---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dibalcom program manual Rev: 1.06 Creation Date: 11-Dec-97. Last modif. : 13-Sep-99. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 - PROGRAM DESCRIPTION. This program allows to establish comunication with scales, indicators and labellers from DIBAL. It is been created to work in Windows (3.1, 3.11, 95 y NT). It is necessary to create the transmission data file from another application (entry file), with the structure of the message that has to be sent; adding the direction of the scale which will receive the messages (as it is explained in the point 2.1). All the parameters can be changed in the control file "Dibctrl.txt" by the user with a text editor program like the Notepad of Windows. In the program you can select these parameters: - Name of the data transmission file. - Name of the data reception file. - Direction of the scales used. - Speed of communication. - Serial Port. - Selection of the bits of communication. - Showing the communications. - Indication of number of messages transmited. - Indication of number of messages received. - Indication of scales communicating. - Indication of the scale which is receiving the message. - Selection of language. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 - DATA FILE MANAGING. 2.1 - Input file. Each line must represent one message, written with a specific structure; the first to characters must be the direction of the scale. The line ends when the correct values are ended. If in the beginning it is written "AA" or "aa", the message will be sent to all the scales that are selected. If it is written "ZZ" or "zz" the program ends. When the message is sent, the third position is marked by a "*". This program opens the file, reads the message, sends it and then it closes to let other applications to send more messages; these other applications must know that they can have an error when they try to open the file if the Dibalcom program has opened the file. If this happens the applications must try again. When all the messages are sent, it checks the date and the hour of the file and the size. If any of them changes it will open the file and find the next message to send. If an application is going to write in this file, it must add the data and close the file as soon as possible. Example of structure of the entry file: "AA2250M0000100Orange 00156" Sends the article to all the selected scales. 2.2 - Output file. Each time a message is received from any scale, this file is opened to add the message with the direction of the scale and then the file is closed. Any other application can open this file, checking the size to see any modification. 2.3 - Control file. This one allows to select most of the control parameters of the program. The name is always "DIBCTRL.TXT" and it must be in the same folder of the Dibalcom program. If the first character is "*", it means that the line is an explanation and it won't be processed. If it begins by a "-" it means that it is a command line. This is the list of the commands: -d xx Direction of the scale. -t mens_tx.txt Name of the input file. -r mens_rx.txt Name of the output file. -v 9600 Speed of communication. -p COM1 Serial port. -b 7 Number of bits. -a 0 Automatic start. -T 04,50 Polling waiting time, Message waiting time. -I 0 Language (0: Spanish; 1:English) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------