Are you sure you're supposed to send out this code? I would have always thought that the code is prefixed by ESC i.e. 0x1b hexadecimal...for cash drawers...
"\x1bA"
Interesting that double 'A' is used...oh well... :)
Edit: After thinking about this I realized there is another way of doing it, read on...
I have modified your original BASIC code with a bit of bullet-proofing...save it to opendrawer.bas
Sub OpenDrawer()
drawerComPort = "COM1"
Open drawerComPort For Output Access Write As #1
REM ADDED ERROR HANDLING
ON ERROR GOTO ErrHandler
Print #1, Chr$(65); "A";
Close #1
print "Drawer Ok"
OpenDrawer_Exit:
On Error Goto 0
Exit Sub
ErrHandler:
print "Oops, Write Failed"
Goto OpenDrawer_Exit
End Sub
REM The Main....
OpenDrawer
Download the old QB4.5 MS-Quick Basic compiler, and compile that to an executable, into opendrawer.exe
, the QB4.5 can be found here. Now, the onus is on you to make this bulletproof, i.e. what happens if writing to COM1 fails, issue a message like in the example BASIC code I modified
Then you can use the System.Diagnostics.Process
to shell out using a hidden window
public class TestDrawer
{
private StringBuilder sbRedirectedOutput = new StringBuilder();
public string OutputData
{
get { return this.sbRedirectedOutput.ToString(); }
}
public void Run()
{
System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo ps = new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo();
ps.FileName = "opendrawer";
ps.ErrorDialog = false;
ps.CreateNoWindow = true;
ps.UseShellExecute = false;
ps.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
ps.WindowStyle = System.Diagnostics.ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
using (System.Diagnostics.Process proc = new System.Diagnostics.Process())
{
proc.StartInfo = ps;
proc.Exited += new EventHandler(proc_Exited);
proc.OutputDataReceived += new System.Diagnostics.DataReceivedEventHandler(proc_OutputDataReceived);
proc.Start();
proc.WaitForExit();
proc.BeginOutputReadLine();
while (!proc.HasExited) ;
}
}
void proc_Exited(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("proc_Exited: Process Ended");
if (this.sbRedirectedOutput.ToString().IndexOf("Oops, write failed") > -1){
MessageBox.Show(this, "Error in opening Cash Drawer");
}
if (this.sbRedirectedOutput.ToString().IndexOf("Drawer Ok") > -1){
MessageBox.Show(this, "Drawer Ok");
}
}
void proc_OutputDataReceived(object sender, System.Diagnostics.DataReceivedEventArgs e)
{
if (e.Data != null) this.sbRedirectedOutput.Append(e.Data + Environment.NewLine);
//System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("proc_OutputDataReceived: Data: " + e.Data);
}
The process shells out to a hidden window and all output is redirected and handled in the event handler...that should do the trick. Notice, how the redirected output goes into the sbRedirectedOutput
(a StringBuilder instance). In the proc_ProcExited
event handler, it checks the sbRedirectedOutput
for the message 'Oops Write failed' which would be issued from the QB4.5 program.
Be aware, that you may need to include the QB4.5's run-time library in the same directory...not 100% sure...it's being years...
What do you think?
Hope this helps,
Best regards,
Tom.