PDA

View Full Version : acqiring data from rs232

Sharma Arvind
11-08-07, 02:32
Hi,

I want to acquire data into dbf from an electronic weighing machine through RS232 serial interface.

I want to acquire data and store it in dbf and then use in foxpro (DOS) software.

Kindly help me in acquiring data in DOS.
SimonMT
11-08-07, 09:24
It is a long time since I have had to do this 10 years or so but we managed it with SLIP - Serial Line Interface Protocol. But someone my have a better idea.

Simon
loquin
11-12-07, 12:32
Are you looking for a package which will do this for you, or for help with programming a solution yourself?

If the former, I would suggest Google, using search parameters of +DOS +"Serial Data Acquisition" (http://www.google.com/search?q=%2BDOS+%2B%22Serial+Data+Acquisition%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official) or, contact the weigh scale manufacturer. One package which might work for you is TALtech's File-Wedge (http://www.taltech.com/TALtech_web/products/daindex.html).

In either case, if there's ANY possibility of getting a Windows machine into the picture, it would be very beneficial, as there are a LOT of products available for windows programming, and data collection. If nothing else, you could add a windows computer with 2 serial ports to read the serial comm from the weigh scale and echo it to the existing computer. That way, you could sample it and store it in the data file. (assuming that you have networking enabled on the DOS machine)

If you cannot get the DOS computer changed over to windows, or adding a monitor per above, I would suggest taking a look at some of the programming archives - Turbo Pascal, for instance, had a lot of support in the 80's/early 90's, and I remember quite a few programming examples dealing with serial I/O. You'll be on your own as far as the dbf file and index updates, though.
Sharma Arvind
11-13-07, 00:02
Thanx Loquin,

I am running DOS Software on a Win.98 machine. I has the serial port which can be connected to the electronic weigh scale. I want to program myself to acquire data from weigh scale into my software.
loquin
11-13-07, 15:46
So, TALtech's File-Wedge may work for you. It could potentially capture the serial input, filter it, and write the appropriate fields into the database file.

(it does have some fairly advanced filtering)

Or, write a VB program to capture the serial input, parse it, and write to the DB file yourself.

What does the current software do? Does it currently read the serial input?

Would the data capture program be required to interface to the existing software? (I'm not sure that a windows program can easily (if at all) automate a DOS based app...)