Manual

Astro-Med Plugin Quick Start Manual

Manual

Table of contents

Astro-Med Quick Start Manual ............................................................. 1

Table of contents .................................................................................. 2
Enable plug-in ...................................................................................... 3
License ................................................................................................. 3
Add printers .......................................................................................... 3
Channel Setup ...................................................................................... 4
Mounting channels ............................................................................... 6
Sending data to printer ......................................................................... 7
Measure mode ..................................................................................... 8
Printing ................................................................................................. 9
Troubleshooting .................................................................................. 10
Errata .................................................................................................. 11

Page 2
Technical manual
Enable plug-in
Download AstroMed_1_xx.zip from http://www.dewesoft.com/download/section/6
Then extract the AstroMed_1_xx.dll file to Addons folder found in Dewesoft
installation root directory.

License
You need a proper AstroMed Option license to use this plugin.

Add printers
First you must add printers in HW setup. You need to know the printer IP and port
number. Default printer port is 2864. You also must name the printer with
meaningful name if you have a multi-printer setup.

Figure 1: Plugin HW setup

Page 3
Printing version 1.0 •July21, 2011 Author : Dejan Cencelj, Application Engineer
Manual

Channel Setup
In Ch. setup select the Astro-Med plugin. You will see your added printer at the
box in the left-top corner.

Figure 2: Ch. setup

Now select the first printer and “Connect TCP/IP” button will enable. This button
establishes the first socket connection that is used for controlling printer settings
like chart speed, number of signal to print... Press the button and you should see
the same result as on Figure 3.

Page 4
Technical manual
 Figure 3: Result

When you connect to printer the “HDAT 8,2,0,0,0” command is sent and that sets
up printer settings. Please refer to Astro-Med printer manual for details about
commands sent to printer. On the left of the screen the Printer settings window
becomes enabled. Now you can send different commands by clicking on enabled
buttons. You can see printer current status in “Printer and connection status”
window on the top of the screen next to “Selected printer” window. This
information will update when you change some property.

Page 5
Printing version 1.0 •July21, 2011 Author : Dejan Cencelj, Application Engineer
Manual

Mounting channels
In the bottom middle window called “Mount channels” there are three columns. In
the first column you can see Dewesoft used channels. We connected one
measurement unit (DEWE-43) and we enabled Analog out feature to generate
some sample signals. In order to print used channels you must first add the
desired channels to second or third column. To print waveforms mount/add
channels to second column and to print events mount/add channels to third
column.
*Every channel can be mounted as Event channel. So if you mount sine signal
with amplitude from -10V to 10V the values from -10V to 0V are low state and
values from 0V to 10V are high state.
**You can mount multiple channels at once using Shift+UP/DOWN in first
column.
*** You can sort mounted channels using Drag/Drop function in second and third
column.

Figure 4: Mounting channel to print

Page 6
Technical manual
Sending data to printer
Now you are ready to send some data. Press “Connect” button in “Printer
settings” window. The second panel should now be color green if everything is
ok. Also when pressing the Connect button a “Data” command is sent to the
printer that toggles the printer in wait for data mode.

Figure 5: Ready to send data to printer

Page 7
Printing version 1.0 •July21, 2011 Author : Dejan Cencelj, Application Engineer
Manual

Measure mode
Now you are ready to send data to printer. Press measure button and data will be
start being send to your printer. You should see data being send on the printer
display but the printer won’t start actual printing yet.

Figure 6: Printer display

If you don’t see the data check the button state in figure 6. If it’s red go back to
ch. setup, select the printer and press Run button on the top right window. But
first you must disconnect data connection (Bellow disconnect button) to enable
this button. Reconnect data connection before you go back to measurement.

Page 8
Technical manual
Printing
To start printing you must first trigger the printer in Ch. Setup. Select desired
printer in “Selected printer” window and then press Record button in the top right
“Chatr/Display” window. A label called trigger changes color to green if you do so.
Now check if all three panels are colored green and press Measure button above.

Figure 7: Ready to print

If you press “Record” the printer will start printing. The printing will stop when you
press Stop. In you don’t won’t to print but just store data go back to ch. setup and
press Stop button under “Printer control”. In “Stopped” mode the printer won’t
print in if you press Store in measurement mode.

Page 9
Printing version 1.0 •July21, 2011 Author : Dejan Cencelj, Application Engineer
Manual

Troubleshooting
Before connecting to your printer you may wan’t to ping the printer first. This will
let you know if the network connection is configured correctly.

In you press Connect TCP/IP are Connect button and the panels under label
Signal connection and Data connection doesn’t get green you have a network
problem. You will get a red error number. Here is a link with error names
http://tinyurl.com/44ld744. This will give you little help with your issue.

Figure 8: Err 10060 means ConnectionTimedOut

Page 10
Technical manual
Errata
Please forgive any grammatical mistakes. Also please report any plugin bugs.
Send an email to:

Dejan Cencelj
[email protected]
or
[email protected]
or
Both

Page 11
Printing version 1.0 •July21, 2011 Author : Dejan Cencelj, Application Engineer