遥控gareco x系列

Question

I am trying to develop an app for a Mettler-Toledo Garvens GmbH "X Series" checkweigher with GARECO installed.

What is a checkweigher? The weigher is the last part of a production line and measures the product weight, if it has a weight within the normal parameters of the product specifics. The device has an internal memory, and you can load your product specification per product to the system and easily change the product from the device screen.

What is GARECO? The remote control of GARVENS checkweighers was given the name "GARECO" which is the abbreviation of Garvens Remote Control.

Remote control instructions can be transmitted by an external PC via the serial interface to the weighing terminal, with all remote-control actions being effected by the PC. The checkweigher reacts to instructions which it has recognized and releases the corresponding action. The instructions consist of ASCII strings, each of which ends with the characters CR and LF.

What is the goal of our app? When the production line change the product we like change the checkweigher product for the measurement.

Further info can be found in the following link, if you like 😊

https://www.prosoft-technology.com/content/download/2886/22284/version/1/file/gareco_engl_Version+108.pdf

What are we using?

• .NET 4.5,

• Windows 10,

• TCP/IP (connected directly through the ethernet cable)

Test:

As instructed above, the device should accept instruction from PC. We managed to establish a connection with the device via ethernet but as we send instructions there is no response from the device. Below, you can see the code we used.

public partial class Form1 : Form
{
    public Form1()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }

    private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {

    }


    TcpClient client = new TcpClient();

    private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {

        client.Connect("192.168.0.1", 23);
    }

    string _infoFB = "FB_INFO(CR)(LF)";

    byte[] p;

    private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        client.Close();
    }



    private void button3_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {

        p = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(_infoFB);
        NetworkStream ntstream = client.GetStream();

        if (ntstream.CanWrite)
        {
            ntstream.Write(p, 0, p.Length);

                byte[] myReadBuffer = new byte[1024];
                StringBuilder myCompleteMessage = new StringBuilder();
                int numberOfBytesRead = 0;
                do
                {
                    numberOfBytesRead = ntstream.Read(myReadBuffer, 0, myReadBuffer.Length);
                    myCompleteMessage.AppendFormat("{0}", Encoding.ASCII.GetString(myReadBuffer, 0, numberOfBytesRead));
                }
                while (ntstream.DataAvailable);

                foreach (var item in myCompleteMessage.ToString())
                {
                    listBox1.Items.Add(item);
                }
        }

        if (ntstream.CanRead)
        {
            if (ntstream.DataAvailable)
            {
                byte[] myReadBuffer = new byte[1024];
                StringBuilder myCompleteMessage = new StringBuilder();
                int numberOfBytesRead = 0;
                do
                {
                    numberOfBytesRead = ntstream.Read(myReadBuffer, 0, myReadBuffer.Length);
                    myCompleteMessage.AppendFormat("{0}", Encoding.ASCII.GetString(myReadBuffer, 0, numberOfBytesRead));
                }
                while (ntstream.DataAvailable);



                foreach (var item in myCompleteMessage.ToString())
                {
                    listBox1.Items.Add(item);
                }
            }
            else
            {
                MessageBox.Show("Sorry. \n You cannot read from this NetworkStream.");
            }

        }

    }
    string recivedPulse;
    private void button4_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        p = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(_infoFB);
        recivedPulse = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(p, 0, p.Length);
        listBox1.Items.Add(recivedPulse);
    }
}

}

Answer 1

The message should actually be "FB_INFO\\r\\n" , not "FB_INFO(CR)(LF)" . CR and LF are abbreviations for "carriage-return" and "line-feed" which are 2 special control bytes.

The response of the device should look like FB_INF 1 SR or similar. The characters S, R and possible others (eg G and M) refer to the available licenses of the device.

For more information you can also contact the company Objective , which offers an excellent device driver for Mettler/Garvens and other devices (written in Java).

Also please note that there is a more recent version of the protocol description: 1.10