Hello All,

The NoB is basically a Flock of four birds with two important exceptions-

The transmitter is NOT on FBB address 1, it is on address 4 (or 3 in a three sensor configuration). The flock _must_ be run in either cool-down or pulsed transmitter modes.

Non-pulsed mode, the default TX mode, will overheat the transmitter drive circuitry on the fourth (or third) card if run for long periods of time. The random number data output is the sensors picking up background base levels because the transmitter is not being activated.

I have attached source for initializing a Nest of Birds via RS232 commands. If it gets stripped, e-mail me directly for the code, or e-mail me for clarifications. If you need to be able to auto-detect the difference between a Flock array and a Nest of Birds array, generally the Nest will have the transmitter on FBB 3 or 4. This should work out well except for the unlikely event that a flock array is configured the same, in which case the Flock will error out, as it does not currently understand the cool-down TX mode command (not implemented in 3.67 firmware).

Now that I think of it, use the product type, which can be obtained from Examine Value -> System Model Identification. Flocks should return "6DFOB" while NoBs should return "MOTIONSTAR" when you poll the sensor cards and "PCBIRD" if you poll the TX card.

Please be sure to note that this RS232 interface will not work with the USB Nest of Birds. The USB version of the NoB uses a different API. You may want to add an addendum to that effect in your users manual. Customers may contact Ascension Tech Support directly to find out how to convert their NoB from USB to RS232. If you are interested in supporting the USB Nest of Birds API, we can help you-all with that too.

Kyle Smith
Ascension Technical Support