Teklynx COMet Quick Manual

DOC--PEM--COMet6--US-- 02/08/00

COMet

The information in the present documentation is not of a
contractual nature. It is subject to modification without prior
notice.

The software described in this manual is regulated by a user
license. The software cannot be used, copied or reproduced on
any media whatsoever, except in compliance with the terms of
this license.

No part of this manual may be copied, reproduced or
transmitted by any mea ns whatsoever (unless it is for the
purchaser’s personal use) without the written permission of

Teklynx International Co.

E 2000 Teklynx International Co,

All rights reserved.

Windowstttt, MS-DOSâ are registered trade marks of the
Microsoftâ Corporation.

IBM, PC, AT PS/2 are registered trade marks of the
International Business Machines,Inc.

Table of Contents

About this Manual Page - 1....................................

Documents Supplied Page - 1..............................

Typographical Conventions Page - 1........................

Quick Guided Tour Page 2 - 3...................................

Introduction Page 2 - 3..........................................

Presentation of the Zoo Shipping Company Page 2 - 4............

Setting Up the Environment Page 2 - 5.......................

Data Acquisition Page 2 - 9...................................

Creating a New Protocol Page 2 - 11..............................

Selecting Settings for the Bar code Re ader Page 2 - 12.........

1

2

About this Manual

Complete documentation is available to help you get the most
from COMet.

By means of an example, the Quick Guided Tour aims to
familiarize you quickly with the software, giving you the basic
keys for getting started. This documentation has been designed
as a compliment to the online help.

Online Help is accessible from the application, and outlines all
application procedures.

This manual distinguishes betwee n different types of information
by using the following conventions:

S terms taken from the interface itself, such as commands,

appear in bold;

S keys appear in small caps, as in the following example:

”Press the

SHIFT key”;

S numbered lists mean there is a procedure to be carried out;

S when the conjunction ”or” appears next to a paragraph it

means the re is the choice of another procedure for carrying
out a given task ;

S When a menu command contains submenus, the menu name

followed by the command to select appears in bold. Thus,
”Choose File Open” means choose the File menu, then the
Open command.

Following this symbol you will find hints for optimizing certain
tasks, speeding up the execution of commands, etc.

Documents
Supplied

Typographical
Conventions

1

Quick Guided Tour

Introduction

The guided tour provides a quick introduction to get you off to a
good start with the basic functions of COMet.Bymeansofa
practical example, you will learn how to create a new hardware
environment and configure source devices using different
communication protocols.

This example features a weighing machine, a bar code reader
and keyboard data entry as means of gathering the information
needed to ship packages.

The information gathered is inserted in the label below :

ZOO SHIPPING COMPANY

kg 5.750

x2

Total

11.50

Destination:

Figure 1 Presentation of the Example Label

2

Page 2 -- 4

Quick Start Guide

Presentation of the Zoo Shipping Company

The ZOO Shipping Company’s dispatch service has developed a
package shipping system using COMet. Each package must be
accompanied by a delivery slip.

Outgoing packages are routinely weighed and a light beam reads
the bar codes on each package. An operator responsible for
supervising the process enters the price per kilo.

Weighing the package makes it possible to calculate its shipping
price, and reading the bar code indicates its destination.

The information gathered is inserted into the shipping label (see
Page 2 - 3). This enables the company to keep a precise
reference number for each outgoing package.

Figure 2 Presentation of the Example Label

Note

This is just an example, of course. In real life, the price of ship­ping a package, which depends on its destination, would be
calculated by a database, not an operator.

Page 2 -- 5

Quick Guided Tour

This sequence describes the shipping department’s hardware
configuration and gives the procedure for creating the work
environment.

"""" Hardware Devices

S APC

S A printer connected to the PC’s COM 1 port

S A bar code reader connected to the PC’s COM 2 port

S A weighing machine connected to the PC’s COM 3 port

Note

The PC, which originally had only two serial ports, has been
fitted with a multiport card. Four serial ports have been added
to the first two, making a total of six. Using the Options dialog
box, you will have to disable ports 7 and 10, which will not be
used in this example.

