Portable Communication Manager User’s Manual

In this section you will learn:

?? The communication utility in JobGen Plus
?? How to send files from JobGen Plus to the target device
?? How to receive files from the target device to JobGen Plus
 Index

Chapter 1 PTComm Manager

Communication Parameters

JobGen Plus includes PTComm Manager - an application that links the Portable Terminal to a Host
PC. PTComm Manager will enable the interchange of data and files between your Portable and Host
PC with ease and speed.

Activate PTComm Manager from JobGen Plus/Lite by clicking on the PTComm Manager icon on the
toolbar, or selecting it from menu Tools > PTComm Manager.

To activate PTComm Manager from Windows, select PTComm Manager from start > programs >
JGPlus5 menu.

The PTComm Manager Main Screen is shown below:

The process of transmitting files from the Host PC to a portable is called Downloading. Conversely,
transmitting files from a portable to a Host PC is referred to as Uploading.

In order to transfer files between a Host PC and a portable:

1. Connect the portable’s RS-232 port to the PC’s serial communication port, power on the portable
terminal, and set the portable’s communication parameters as follows:

??For PT-600, Power PT-700, PT-700

Enter into supervisor mode (power off, then power on while pressing and holding down both the
CMD key and left arrow key, and then select 1.SUPERVISOR), select 1.DEV, then select
2.SERIAL. Ensure that:

?? LENGTH is 8
?? PARITY is NONE
?? STOP BITS is 1
?? FLOW CONTROL is NONE
?? PROTOCOL is MULTI (Multi-point)
?? ADDRESS A to Z or 0 to 6 (remember this address)
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Note: Press the ENTER key to go to the next setting, or press the right arrow key to
change the current setting.

??For PT-805, PT-815

Enter the Main Menu (Press MENU key), select 5-SET, and select 5-COMM. Ensure
that:

?? Data Bit is 8
?? Parity is none
?? CTS/RTS is off
?? Protocol is on

Note: Press the ENTER key to go to next setting, or press the SPACE key to change
the current setting.

The address can be A through Y, or 0 through 6. PT Comm Manager must be set with
the same address as the portable when you open the portable window.

2. Start the PT Comm Manager application program.

3. Set PT Comm Manager’s communication parameters. Select Config Communication Port under the
Transfers menu. The Select Com-Port dialog box will appear.
Select the com-port connected to the portable. Click Properties to set the com-port properties.

Set the parameters as follows:

Baud Rate: 9600.

PTComm Manager has a baud rate auto-seek function, which can determine the appropriate
baud rate setting for communication. It also has an Apply Fast Speed function, which will set
the baud rate of the portable as high as possible in order to communicate as fast as possible.
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Data Bits: 8.
Stop Bits: 1.
Parity: None.
Flow Control: None.

The important issue in these settings is that they must be identical to the settings in the portable
(baud rate is an exception because PTComm Manage can determine it automatically).
Otherwise, the host PC and portable will not be able to understand each other and
communication will fail.

4. If the PT Comm Manager does not display an active window for your portable, then activate (open)
one for the portable by clicking on FILE and pointing and clicking on Connect Portable. Or, if you
prefer, click on the Connect Portable Icon.
When the Select Address dialog box appears, set the portable’s address in the dialog box to match the
portable’s actual address.
At this stage, PT Comm Manager will have established communication with your portable and will
display the portable’s file directory in a tree-like fashion.

PTComm always displays a host window on the left side, which shows all drives and folders in the host
PC. On the right side is a comparable window for the portable. By default, PTComm will try to open a
portable window with the portable address set to A. The portable address is displayed in parentheses -
for example (A::\) - next to the model name in the title bar. Note that a double colon (::) following the
portable address letter means remote. If your portable address is not the same as the one displayed in
the portable window, close the current portable window and open a new one.
To open a portable window, click the portable icon in the toolbar or select it from the menu: Transfers >
Connect Portable.

