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Digital scales

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    Digital scales

    I am trying to workout how read the data result from a set of digital scales connected by USB. I thought it would be like a scanner or RFID and you just capture the keystrokes into a text filed, but at this stage I can't even see any output at all. Any ideas?
    -----------------------------------------------
    Regards
    Mark Pearson
    [email protected]
    Youtube channel
    Website

    #2
    Re: Digital scales

    Hi Mark,

    What does the manufacturer of the scales say about digital output?
    Regards
    Keith Hubert
    Alpha Guild Member
    London.
    KHDB Management Systems
    Skype = keith.hubert


    For your day-to-day Needs, you Need an Alpha Database!

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Digital scales

      Hi Keith,

      My reading interpretation is that output is a simple hexadecimal. All seems to indicate I should just get an output, there is simple mention that it is plug and play, but no mention that you need additional developers kit etc to read the data. That said they do sell a kit so that you can interface into a third party software. The way it is all written I am believing I should be able to see the result value, but I guess I am going to need to get the kit.

      Was hoping someone could explain more by their experience in this topic.
      -----------------------------------------------
      Regards
      Mark Pearson
      [email protected]
      Youtube channel
      Website

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Digital scales

        Have you tried something like opening notepad or wordpad and then view what the scale sends the program? I had to do that with barcode scanners to make sure the data was what I expected.

        Tom

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Digital scales

          A few years ago I tried to interface an Elane USB digital scale to the Stamps.com software, and, like you, started out assuming it would be easy, like working with an old-time serial interface. It didn't turn out that way. Some Google searching led me to a program that would dump the output from the scale, and a C# program that implemented basic communication with an HID USB device like a scale. I spent a couple of days on it and finally gave up after realizing that it would take way too much time to get to be an expert in USB device drivers.

          If the scale manufacturer sells a kit, it's well worth whatever it costs. There's a lot more to it than just reading characters from an interface.

          -jimc

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Digital scales

            This an elane scale as well. They sell the dll for 10, so i am going to buy. They provide instructions for the functions to extract the info. Look like vb code so when i get the dll, l will play and feed back. It angers me somewhat as they say usb, plug and play, no software needed. All that happens this way is that the scales are powered by the usb
            -----------------------------------------------
            Regards
            Mark Pearson
            [email protected]
            Youtube channel
            Website

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Digital scales

              OK - for those interested. I got this to work

              FYI - I got the dll file from Elane (cost $10.50). put it in the directory that I want to house my DB and registered.

              I then had to add apigid32.dll to the windows\system directory. This file was one three listed in their instructions and I think has been left off of W7. The other two were there.

              I then wrote the following code in a script to test:

              -----------------------------------------------------
              dim object as P
              dim isther as l
              dim isweight1 as c
              dim isweight2 as c

              dim someobject as P
              someobject = ole.create("ElaneScaleDLL.ElaneUSBScale")

              isther= someobject.elane_findusbscale()
              isweight1 = someobject.elane_getscaleweight()
              isweight2 = someobject.elane_getscaleweightdecimal(1, 2)

              debug(1)
              --------------------------------------------------------------------------
              I put a debug(1) line in and found that all variables returned a correct result. Hope this helps you
              -----------------------------------------------
              Regards
              Mark Pearson
              [email protected]
              Youtube channel
              Website

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Digital scales

                Great stuff, Mark. Now I know who the man is I need to come to if I have a similar project.
                Regards
                Keith Hubert
                Alpha Guild Member
                London.
                KHDB Management Systems
                Skype = keith.hubert


                For your day-to-day Needs, you Need an Alpha Database!

                Comment

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