"""" Setting Up the Work Environment

Using the COMet interface, you will now create the device group
by adding the bar code reader and the weighing machine to the
above ports.

1 Click on

or press F2.

2 Select Default as hardware environment.

The interface appears as shown below :

Figure 3 The Main COMet Window

3 Go to Port 2, then click on

or press F8.

The Selection dialog box appears.

4 Select the HBCR8000 protocol used by the bar code reader,

then click on OK.

Setting Up the
Environment

Page 2 -- 6

Quick Start Guide

5 Repeat this procedure for Port 3 and select the TEC-SL47

protocol used by the weighing machine.

The table now looks like the example shown below :

Figure 4 Selecting Protocols

"""" Selecting the Target Document

1 Click on

or press F4.

2 Select the Shipping label from the COMet Samples folder.

This label contains several Var fields:

S Destination : the data will be acquired when the bar code

on the package is read; ;

S kg : the value will be acquired when the package is wei-

ghed; ;

S CodeOp : the value is the price per kilo, entered by the ope-

rator; ;

S Total : the result of the formula (kg x CodeOp), which will be

the dispatch price of the package.

"""" Device Settings

When you configure device settings, you must assign an
” uncoded ” name, (unlimited length) to the device, designate a
master device and select the target field in which the data
acquired is to be inserted.

Page 2 -- 7

Quick Guided Tour

Selecting Settings for the Bar code Reader :

1 Go to port 2.

2 Click on

or press F9.

The Source device settings dialog box appears :

Complete
the boxes
indicated,
then click on
OK.

Figure 5 Configuring the Bar code Reader

Selecting Settings for the Weighing Machine :

1 Go to port 3

2 Click on

or press F9.

The Source device settings dialog box appears :

Complete
the boxes as
shown, then
click on OK.

Figure 6 Configuring the Weighing Machine

Page 2 -- 8

Quick Start Guide

Selecting Keyboard Settings

1 Go to the row in the table corresponding to the keyboard.

2 Click on

or press F9.

The Source device settings dialog box appears. Since the
keyboard is a special device, the dialog box contains only one
box for selecting the target field.

Complete
the box as
shown, then
click on OK.

Figure 7 Configuring the Keyboard

Once the information is entered, the main COMet window looks
like this :

Figure 8 Displaying the Configured Devices

Page 2 -- 9

Quick Guided Tour

"""" Saving the Environment

Now you have created your environment, you will save it so that
it can be used later.

1 Click on

or press F3.

The Save as dialog box appears :

2 Enter SHIPPING.CMT as the environment name, then click on

OK.

To launch data acquisition:

1 Click on

or press F6.

The Transfer dialog box appears.

Figure 9 The Transfer dialog box

2 Check the Update only box: data will be sent to the labeling

software and inserted into the label Var fields.
or
Check the Update and print box if you wish to both update
the Var fields and print in real time at the same time.

Data Acquisi­tion

Page 2 -- 10

Quick Start Guide

Values are displayed one by one in the table.

Figure 10 Displaying Values during Transfer

To show that the transfer process is taking place, the

but-

ton becomes

.

Obtaining a Preview

S To better monitor the process, request a label preview by

click on

or by pressing F7.

Figure 11 Label Preview

Page 2 -- 11

Quick Guided Tour

Creating a New Protocol

It is entirely possible that the protocol used by your device is
unavailable in COMet.Ifso,youmustdefineitusingthe
technical information sheet that came with your device.

Let us suppose that the ZOO Shipping Company has just
purchased a new bar code reader, the protocol of which is not
recognized by COMet.

Excerpt from the manufacturer’s information:

Quazar Bar Code Reader
Protocol : TX-22
Type : touch reader
Communication parameter :
Speed : 2,400 baud
Data bits : 8
Parity : none
Stop bit : 1
Initialization :

Sequence

Check characters on

Check characters off

09 01

09 00

Configuration

n=00or01

Reading

nnn =

code data +

check character

09 n

OK

01nnn 02

Page 2 -- 12

Quick Start Guide

1 Click on or press F8.

The protocol Selection dialog box appears.

