I apologise profusely if this ends up being the third time this get sent to
the list. Reading about sendmail wasn't on the list for today. ;-}
I am an instrument tech at an industrial site (OJ plant). I have a
project pending that I would like to use Linux for. I am not sure I can
pull it off with the skills I have now. We sometimes fill 55 gallon
drums with orange juice for shipment to a customer. We do this by
putting the drum on a scale and weighing it as it fills with juice.
We use a small "computer" to accomplish this. It has 8 digital inputs, 8
digital outputs and 4 serial ports. It has an embedded interpreter/os in
it that one writes programs for and they are run in real time. The
interpreter allows storage of some data in a flat table. I just finished
rewriting the printing routines to use new bar code printers. I am told
by management that our barrel filling will be increasing because our
parent company has bought other OJ facilities and wants to use our site
to package all barrel orders. Right now the barrel is filled, a ticket
printed with various information on it to put on the barrel and the same
information is recorded to a table. At the end of the run another serial
port is used to print the table. This is the only record of the run
because the table is cleared before the next run. I think it is time to
start recording this information to a database on a PC. My current idea
is to send the barrel data to a PC via serial port, and let the PC
record the data in a database and then send the data back out another
serial port to the bar code printer. I am not really a Linux programmer,
but I think I could probably muddle my way through the database part of
the setup with one of the interpreted languages available. What I don't
know or even have a clue about is the serial port part of this project.
How do I get the data in and back out? Will Perl or Python allow me to
open a serial port and ship data in and out? I know I can pull this off
in VB, but would rather avoid it if possible. I will be getting a "hand
me down" PC for this project from the next plant wide upgrade of PCs, so
the PC won't be the latest and greatest. Plus there are lots of
liscencing issues with the Win stuff. I think a Linux box for this
project would give me more flexibility.
So am I going to have to learn enough "C" to use the serial port or is
there another way to do this? I am looking at the Kermit program for
this, but I am not sure I can do what I want to with it's scripting
language.
Any clues tossed my way would be appreciated.
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