Teklynx COMet User 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 means whatsoever (unless it is for the
purchaser’s personal use) without the written permission of
Teklynx International Co.
E2000 Teklynx International Co,
All rights reserved.
Windowst
tt
t,MS-DOSâare registered trade marks of the
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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 Reader 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 between different types of information
by using the following conventions:
Sterms taken from the interface itself, such as commands,
appear in bold;
Skeys appear in small caps, as in the following example:
”Press the SHIFT key”;
Snumbered lists mean there is a procedure to be carried out;
Swhen the conjunction ”or” appears next to a paragraph it
means there is the choice of another procedure for carrying
out a given task ;
SWhen 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 ship-
ping 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
SAPC
SA printer connected to the PC’s COM 1 port
SA bar code reader connected to the PC’s COM 2 port
SA 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.
1Click on or press F2.
2Select Default as hardware environment.
The interface appears as shown below :
Figure 3 The Main COMet Window
3Go to Port 2, then click on or press F8.
The Selection dialog box appears.
4Select the HBCR8000 protocol used by the bar code reader,
then click on OK.
Setting Up the
Environment

Page 2 -- 6 Quick Start Guide
5Repeat 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
1Click on or press F4.
2Select the Shipping label from the COMet Samples folder.
This label contains several Var fields:
SDestination : the data will be acquired when the bar code
on the package is read; ;
Skg : the value will be acquired when the package is wei-
ghed; ;
SCodeOp : the value is the price per kilo, entered by the ope-
rator; ;
STotal : 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 :
1Go to port 2.
2Click 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 :
1Go to port 3
2Click 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
1Go to the row in the table corresponding to the keyboard.
2Click 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.
1Click on or press F3.
The Save as dialog box appears :
2Enter SHIPPING.CMT as the environment name, then click on
OK.
To launch data acquisition:
1Click on or press F6.
The Transfer dialog box appears.
Figure 9 The Transfer dialog box
2Check 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 Acquisi-
tion

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
STo 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
1Click on or press F8.
The protocol Selection dialog box appears.
2Click on New.
3Click on or press F9.
The Source device settings dialog box appears.
4Using the manufacturer’s information, complete the diffe-
rents boxes as shown below :
Figure 12 Configuring a source device
5Once the dialog box has been completed, click on Settings...
The Protocol dialog box appears.
6Check 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 Set-
tings for the
Bar code Rea-
der

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 wor-
king 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.
STo enter this command, enter ” ^I^A ” (in WindowsTM
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
SCheck 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 whatever the
nature of the bar code, the message takes the form ” 01 n n n
n¼check 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
SEnter ” ^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:
KWe know that the message is of variable length.
LThe first data byte is placed in second position, after the
message start byte.
MThe stop character is ^B.
NWe 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).
OCoding 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.
1Click 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.
2Complete 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 pro-
duction 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).