Select your portable model from the Model pull-down menu. Then select or input the portable Title.
The portable title is the text that normally appears on the first line of the main prompt screen, which is
displayed after you warm-start the portable. The title does not have to be complete - typing in a key
word from the title text also works. For example, use “PT600” in the title for the portable model
PT600.

Many different portable models communicate with multi-point protocol. Therefore, PTComm uses title
information to verify the portable model. If you do not know the portable title, or if you cannot select
one from the title pull-down menu, select Unknown for the Model. PTComm will attempt to determine
the portable model automatically. This auto portable model detection works only for standard
portables. For those with customized portable titles, specify the title and model in order for PTComm
to connect to it.

Always specify the correct portable address in Address. The multi-point protocol needs a portable
address in order to function. To discover your portable address, enter into supervisor mode in the
portable, select DEV, then select SERIAL to “Com Setup”. Use the Enter key to scroll through all the
settings. The last setting displays the portable address. Change the portable address at this time by
pressing the left or right arrow key. After completing, press Esc to exit until you get to the main prompt
screen.

Auto Detect Baud Rate: Tell PTComm to detect the baud rate setting on the portable automatically
if baud rate settings are different between the PC and portable. Note, the other settings in com-port,
such as Length (Data Bits), Stop Bits, and Parity must be the same. Otherwise the PC and portable will
not understand each other at all.
 Index

Auto Detect or Confirm Portable Model: Tell PTComm to detect or verify portable model
automatically.

If you experience trouble connecting to your PT-600 or Power PT-700, yet all the
communication settings are correct, try warm starting the portable: power off, then power
on while pressing and holding down both the CMD key and left arrow key, then select
2.WARM START (Warning! Selecting 3.COLD START will permanently remove all files
in the RAM disk!). Then connect again.

If you are connecting to the PT-805 or PT-815, make sure that the portable is at Waiting
Command status. That would be the first screen you see with the prompt > when you
power on the portable.

Transfer files

Transferring files between the PC and portable now becomes simple. The user needs only to point and
click (keeping the button depressed) on the file to be copied, drag the file to its destination, and then
drop it by releasing the mouse button. The previous illustration shows copying the file “JJ.TXT” from
the Host PC to the Portable (Downloading). The user can just as easily copy files from the portable to
the Host PC (Uploading) by following the same point, drag and drop process. However, in this
instance the user would start by pointing to the desired file in the portable’s window.

Note, for the PT-805 and PT-815, two protocols are available for downloading files:
??JobGen (Protocol On): for job files with JOB as the default extension name, which
were developed by the JobGen application. All the data files bound with job will be
downloaded automatically.
??Xmodem: for task files with TSK as the default extension name, which was developed
with the C815 compiler.

The File Menu

Create Portable Directory:
Remove Portable Directory:
Create or remove a file directory in the portable. The directory functions are only supported by the
portable model PT-800. All other portable models have only one root directory.

Get Portable File Directory:

Retrieve the file list of the current portable directory. This function is also used to refresh file
information, such as file length, in the portable. Double click the portable item in the first line in the
portable window to close it and double click it again to refresh. Or simply click the Refresh Portable
Directory icon in the toolbar.

Set Portable Form’s Name:

Because both the PT-805 and PT-815 do not use multi-point protocol to communicate, PTComm
cannot access file directory information from these portables. Thus, file entries in the portable window
for these models require manual input from PTComm. When PTComm downloads JobGen Pro’s job
(for PT-805 and PT-815 only) to the portable, it will retrieve forms information from the job, and then
add them to the list automatically.

Delete Portable File:

Select multiple files in the portable window, and then delete them at one time.
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Delete Host File:

Delete file from host PC.

The Transfers Menu

Config Communication Port:

Select the working com-port number and set the com-port parameters.

Connect Portable:
Open the portable window.

Config Portable:
Set the baud rate for the portable. This function will change the baud rate on the portable side and also
on the host PC side. Use this function to change the speed of communication.

Set the date and time for the portable.

Transfer File
After dragging and dropping files between the PC and portable window, PTComm will open a dialog
window to confirm the file transfer. At this time you can change the destination file name.

