Getting the weight from a USB scale

[Cabinetman]

I'm sure this is an easy one so if someone could just point me in the right ... or left.. direction I would appreciate it.

Also if there is a topic on here I couldn't find it's because I suck at using the searching here. Not sure what I'm missing but help there might keep me from asking these dumb questions....

[IdealData]

Can you provide more details of the problem.

[Cabinetman]

Yes... I'm trying to automate the weighing of items in my database for future reference.

During new record creation script.....

1. Put item on scale

2. Click continue

3. Weight is entered into the field

[troi]

Hi,

Sorry for the shameless plug, but you should be able to do this with the help of Troi Serial Plug-in and a USB-Serial adapter. See

for a fully functional demo version.

Hope this helps.

[Cabinetman]

Yes but I'd really rather NOT buy an adapter and then a plugin to go backwards in technology......

Surely there is a better way? Maybe you can work on that.....

PS - Just noticed that there's no single license option available... $900? I don't think so.

Edited October 7, 2009 by Guest

[fseipel]

Some scales send the weight constantly over the serial port, or virtual serial port for some USB models. Often you'll be able to download a 'virtual' serial port driver for your scale, even if it's USB.

If the scale conforms to HID, then programming a plug-in to read it will be very simple: http://www.lvr.com/hidpage.htm for a good start; just join this code with the plugin template from Filemaker advanced.

You can probably also read a virtual serial port with the free ScriptMaster plugin, though I haven't tried doing so. Try using ScriptMaster with http://rxtx.org/ to access the port for FREE.

FWIW, I've used Troi serial, but it was many, many years ago, when the plugin cost was maybe 1/20th what it is now.

[Jack Dumen]

Hi Cabinetman,

I think that the easiest way to communicate with any scale with FileMaker or with any software, is with the software BillRedirect http://www.billproduction.com/billscalebalance/ from the company BillProduction. This small software can interface any scale (Serial RS232 or USB)

USB Scales example: Mettler Toledo, Pitney Bowes, Fairbanks, X.J., CHARDER, Pelouze, SANFORD, DYMO, Endicia, ELANE XM, UNITED STATES POSTAL SCALES PS30USB/PS311 30-LB DIGITAL USB POSTAL SCALE.

Serial RS232 Scales manuals: http://www.billproduction.com/Bill_Redirect_scale.pdf

USB Scales manuals: http://www.billproduction.com/Bill_Redirect_scale_USB.pdf

Good luck with your developement

Jack

[parallax]

Hi Cabinetman,

We had an exchange via email a year or more ago on this subject after your post. I bought the Troi plug-in (yeah, that cost an arm and a leg) but ultimately it looks like I'll be using the billproduction.com product that Jack linked to above. I'm testing it now on a windows 7 system w/ direct USB to a Fairbanks digital scale and in testing it works like a charm. The documentation is peculiar but VERY clear. I'll be implementing it this week on my clients with Windows. For my Mac clients I'll continue working with the Troi product. I got that working beautifully but ran into difficulty with some Ohaus Defender 3000 scales (either Ohaus has some quality control issues or my Tripp Light USB/Serial adapter is frying their logic boards. Anyway, the Troi product was useless with the Fairbanks Ultegra scale that only has a USB port.

[hbecerra]

Does anyone Know how to get RS232 data into filemaker without such expensive plug in, we have an RS232 scale and mac computers

[jbante]

What scale do you have? High-end scales will often also have an Ethernet port and serve their weight data over HTTP. If yours does, too, and if you're running the current version of FileMaker (12), you can use the Insert From URL script step to get the weight data.

[No_access]

I like the suggestion by jbante,   you may be able to get an NDIS wrapper to get an ethernet address for the USB to work as mentioned above without expensive plugins.

 

How often do you need to update the information?  I assume only when something is on the scale.  in this case you could also  use NDIS with telnet  ie..

telnet -f  C:yourdata.csv  192.168.1.8  8881

and pull as mentioned above or use a script to import from yourdata.csv

[Albert27]

I think most of the scales that companies offering now have the port that help you to get the data which you get from any measurement on your computer. Which help you to generate a database why not you use one of them for your measurement to get accurate result .