Weighing scales
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chrispickles
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Tue May 30, 2023 12:59 pm
Weighing scales
Hi, we are iSeries COBOL site and are looking to integrate weighing scales into our application. Has anyone done this before? Any guidance / ideas / examples would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Re: Weighing scales
What will the scales be connected to? PC, terminal, other? How will the scales be connected? USB, Serial Cable, Bluetooth, other? Will the user be required to interact in anyway?
I would equate capturing weights from scales to be similar to capturing barcode scans. In the end, it will be sent to the connected device as keyboard input. In my earlier days we used a programable "Keyboard Wedge" that connected to 5250 terminals via serial cables and/or RJ45 cables . The wedge could be programmed to, among other things, acquire data from scales, and decode barcode scans.
I haven't had to connect a scale in quite a while. I'm not sure if Bluetooth is now the preferred communication method or not. Based on the last time I did it, this is how I did it:
I used a programmable scale and connected to a thin client via USB.
Programmed the scale to PASS (send) the data to the connected device once the scale was in a stabilized state. In other words, the weight on the scale is not changing. You can also program the scale to send a post amble carriage return or fields exit so the user would not need to press enter once the data was sent to the device.
Some scales will have a PASS, or SEND button which could be used instead of programming the scale to send the weights. That would require a manual step every time though.
Prior to capturing the weight, you would need to ensure the cursor was in an input capable field, which I assume your COBOL program would be displaying. I don't think the fact that you are a COBOL shop has any bearing on capturing weights from scales.
Companies that sell scales have usually been a good resource when trying to implement these sorts of things. I am almost 100% positive every company that sells a scale has sold it to customers who use an IBM i.
I would equate capturing weights from scales to be similar to capturing barcode scans. In the end, it will be sent to the connected device as keyboard input. In my earlier days we used a programable "Keyboard Wedge" that connected to 5250 terminals via serial cables and/or RJ45 cables . The wedge could be programmed to, among other things, acquire data from scales, and decode barcode scans.
I haven't had to connect a scale in quite a while. I'm not sure if Bluetooth is now the preferred communication method or not. Based on the last time I did it, this is how I did it:
I used a programmable scale and connected to a thin client via USB.
Programmed the scale to PASS (send) the data to the connected device once the scale was in a stabilized state. In other words, the weight on the scale is not changing. You can also program the scale to send a post amble carriage return or fields exit so the user would not need to press enter once the data was sent to the device.
Some scales will have a PASS, or SEND button which could be used instead of programming the scale to send the weights. That would require a manual step every time though.
Prior to capturing the weight, you would need to ensure the cursor was in an input capable field, which I assume your COBOL program would be displaying. I don't think the fact that you are a COBOL shop has any bearing on capturing weights from scales.
Companies that sell scales have usually been a good resource when trying to implement these sorts of things. I am almost 100% positive every company that sells a scale has sold it to customers who use an IBM i.