Frequently Asked Questions: PSC / Percon Products

Universal Program Generator - (

1. How do I develop a program to print directly from my portable to a serial printer?
2. When I compile my UPG program I get compile errors with no details available.
3. When I try to send data from my Symbol PDT with my UPG program the program crashes and the PDT returns to the DOS prompt.
4. What portables data collectors does UPG support?

1.  How do I develop a program to print directly from my portable to a serial printer?

Warnings
Printing directly to a serial printer from a PSC portable is fairly simple in theory. All you need to do is supply the printer with the correct data for the label you want to print. However, the actual process of identifying the correct command structure for the label you want and then getting the portable to create it on demand can be very time consuming.

Solution

1. Connect the printer to your PC with the standard serial cable that comes with the printer.
2. Using the programming manual from the printer manufacturer as reference, create a text command file that you can send from the PC directly to the printer using Windows HyperTerminal (or some other communication utility) that will successfully print an example of the label you want the portable to print. (Sometimes, the printer will come with label printing software that you can use to create a label. Since the label file is sent to the printer as serial data, you should be able to use the portable to receive the data instead of the printer. If you can do this, you can easily get a copy of the command data required to print your label.)
3. Once you have a command text file that will print a label from the PC, copy this file to the portable.
4. Connect the portable to the printer using the standard serial cable for the portable and the standard serial cable for the printer connected together with a null modem adapter.
5. Print a label by sending the command text file from the portable to the printer. If this does not work, verify that all the parameters you used to print the label from the PC to the printer are being used the same with the portable (baud rate, data bits, flow control, etc.)
6. Once you can print a label using your example command text file, print out the command text file on paper and highlight the areas in the text data where the raw data is used. These areas of raw data in the command file structure will be supplied by variables in the portable program. For example: If you are printing a label that has one bar code of "123456" and one text description of "Test Label", highlighting the data "123456" and "Test Label" in the command text file will show you where the raw data is used.
7. Once you have highlighted the data, everything that is highlighted needs to be supplied by a variable in the program. Everything that is not highlighted will be constant for this particular label. Once you know this, you can develop the program to supply the required constant data and the variable data to create labels with any data you want.
8. Use development software (UPG or 'C' for Falcons and PPG for PT2000s) to create the command text file using variables for the data fields. Keep working until you can print a different label by changing the data in the variables.
9. The last step is to integrate the label creation code into your data collection program so that the label prints when you need it to print.

Once you have the program working, if you want to create a custom label, you can use the two cables connected with the null modem to design a direct cable. Using a continuity tester you can verify which pins on the portable connector go to which pins on the printer connector and use this information to make a custom cable that goes straight from the portable to the printer.

Related Information

• Additional considerations when dealing with direct serial printers include:
• If the cable is not correct, the printer will probably do nothing when data is sent because it never gets to the printer.
• If the cable connecting the portable to the printer is correct, but the data that is sent to the printer is not correct, the printer may do one of the following:
  • Signal you that it has received data but that the data is not correct
  • Show a general error condition
  • Do nothing

Printers must have correctly structured data that is sent correctly in order to function properly. Consult the printer's user and programming guides for more details.

2.  When I compile my UPG program I get compile errors with no details available.

In UPG, a blank compile error message can be caused by two things:

• The compiler cannot find the UPG code to compile or:
• The UPG cannot find the compiler itself.

Following are the areas in UPG to check for both conditions:

The path name of the directory where the .UPG program exists is not valid in DOS.
While UPG is a 32-bit program, the C compiler that comes with UPG, called Power Mix C, is not 32 bit. This means that it does not read long file names and cannot have invalid characters like spaces in the program name or path. All directory names and the name of the EXE file each can be no more then 8 characters wit no spaces.

The Compiler Batch Command string is not correct.
In order for UPG to link to the Power Mix C compiler correctly, there is a rather complicated "Compiler Batch Commands" field that needs to be correct. To get to this field, click on the word File from the menu bar, then on Options and then click on the Compiler Settings tab. This field needs to be set exactly like this:

set path={COMPILEPATH}^{APPDRIVE}^cd {APP}^pc -m{MODEL_L} -j -c
-i{UPGPATH};{FALCPATH} {EXE}*.c {EXTRAS} > {ERR}^{COMPILEDRIVE}^cd
{COMPILEPATH}^copy {UPGPATH}\upgmix{MODEL_L}.lib
{UPGPATH}\upgmix{MODEL_L}.mix^copy {FALCPATH}\Falc{MODEL_L}P.lib
{FALCPATH}\Falc{MODEL_L}P.mix^pcl @{PRJ} >> {ERR}^{PATHDRIVE}^cd
{PATH}^If Not Exist {EXE}.exe ErrorExp {ERR} > UPGBuild.Er2

If you are having trouble getting the compiler to work, ensure the Compiler Batch Commands field is set to this. You may need to type this data in manually as copy and paste may include erroneous data.

3.  When I try to send data from my Symbol PDT with my UPG program the program crashes and the PDT returns to the DOS prompt.

Please be aware that UPG version 2.2 and higher only support PSC portables. Symbol and Intermec support stop with version 2.1. Version 2.1 will be available from PSC through December 1999.

Solution
Due to the way that the Symbol portables manage memory, the portable may not capable of running the UPG 2.X application and performing the file transfer function at the same time. The work-around for this situation is to have the UPG application automatically shut down, perform the file upload, and then have the application automatically re-start.

To facilitate this functionality, do the following:

1. Within your UPG program, select the "Portable" option from the UPG menu bar.
2. Select the "UPG.INI Settings" option.
3. Select the "ADVANCED" tab.
4. Select the "Shell to DOS" check box in the "Miscellaneous" section.
5. Click on the "OK" button.
6. Re-compile the UPG program.
7. Re-download the program to the Symbol portable.
8. Collect data, then attempt upload.

Side Effects
If using UPG version 2.0, the options in the "Send File To Host" utility "Options" tab will no longer be effective. This is due to the fact that the application has "lost focus" of the "Send File To Host" utility due to the fact that the application has actually terminated, and the "Shell to DOS" function has control. After the "Shell to DOS" function has terminated and the file has uploaded, then the UPG application restarts from the beginning of the program.

Version 2.1 has fixed this problem.

4.  What portables data collectors does UPG support?

PSC's Universal Program Generator (UPG) is a Windows-based visual programming tool for developing DOS applications for portable data terminals (PDTs). UPG supports the PDTs listed in the table below. Since UPG creates DOS executable files, DOS-compatible PDTs similar to those listed here may be able to run UPG applications with little or no modification to the program. However, PSC assumes no responsibility for the compatibility of UPG with PDTs other than those listed below. Moreover, UPG 2.0 provides additional levels of support for the PSC Falcon PDT. Extended support for specific features or configuration options for PDTs other than PSC's may be obtained by contacting the manufacturer directly.

Symbol 3100a
Symbol 3100b
Symbol 3200
Symbol 3500
Symbol 3805
Intermec Janus 1 megabyte
Intermec Janus 4 megabyte
PSC Falcon
Brady DLT

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