reading a scale through a com port....

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  13 years ago

  by jap2bag

  Jeff

  , United States

  Joined 13 years ago

  I need some help trying to capture a weight on a scale that is hooked to the PC via a COM port. 

  I would like to be able to have the user click a button and have the weight captured.  Anyone done this before and could offer some code examples.

   Your help would be greatly appreciated.

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  13 years ago

  by jmcilhinney

  John McIlhinney

  Sydney, Australia

  Joined 15 years ago

  Have you installed an OPOS driver for the scale?  If so then you can get a library of OPOS command objects, including a scale, from here.
  

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  13 years ago

  by jmcilhinney

  John McIlhinney

  Sydney, Australia

  Joined 15 years ago

  Here's some code of mine used to claim and release an OPOS scale:

  Public ReadOnly Property Scale() As OPOSScale
      Get
          Return Me._scale
      End Get
  End Property
  
  Private Function ClaimScale() As Boolean
      Dim result As Boolean = False
  
      Me._scale = New OPOSScale
  
      If Me._scale.Open(Me.BusinessRules.Register.ScaleName) = 0 Then
          Dim retry As Boolean
  
          Do
              retry = False
              Me._scale.ClaimDevice(1000)
  
              If Me._scale.Claimed Then
                  Me._scale.DeviceEnabled = True
                  result = True
              Else
                  Select Case MessageBox.Show(String.Format(My.Resources.ClaimScaleErrorString, _
                                                            Me.BusinessRules.Register.ScaleName), _
                                              "TouchScreen Plus", _
                                              MessageBoxButtons.YesNoCancel, _
                                              MessageBoxIcon.Warning)
                      Case DialogResult.Yes
                          'Try again to claim the scale.
                          retry = True
                      Case DialogResult.No
                          'Continue without integrated weighing.
                          result = True
                  End Select
              End If
          Loop While retry
      ElseIf MessageBox.Show(String.Format(My.Resources.OpenScaleErrorString, _
                                           Me.BusinessRules.Register.ScaleName), _
                             "TouchScreen Plus", _
                             MessageBoxButtons.OKCancel, _
                             MessageBoxIcon.Warning) = DialogResult.OK Then
          'Continue without integrated weighing.
          result = True
      End If
  
      If Not Me._scale.Claimed Then
          Me._scale = Nothing
          Me.BusinessRules.Configuration.IntegratedWeighing = False
      End If
  
      Return result
  End Function
  
  Private Sub ReleaseScale()
      If Me._scale IsNot Nothing AndAlso Me._scale.Claimed Then
          Me._scale.ReleaseDevice()
      End If
  End Sub

  Here's some code used to read the weight from the scale:

  Private Sub scaleTimer_Tick(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
      Dim scaleWeight As Integer = Me.GetScaleWeight()
  
      If scaleWeight <> -1 Then
          Me.Weight = scaleWeight / 1000
          Me.weightText.Text = Me.Weight.ToString("f3")
      End If
  End Sub
  
  Private Function GetScaleWeight() As Integer
      Dim weightData As Integer = 0
  
      My.Application.Scale.ReadWeight(weightData, 5000)
  
      Return weightData
  End Function

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  13 years ago

  by jap2bag

  Jeff

  , United States

  Joined 13 years ago

  Where and How can i find out if i have a OPOSScale Driver.  Any other help you can provide on using this code would be great. 

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  13 years ago

  by jmcilhinney

  John McIlhinney

  Sydney, Australia

  Joined 15 years ago
  If you haven't installed one then you won't have one.  Where did you get your scale from?  The supplier should be able to provide the driver for you.
  
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  13 years ago

  by jap2bag

  Jeff

  , United States

  Joined 13 years ago

  Scale is made by weighttronix and will be used for weighing packages in a pack application.  It looks like your code is dealing more with Point of Sales systems so i am not even sure if mine is capable of having an OPOS driver.  Could be wrong.  If you have any other advice please let me know......Thanks

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  13 years ago

  by jmcilhinney

  John McIlhinney

  Sydney, Australia

  Joined 15 years ago
  My advice, as it would be for any piece of hardware, is to speak to the supplier and ask them what interface(s) is available to speak to their hardware.  If it doesn't support OPOS then they will tell be able to tell you.  They will also be able to tell you what protocol(s) the scale supports and if there are any other drivers or components you can use to interface with the hardware.  If you need to listen directly to the serial port then .NET provides a SerialPort class.  That doesn't help you if you don't know what you're listening for though.
  
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  13 years ago

  by jap2bag

  Jeff

  , United States

  Joined 13 years ago

  Just wanted to say thanks for the feedback.  It was my frist time communicating with a scale, so it was a bit of a learning process which turned out to be alot easier then i thought with the built in commands the scale comes with.  I was able to get the exact results i needed and now have a much better understanding of the product and the process of communicating with such objects.  

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  12 years ago

  by antonius_louis

  antonius louis

  jakarta, Indonesia

  Joined 12 years ago
  hi all, how about if i want to read a scale through com port by using PHP?if anyone ever tried this? thanks a lot
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  12 years ago

  by bliebb

  Jack Visser

  Trois-Rivières, Canada

  Joined 12 years ago
  The command to request the weight from a scale weight-tronix is: W[ENTER] *** ascii value of [ENTER] is 13 To save time ... You can easily do this with the software BillRedirect http://www.billproduction.com/billscalebalance/ This software inputs your Weight-Tronix scale data directly into your Windows applications or in MS Excel, MS Access. Jack
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  12 years ago

  by prahaladr

  Ramarao Prahalad

  Austin, United States

  Joined 12 years ago
  Hi all, I am using WTCOMM.OCX and having problems coding it in ASP.NET. I am using it with an