Hooking Up a Balance With LabWare LIMS

[Gloria Metrick]

In the LabWare LIMS, I would like to write a program to hook a balance
to non-result entry. So, I can't use the RS232 interface into the
Collect Data function, for one example. I should also add that we're
using the network boxes for the balances.

Setup, if it's helpful:
When we use the balances for regular result entry, they do go through
the RS232 interface. The instrument class is GenericSingleValue and
the Source is Comm Port Direct (Claws), plus we have the IP address
and other parameters.

So, does anyone know how to read RS232 instrument data using a
LIMSBasic program into an interface besides Result Entry? The LIMS
system admin on my project has been all through the LabTracks and has
found a few things that look promising but never quite seem to be the
right thing to do this.

Gloria Metrick
GeoMetrick Enterprises
Helping companies understand and manage their laboratory data.

+1.781.365.0180 (Voice Only)
http://www.GeoMetrick.com/
LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/geometrick

GeoMetrick Enterprises is the home of "Out on a LIMS: The Newsletter
for People Who Risk Life and LIMS on a Daily Basis" which is
internationally distributed monthly to subscribers across the
industry, probably including your co-workers and competitors,
including every major LIMS vendor.
To subscribe: http://www.geometrick.com/newsltr_signup.htm

[Gloria Metrick]

Miguel,

You wrote:
"At LabWare we dont use this forum to either support or promote our
product. I suggest you ask your customer to
either search in online support systems. There is a google engine
available to supported users in our Web page, and also a LabWare Wiki,
which will
help navigate through knowledge base and various support databases
(labtrack is not the best place to look). There is also a users forum
lw-lims which last year had more than 13000 mails, which are indexed
and searchable. Your customer is surely welcome to join."

I am aware of the LabWare support tools and my customer does belong to
this. However, I have decided to help him find an answer to this
question. It's quite important to our project and I'm willing to do
whatever I can to help him. We need to find an answer very quickly.
I'm hoping that we won't have to buy extra software to do this, that
we can find a LIMS Basic answer to our needs, but I think we're at a
point where we're starting to see our options thinning-out.

While I realize that LabWare does not use this particular forum, there
are many LabWare users on this forum. I'm sure there's one who'd be
willing to help us out on this. After all, this is part of the power
of these forums. And, you must keep in mind that there are a number of
people like myself who are LabWare experts and consultants, but are
not part of the LabWare organization. Even though I'm an expert and
have worked with the LabWare LIMS since 1996, there are many, many
options to this system. It's impossible to know them all even with all
that experience behind me.

So, I'm still hoping someone will be able to tell me a module number
or the right commands for this because we're really not having any
luck with it.

Gloria

On Dec 9, 9:42 pm, Gloria Metrick <list_mem...@geometrick.com> wrote:
> In the LabWare LIMS, I would like to write a program to hook a balance
> to non-result entry. So, I can't use the RS232 interface into the
> Collect Data function, for one example. I should also add that we're
> using the network boxes for the balances.
>
> Setup, if it's helpful:
> When we use the balances for regular result entry, they do go through
> the RS232 interface. The instrument class is GenericSingleValue and
> the Source is Comm Port Direct (Claws), plus we have the IP address
> and other parameters.
>
> So, does anyone know how to read RS232 instrument data using a
> LIMSBasic program into an interface besides Result Entry? The LIMS
> system admin on my project has been all through the LabTracks and has
> found a few things that look promising but never quite seem to be the
> right thing to do this.
>
> Gloria Metrick
> GeoMetrick Enterprises
> Helping companies understand and manage their laboratory data.
>

> +1.781.365.0180 (Voice Only)http://www.GeoMetrick.com/

[Miguel A. Fernandez]

Hi Gloria

At LabWare we dont use this forum to either support or promote our product. I suggest you ask your customer to

either search in online support systems. There is a google engine available to supported users in our Web page, and also a LabWare Wiki, which will

help navigate through knowledge base and various support databases (labtrack is not the best place to look). There is also a users forum lw-lims which last year had more than 13000 mails, which are indexed and searchable. Your customer is surely welcome to join

Otherwise, there are a number of commands in the category "serial", you probably need to use readcomm(port) and sendcomm(port,string) to send the initiate string, perhaps waitcomm(port). Also you might need to bind the serial comm ports module. You'll get a string which you can handle the way you want.

Miguel Fernandez

LabWare

> Date: Tue, 9 Dec 2008 12:42:57 -0800
> Subject: [lims-lab-inf 104] Hooking Up a Balance With LabWare LIMS
> From: list_...@geometrick.com
> To: lims-l...@googlegroups.com

[Gloria Metrick]

I'll pass along one response I got, as it might interest some others
in the group:
"There are numerous programs that can capture RS-232 output..The one
from Sax
Software (Sax.net) were relatively easy to use and have been updated
recently.
I think they have a 30 day trial...
If it was me, I'd capture the data to a file and parse it (a byte at a
time using Basic
or some variation of it ) to extract it and then re-format it into a
csv or any other
structure that is needed..."

I'll add, though, that I'm convinced there must be a LIMS Basic
command to do this and my customer is frustrated from trying to look
for it. If anyone knows how do do this in LIMSBasic, I'd really
appreciate know the modules needed to do it.

Gloria

On Dec 9, 3:42 pm, Gloria Metrick <list_mem...@geometrick.com> wrote:
> In the LabWare LIMS, I would like to write a program to hook a balance
> to non-result entry. So, I can't use the RS232 interface into the
> Collect Data function, for one example. I should also add that we're
> using the network boxes for the balances.
>
> Setup, if it's helpful:
> When we use the balances for regular result entry, they do go through
> the RS232 interface. The instrument class is GenericSingleValue and
> the Source is Comm Port Direct (Claws), plus we have the IP address
> and other parameters.
>
> So, does anyone know how to read RS232 instrument data using a
> LIMSBasic program into an interface besides Result Entry? The LIMS
> system admin on my project has been all through the LabTracks and has
> found a few things that look promising but never quite seem to be the
> right thing to do this.
>
> Gloria Metrick
> GeoMetrick Enterprises
> Helping companies understand and manage their laboratory data.
>

> +1.781.365.0180 (Voice Only)http://www.GeoMetrick.com/

[Miguel A. Fernandez]

Hi Gloria

I dont know if you didnt read the second paragraph of my letter, or it was cut somehow.

I said there that you have a full category of commands available, among them, readcomm(port), waitcomm(port) and sendcomm(string, port) if you want bidirectional features. To manage ip serial ports perhaps you need M0214. You dont need any extra software, that would be an ill advice to your customer. If your customer (or you in his/her behalf) submit this question to lw-lims, you'll be astonished by the number of helpful replies. I dont see any good reason wh¡ch justifies not using this forum

Miguel

> Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:11:40 -0800
> Subject: [lims-lab-inf 105] Re: Hooking Up a Balance With LabWare LIMS
> From: list_...@geometrick.com
> To: lims-l...@googlegroups.com
>
>