232key version 2020.1 released – Radwag and Mars Scale profiles

Version 2020.1 of our free virtual keyboard wedge software 232key is now available!

Improvements in 232key version 2020.1

  • New device profiles for Radwag scales and balances and Mars Scales.
  • UI and accessibility improvements (you can switch between tabs and trigger the start/stop button using an Alt + key combination).
  • We fixed a bug which prevented the import* of a previously exported configuration file. This problem only appeared when more than one license had been applied to the software and when the second or a later license had expired.
  • We’ve included many new keys which 232key can now press before* or after the measurement value:
    232key additional keys to press before measurement value

Download the 232key installer now or visit 232key.com for further information.

* This functionality requires a paid 232key Plus license.

Are you a manufacturer and would like us to include a profile for your devices?

Please contact us and provide us with the following pieces of information:

  • Default connection parameters: bit/s, data bits, stop bits, parity.
  • Terminator (last character in each line of data).
  • An example of the data transmitted (in ASCII and hexadecimal form).
  • Optional: The command used to trigger the device to send the data (this is supported by 232key Pro and Simple Data Logger).
  • Optional: Short instructions to be displayed to the user (e.g. “set communication mode to ‘PC'”).
  • Is this information valid for all your devices?

Note: We’ll try our best, but we cannot guarantee that all submissions will be included.

232key version 2018.1.4 released – includes flow control support and new profiles for Mettler Toledo and Sartorius balances

Version 2018.1.4 of our virtual keyboard wedge software for devices with RS-232 interface is now available and includes the following new features:

  • Flow control (handshaking) functionality (XON/XOFF software flow control and RTS/CTS hardware flow control):
    Flow control (handshaking): RTS/CTS and XON/XOFF
  • Device profiles: Mettler Toledo (MT-SICS), Sartorius (SBI), Sartorius (SICS), Denver Instrument.
  • Previous “Sartorius” device profile renamed to “Sartorius (legacy)” and modified to set flow control to “RTS/CTS” automatically. This profile works with older Sartorius balances which require hardware flow control.

These improvements were possible thanks to the feedback from our customers.

Ohaus Scout STX scale: capturing the weight, date and time with 232key

Our software 232key was originally designed to make it as easy as possible to capture the weight sent by a scale or balance (and then transmit it to another application as simulated keystrokes). As most weighing instruments also include the unit and possibly other characters, 232key assumes that the first (decimal) number it encounters is the weight. If you also want to capture the date and time sent from a scale, this can lead to unwanted results.

Capturing the net weight

Let’s look at a simple example first. Below you’ll see the data received from an Ohaus Scout STX scale configured to transmit only the net weight (as it appears in the event log in 232key):

Net: 302.4 g ? N<13><10>

The blue characters were captured by 232key using the “Ohaus” device profile. In this example, 232key managed to successfully capture the weight.

Capturing the net and tare weight

If we change the “Print Content” of the Ohaus STX scale so that it sends both the net and tare weight, the event log shows that 232key still captures both values:

Net: 302.4 g ? N<13><10>
Tare: 7.9 g T<13><10>

To have them appear in separate columns in spreadsheet applications like Excel, OpenOffice Calc or Google Sheets, we can go the output tab and modify the end with settings as shown below:

Alternate TAB with Enter every 2 values

Alternating the “TAB” with the “Enter” key every 2 value will produce the desired result (shown in Google Sheets):

Net and Tare weight in separate columns

Capturing date and time

Things get significantly more complicated if we configure the scale to also send the date and time. The event log now looks as follows:

11/17/2017 15:04:21<13><10>
Net: 302.4 g N<13><10>
Tare: 7.9 g T<13><10>

Using its default strategy of capturing the first number in each line, 232key only captures “11” and ignores the rest of the combined date/time line (as the backslash cannot be a part of a decimal number).

We can try to fix this by going to the device tab and setting the device to “Barcode alphanumeric extended” (available in the Plus version). This device appears in italics, which means that it is a “text” device instead of a “numeric” device. Note: Do not click the set defaults button after making this change.

As the scale is now sending three lines of data, we should also enter the number “3” in the end with settings in the output tab:

Alternate TAB with Enter every 3 values

If we press the print button on the scale again, the event log will show that all data has been captured by 232key:

11/17/2017 15:09:51<13><10>
Net: 302.2 g N<13><10>
Tare: 7.9 g T<13><10>

The output in Google Sheets looks as follows:

Google Sheets showing all data in 3 columns

If we simply wanted to record all data sent from the scale, this would be fine. However, it is not ideal for further processing for two reasons:

  1. Date and time appear together in one column.
  2. The measurement values are not recognized as numbers because the cells contain additional text.

232key does not support extracting multiple values from one line of data, so there’s nothing we can do about the first issue (although you could use 232key Pro with a custom script instead). Unfortunately, our Ohaus Scout STX scale cannot send the date and time in separate lines.

The second issue can be fixed using custom regular expressions. To do this, go to the device tab, click on the customize button and replace the existing regular expression with the following one:

(\d{2}/\d{2}/\d{4}\s+\d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2}|-?\d*\.\d+)

Note: This regular expressions assumes the scale is using the 24 hour time format.

The event log and the output in the spreadsheet now look as follows:

15:38:40 11/17/2017 15:39:01<13><10>
15:38:40 Net: 302.2 g N<13><10>
15:38:40 Tare: 7.9 g T<13><10>

Date, time, net weight and tare weight captured from Ohaus Scout STX using a regular expression

The cells containing the net and tare weights are recognized as numbers and can be used for further calculations.

If we just wanted to capture the time (and maybe add a “date” column manually), we could use the following regular expression:

(\d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2}|-?\d*\.\d+)

Please note:

  • The regular expressions above have been customized to work with the Ohaus Scout STX scale (configured to send the date, time and weight). They might not work with other scales and balances.
  • As we’re now using a “text” device, the computation and rounding settings in the process tab have been disabled (you can’t round non-numeric characters).
  • The option to change the decimal separator from a dot to a comma is also no longer available (and our custom regular expression does not capture decimal numbers using a comma as the separator).
  • For data logging purposes, consider using our new Simple Data Logger software instead of 232key. It has the ability to add the date and time to each weight. The CSV files it produces can be easily opened in Excel and other spreadsheet apps.