Send data to customer display via RS232 is almost working

Question

Hi everyone,

I have a test form with 2 buttons named "First" and "Second" below are the code I have put, but I try to clear the display by sending a print command but it does not work, I am sure someone will know what I have to do :)

Thanks

Claude from Quebec, Canada

Private Sub First_Click()
Open "COM3" For Output As #1
Print #1, Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20);
Close #1
Open "COM3" For Output As #1
Print #1, Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20);
Print #1, "Lise"
Close #1
Open "COM3" For Output As #1
Print #1, Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20);
Print #1, "Laframboise"
Close #1

End Sub

Private Sub Second_Click()
Open "COM3" For Output As #1
Print #1, Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20);
Close #1
Open "COM3" For Output As #2
Print #2, "Claude"
Close #2
Open "COM3" For Output As #3
Print #3, "Larocque"
Close #3

End Sub

Answer 1

Hi Claude,

Long time ago!

What happens if you pad the tekst with spaces, so send "Claude              " instead of just "Claude"?

Or, instead of sending  Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); … to clear the line, use  Chr$(20) & Chr$(20) & Chr$(20) & Chr$(20) & Chr$(20) & …?

Imb. 

Answer 2

Hi Imb,

You're right didn't ask for help for a while, I tried the Chr$(20) & … and no response at all for the display. For the padding with spaces, it might be possible but sometimes the products have 6 letters, sometimes 10 and sometimes 20. The first line is products that comes from a table named tblSend2VFDTemp and with coding, I change the products in that table each time a user select one. On the second line it is the price, it could be 0,99 $ or 99,99 $ or 999,99 and in some of customers that sells cars 99999,99 so I am not sure if padding is good.

Thanks

Claude

Answer 3

You're right didn't ask for help for a while, I tried the Chr$(20) & … and no response at all for the display. For the padding with spaces, it might be possible but sometimes the products have 6 letters, sometimes 10 and sometimes 20. The first line is products that comes from a table named tblSend2VFDTemp and with coding, I change the products in that table each time a user select one. On the second line it is the price, it could be 0,99 $ or 99,99 $ or 999,99 and in some of customers that sells cars 99999,99 so I am not sure if padding is good.

Hi Claude,

No problem! You can use something like:   Left(your_text & String(20," "),20)  to pad to 20 characters.

Imb.

Answer 4

Or, instead of sending  Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); Chr$(20); … to clear the line, use  Chr$(20) & Chr$(20) & Chr$(20) & Chr$(20) & Chr$(20) & …

Hi Claude,

"20" is the Hex-value voor the space-character. and not the decimal value.

So you can try:  Chr(32) & Chr(32) & … etc.

Imb.

Answer 5

Bingo,

I knew that you can help, by replacing (20) by (32) everything went well. I did also test by changing data into my temporary table and it works perfect.

Thanks again and I wish you wonderful Holidays!

Claude

In case it can help someone else here is the working code:

Private Sub First_Click()
Dim dbs As DAO.Database
Dim rst As DAO.Recordset
Dim Line1 As String
Dim Line2 As String

Set dbs = CurrentDb
Set rst = CurrentDb.OpenRecordset("tblSend2VFDTemp")

Line1 = rst![Nom du produit]
Line2 = rst![Prix unitaire]

Open "COM3" For Output As #1
Print #1, Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32); Chr$(32);
Close #1

Open "COM3" For Output As #1
Print #1, Line2 & " $"
Close #1
Open "COM3" For Output As #1
Print #1, Line1
Close #1

    rst.Close
    dbs.Close
    Set rst = Nothing
    Set dbs = Nothing

End Sub