Receive Data
This function is used to retrieve data sent out from portable with multi-point protocol. After starting the
receive data function, PTComm will remain in polling mode, which continually issues the polling
command to the portable asking if there is any data ready in portable’s com-port buffer. If the data is
ready, then PTComm will send a retrieve data command to get the data from the portable. This
process repeats until you click on the stop button at the right bottom corner in portable window to stop
the polling.

Batch Transfer
Select a batch command file and run this batch file. The format of the batch file will be described
below.

Batch Transfer 1 to 5
Run a predefined batch file that was predefined in Define Batch Transfer. Five fast access icons are
available on the toolbar.

If you frequently transfer specific files, simply create a batch file to make it easier on yourself (so you
don’t have to bother with opening file folders in the host PC window, finding files, selecting them, and
dragging and dropping them to the portable window every time). Merely clicking on the batch transfer
icon starts the job.

Define Batch Transfer

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Predefine a batch transfer file name for batch transfer. Click Buttons1 through 5 to add file names.
Click Del 1 through 5 buttons to delete file names.

The Modem Menu

Dial

To prepare the modem on the portable side for waiting status:

?? Connect the portable to the modem and set portable baud rate to 9600, or ensure that
the baud rate setting in the portable is not faster than the modem’s top speed.
?? Set modem status to:
?? Auto answer mode (AA)
?? Data terminal ready (DTR) override
?? Disable flow control and ignore RTS signal
?? While the portable is waiting, make sure the portable is not running in TERMINAL
MODE. It must remain in the main prompt screen or in the menu screen. Press Esc
until you exit to the main prompt screen.

Initialize modem from the portable: press and hold CMD button until you get to the menu,
select 2.TER, and select 1.TERMINAL MODE. Now you can send commands to the
modem connected to the portable.
 For example, type "AT&h0&R1", which will set modem to disable the flow control and
ignore the RTS signal. Note - for some types of modems, the AT command may be
different. Check the modem manual for the correct AT command.

On host PC side, dial within PTComm Manager and wait to be connected to the remote
portable.

?? Select a proper TAPI line, and make sure the port speed is 9600. Click “Configure
Line…” button to change the port speed.
?? Dial, and wait until “online connected” appears on the status bar.
?? Select the com-port as MODEM.
?? The subsequent operations are exactly same as if you were connected to the
portable through a local RS232 com-port.

Hang Up

After finishing the communication, hang up.

 Index

The View Menu

Toolbar
The Toolbar command allows you to display or hide the Toolbar. The Tool bar gives you instant
access to the Connect Portable, Seek portable, Dial Modem, and Clear Messages commands.

Status Bar
The Status bar displays information about the active window or the selected command. Issue the
Status Bar command in order to display or hide the Status Bar.

The Help Menu

Help Topics:
Display help contents.

Log Enable/Disable
Enable or disable the log function. When enabled, all activities and communication data are recorded
into a log file. The log file name is displayed in the log file menu selection. Click log file menu item to
purge the log file.

About PT Comm Manager

The About PT Comm Manager command provides information about the PT Comm Manager
application program - such as software version number.

Batch Transfer

PTComm Manager can run in batch mode, which means PTComm Manager can be called
from inside other applications. There are 4 different command formats:

ptcomm3 [/exit] /comport:{1..8} /ptaddr:{A..Z|0..6} /batch:batchfilename

ptcomm3 [/exit] /comport:{1..8} /ptaddr: {A..Z|0..6} /download:filename1

[,filename2, ...]

ptcomm3 [/exit] /comport:{1..8} /ptaddr: {A..Z|0..6} /destdir:foldername

/upload:filename1 [,filename2, ...]

ptcomm3 /close

In which,
?? /exit is optional, and tells PTComm Manager to close the application after
successfully completing the task.
?? /comport: specifies the com-port number, from COM1 to COM8.
?? /close to close existing PTComm Manager.
?? /ptaddr: specifies the portable address: A to Z, or 0 to 6.
?? /batch: specifies batch file name.
?? /destdir: specifies the destination folder name where upload will store the files.
?? /download: this directive must be presented at the end, and specifies one or more
file names, separated by comma, to download from the host PC to the portable.
?? /upload: this directive must be presented at the end, and specifies one or more file
names, separated by comma, to upload from the portable to the host PC.

