[duxhelp] Serial Output from DBT 10.5, Xon/Xoff and the ELEKUL Interpoint
- From: David Holladay <david@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: duxhelp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, mark.gaunt@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2004 16:14:45 -0500
We have had several problems driving the ELEKUL Interpoint 55 embosse,
madein Belgium
It requires uses fast serial, with Xon/Xoff (software handshaking)
We thought that we were driving the serial port in a way that we would
listen to stop commands done either as hardware handshaking and as software
handshaking. In effect we thought DBT could do both at once.
It turns out we were fooling ourselves. DBT does a great job with hardware
handshaking, but ignores software handshaking.
The Interpoint 55 relies on software handshaking, so it could not get DBT
to stop sending characters. This led the Interpoint to miss many
characters, some of these being "cut the paper" commands. The result was a
printout 8 feet long of total garbage.
We can do software handshaking. But to do so, requires that we ask in the
DBT User Interface a handshaking question (hard or soft). We can also tell
the emb.elt file that some embosser models (i.e. the ELEKUL units) have a
preference for software handshaking.
If you are interested, there is a way right now of getting Xon/Xoff
handshaking. In fact this should work fine for the ELEKUL. Set up a Windows
printer using the "Generic / Text Only" driver. Set it to one of the serial
ports (COM1 or COM2). Use the control panel to set COM1 or COM2 to software
handshaking [Important note: you can always set a serial port to Xon/Xoff
in the Control Panel, the Windows driver uses the control panel, DBT does
not].
On my Windows XP system, I click on Control Panel, click on System icon,
Hardware Tab, Device Manager button, Ports, right click on COM1, and then
choose "Xon/Xoff" for "Flow Control". Flow Control is the Windows name for
what everybody else calls handshaking. On other systems there are minor,
but easily made variations.
Set up a DBT embosser configuration using this Windows Printer. You should
get Xon/Xoff working fine, without missing any characters on your embosser
[[Now we need to get to work so DBT can collect and use the information
that the user wants Xon/Xoff output.]]
If you have an embosser that requires Xon/Xoff or if you have a concern
about Xon/Xoff support, please try to set it this way, and verify that DBT
can drive it properly through a Windows driver set up as described.
Later, when we can set Xon/Xoff directly through the DBT port settings, try
again, and make sure it works.
We really need to know about a situation which works with the Windows
driver and not through the improved (and not ready yet) DBT.
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