Slightly off topic - but not entirely..........

[The Frog]

Hi Guys,

I am looking at a project purely for personal reasons, and am wanting
some advice before I get really stuck into it. I hope you can point me
in the right direction.

What I would like to know about is comms implementations with VBA. For
this 'hobby' project I would need to make an app that would allow the
use of a serial port / modem to communicate via both ZModem, VT100,
and also some proprietary comms protocols. I also need to be able to
use some of the serial comms based protocols over TCP/IP (its a type
of integration with some very old legacy hardware that has simply been
'interfaced' from serial (rs485 and rs232) to TCP/IP.

There is a book from Richard Greir(?) on the topic of serial comms and
I am lead to believe that it is the definitive work for such things. I
have played with this area before but I really need to get to detail
to do this correctly. Is this book a help?

Does anyone know of a VB / VBA implementation of ZMODEM that does not
require any external library files or dependancies? Same for VT100?

Your advice is always welcome.

Cheers

The Frog

[jonceramic]

On Aug 11, 6:15*am, The Frog <[e-mail]:

Hi Guys,

I am looking at a project purely for personal reasons, and am wanting
some advice before I get really stuck into it. I hope you can point me
in the right direction.

What I would like to know about is comms implementations with VBA. For
this 'hobby' project I would need to make an app that would allow the
use of a serial port / modem to communicate via both ZModem, VT100,
and also some proprietary comms protocols. I also need to be able to
use some of the serial comms based protocols over TCP/IP (its a type
of integration with some very old legacy hardware that has simply been
'interfaced' from serial (rs485 and rs232) to TCP/IP.

There is a book from Richard Greir(?) on the topic of serial comms and
I am lead to believe that it is the definitive work for such things. I
have played with this area before but I really need to get to detail
to do this correctly. Is this book a help?

Does anyone know of a VB / VBA implementation of ZMODEM that does not
require any external library files or dependancies? Same for VT100?

Your advice is always welcome.

Cheers

The Frog

There are wedges (both software and hardware) for these sort of things
all over for industrial applications. Some transport via TCP/IP
also. I'd recommend checking out companies like Vetra or Microridge.
We're currently using products from them both to accept info that used
to go out via serial, and convert it to database keystroke entry.
(i.e. Just like a barcode scanner.)

Might not work for your app, but worth a shot.

Jon

[Tony Toews [MVP]]

The Frog <Mr************@googlemail.comwrote:

Very much on topic.

>What I would like to know about is comms implementations with VBA.

See the Serial Port Communications page at my web site.
http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/serialport.htm

>There is a book from Richard Greir(?) on the topic of serial comms and
I am lead to believe that it is the definitive work for such things. I
have played with this area before but I really need to get to detail
to do this correctly. Is this book a help?

So I've been told by a few folks.

>Does anyone know of a VB / VBA implementation of ZMODEM that does not
require any external library files or dependancies? Same for VT100?

Every link I know of is on the above page.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/

[The Frog]

Thanks for the input guys, I appreciate it. The 'app' is going to try
to connect to some legacy hardware (PLC's mainly) and may be a useful
tool to give to a certain community of people that still work with
this stuff. I am simply doing it for the challenge. If I can get it to
work properly in VBA then I may attempt another version for Symbian
OS! Now I'm stretching myself :-)

Cheers and thanks guys.

The Frog