Note: Each of these parameter directives needs to be separated by at least one space
character. Long file names that contain space characters must be contained within
quotation marks.
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The location of the execution file of PTComm Manager can be found in c:\$jgp.sts file, in
the key AppPath in PTCommBatch section.

After batch processes have completed, PTComm Manager will set the event object,
$JGP_EVENTNAME_BATCHDONE, if it exists. By waiting for this event object to be
set, the parent program can synchronize the task with the batch process in PTComm
Manager.

PTComm Manager will set the key value of BatchDone to be SUCCESS or FAIL or
empty in the PTCommBatch section, in status file, c:\$jgp.sts, to indicate the success or
failure of the batch process.

[PTCommBatch]
AppPath=full-path-name-of-PTCOMM3.EXE
BatchDone=SUCCESS

In lieu of checking the status file, check the registry to find the same information:
Under key [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Unitech America Inc.\ PTComm
Manager\ Settings],
Check value APPPATH for executable location;
Check value BATCHDONE for batch status, 1 indicates batch completed;
Check value BATCHERROR for batch status, 1 indicates error in batch process;

The format of batch file:

directive: parameter

Each of the following lines contain a directive and parameters.

; comment
ECHO: text
ADDRESS: portable address
PORTABLE: portable model
FASTSPEED: yes or no
DIRECTION: download or upload
DESTDIR: destination folder name
DELETE: file name to delete
SETTIME
FILE: file name to transfer
FILE: file name to transfer <> new file name
FILE: file name to transfer <> new file name // comment
 FILE(options): file name to transfer
FILE(options): file name to transfer <> new file name
FILE(options): file name to transfer <> new file name // comment

In which,
?? ECHO displays text in window
?? ADDRESS, no use. Note: PTComm Manager will get the portable address from
the command line.
?? PORTABLE, no use.
?? FASTSPEED enables fast communication speed, if possible.
?? DIRECTION specifies either download or upload.
?? DESTDIR specifies the destination folder for upload to store the file in host PC.
?? DELETE will remove the specified file in portable.
?? SETTIME will set the portable timer to the current time of the host PC.
?? FILE specifies the file to transfer. Options can be:

?? OVERWRITE, will overwrite existing file without confirmation.

?? UPDATE, downloads only when file length is different.
?? CHECKROM, will check for file in the ROM disk.
?? XMODEM, specifies XMODEM protocol to transfer file.

Portable file naming convention:

portable-address::\filename

Use Double colons :: to specify a remote portable device in PTComm Manager. For
example, A::\data1.txt, A::\jeng.exe

Sample batch file (this is a typical batch file JobGen Plus uses to download a job):

ECHO: Download job collect for PT-600

ADDRESS: A
PORTABLE: PT-600
DIRECTION: Download
FASTSPEED: yes
FILE(OVERWRITE): C:\JGPLUS5\SAMPLES\PT600\COLLECT.EXE //JOB'S
EXECUTION FILE
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FILE(UPDATE,CHECKROM,OVERWRITE): C:\JGPLUS5\JCC\JE600.EXE <>

JENG.EXE //JOB ENGINE

Sample batch file (this is a typical batch file JobGen Plus uses to upload the data file of
job):

ECHO: Upload data file data1.txt of job collect

ADDRESS: A
PORTABLE: PT-600
DIRECTION: Upload
FASTSPEED: yes
FILE: data1.txt <> C:\JGPLUS5\SAMPLES\PT600\data1.txt

Sample batch file:

DIRECTION: Download
FILE: C:\JGPLUS5\SAMPLES\PT600\TABLE.DAT

Sample batch file:

DIRECTION: Upload
DESTDIR: C:\JGPLUS5\SAMPLES\PT600
FILE: data1.txt

Sample batch file:

DELETE: data1.txt