2 Click on New.

3 Click on

or press F9.

The Source device settings dialog box appears.

4 Using the manufacturer’s information, complete the diffe-

rents boxes as shown below :

Figure 12 Configuring a source device

5 Once the dialog box has been completed, click on Settings...

The Protocol dialog box appears.

6 Check the Proceed with this step box, then complete the

text boxes by referring to the manufacturer’s information.
Here we are looking to obtain the bar code’s check character.

Selecting Set­tings for the
Bar code Rea­der

Page 2 -- 13

Quick Guided Tour

"""" Initialization Step

To retrieve this check character, and in accordance with the
device specifications, you must send the command ” 0901 ”, or
^I^A (see note below).

We will then delete this data check character as in our case, the
sole purpose of initialization is to make sure the reader is wor­king correctly.

Note

The following special characters cannot be directly entered into
the text box:

- ASCII check characters (ASCII 1 to 31)

- quotation marks (ASCII 34)

- commas (ASCII 44)

- semicolons (ASCII 59)

- equal signs (ASCII 61)

- circumflex accents (ASCII 94)

- spaces (ASCII 32)

- extended ASCII characters (ASCII 128 onwards)

- backslashes (ASCII 124)
To enter these characters, use one of the following notations :

1

^#, # is a capital letter from A to Z and replaces the

ASCII characters from 1 to 26.

Example:^Fforthe6byte.

2 ^###,### is a decimal number above 0 (length

is fixed at 3 digits).

Example: ^034 for the double quotation marks, or ^094

for

the circumflex accent.

S To enter this command, enter ” ^I^A ” (in Windows

TM

enter a space after the circumflex accent) :
^, space, I, ^, space, A.

Still following the manufacturer’s specifications, the reader
should send back an ” OK ”. If there is nothing after 500 ms, the
communication is deemed to have failed, and the user must then
decide what to do.

Page 2 -- 14

Quick Start Guide

"""" Wait Stage

Figure 13 Wait Stage

S Check the When receiving a message sent by the device

box, since the data is transmitted as soon as the reader’s
trigger is activated.

"""" Data Acquisition

This step allows you to check whether the data received meets
user expectations.

Figure 14 Data Acquisition

In our case, we are expecting a variable message.

According to the manufacturer’s specifications, and w hatever the
nature of the bar code, the message takes the form ” 01 n n n
n¼ check 02 ”. It is contained within the codes ” 01 ” and ” 02 ”,
contains a variable number of characters and may contain a
check code at the end.

Page 2 -- 15

Quick Guided Tour

S Enter ” ^A*^B ”.

^A : message start character,

* : joker replacing a given number of characters,

^B : message stop character.

"""" Data Extraction

In this step, we will define the structure and nature of the
message, and specify which part of the message we want to
retrieve.

L

O

N

M

K

Figure 15 Data Extraction

Key:

K We know that the message is of variable length.

L The first data byte is placed in second position, after the

message start byte.

M The stop character is ^B.

N We want an offset of -1 byte to exclude the check character

(it is not necessary to keep this information, since the labeling
program recalculates the check character).

O Coding is Alphanumerical ; bytes received will be transmit-
ted without being converted.

Using the Example box, check that the message features the
correct parameters.

Page 2 -- 16

Quick Start Guide

"""" Saving the New Protocol

Now that the protocol is configured, you need to save it.

1 Click on Save as.

The Saving the protocol dialog box appears. :

Figure 16 Saving the Protocol

The box features three text entry boxes allowing you to input
precise reference information for any new protocol.

2 Complete all boxes with the values mentioned above.

Try to include the model revision number in the protocol box as
manufacturers may change the message protocols from one pro­duction run to the next.
For example: TX-22 1998

Note

For the sake of simplicity, in this exercise we have not included
a data availability enquiry (Query) or a reset sequence (Reset).