of the weight field — the 185 says ten characters, which is what the SMA standard fixes it at, while four other manuals say six. Six is not a width the standard permits, and a box emitting it would not interoperate with the SMA hosts those same manuals claim compliance with. We accept six to ten and trim, which decodes either reading and cannot mis-scale a value, because the decimal point is embedded in the field.
Example frame — 201, a stable 12.34 kg gross reading
<LF>·1G······12.340kg·<CR>
0A 20 31 47 20 20 20 20 20 20 31 32 2E 33 34 30 6B 67 20 0D
20 bytes · decodes back to 12.34 kg
Verified against: 185 and 185B 8400-0181-OM Rev C · 190 8400-M022-O1 Rev P · 201 8400-M117-O1 Rev E · 205 8200-M129-O1 Rev D · 210 8200-M585-O1 · 225 8200-0873-0M Rev A
SB-200
SB-200 scoreboard
A scoreboard record carrying sign, weight, a single status character and a unit.
⚠ The framing is inverted relative to every other format in this suite — the record starts with CR and ends with ETX, which the manual stresses must terminate all serial commands. Anchoring on the ETX rather than the CR is what stops it being mistaken for an SB-400 record, whose CR is a terminator. Its status character is lower case, unlike the two-character pair the other formats use.
Example frame — 205, a stable 12.34 kg gross reading
<CR>·000012.34·kgG<ETX>
0D 20 30 30 30 30 31 32 2E 33 34 20 6B 67 47 03
16 bytes · decodes back to 12.34 kg
Verified against: 205 8200-M129-O1 Rev D · 210 8200-M585-O1
SB600
SB600 scoreboard
The only format in the suite carrying a scale number, plus a trailing traffic-light character.
The scale number is reported, because on a multi-scale installation it is the only thing distinguishing two otherwise identical records arriving on one port. The traffic-light character is reported as-is rather than interpreted — what red means is set up per site. The manual's documented overcapacity shape is matched explicitly rather than left to fail.
Example frame — 225, a stable 12.34 kg gross reading
%0·12.34kgG·<CR>
25 30 20 31 32 2E 33 34 6B 67 47 20 0D
13 bytes · decodes back to 12.34 kg
Verified against: 225 8200-0873-0M Rev A
IQ355
IQ355 — Rice Lake emulation
Cardinal's rendering of the Rice Lake IQ355 stream. STX-framed, with polarity, a seven-character weight, a single-letter unit, gross/net and a status character.
Its polarity character does double duty as a range flag, and over-range or under-range also fills the entire weight field with the same character — while a display overflow fills it with literal text. Three different shapes that all have to be recognised as "no usable number" rather than parsed as one. Verified from the 225, which prints the field table in full; the 205 and 210 offer the same format but print only the skeleton.
Example frame — 205, a stable 12.34 kg gross reading
<STX>···12.34KG·
02 20 20 20 31 32 2E 33 34 4B 47 20
12 bytes · decodes back to 12.34 kg
Verified against: 225 8200-0873-0M Rev A
UPS WorldShip
UPS WorldShip
Cardinal's rendering of the UPS WorldShip format, terminated CR LF EOT.
⚠ Case is load-bearing here, which is unusual and easy to lose. The two-character status carries mode and stability together — the same letters upper-cased mean settled and lower-cased mean in motion — so upper-casing the field before comparing it would silently report every moving weight as stable.
Example frame — 190, a stable 12.34 kg gross reading
12.34kgGR<CR><LF><EOT>
31 32 2E 33 34 6B 67 47 52 0D 0A 04
12 bytes · decodes back to 12.34 kg
Verified against: 190 8400-M022-O1 Rev P
Is your indicator here?
If it is, it works out of the box — pick the model and the format its menu is set to, and readings publish over MQTT, Modbus TCP, OPC UA, REST and six more transports at once. If it is not, describe the line's fields in the console and multiIO decodes it anyway, or send us the manual's serial chapter: that is how most of this catalogue got here.