User-Defined Protocol Properties Dialog

The User-Defined Protocol Properties dialog allows you to specify scale commands for a scale that is not natively supported by BarTender.

Scale commands enable BarTender to receive input (typically a weight) from a scale that is connected to a serial or network port on your computer. The most common protocols, along with their associated scale commands, are installed with BarTender; however, you may use a scale not included in this list. In this case, you will need to set up a new protocol and define the scale commands using the User-Defined Protocol Properties dialog.

You can access this dialog in one of the following ways:

On the User-Defined Protocols tab of the Weighing Scale Setup dialog, click the Edit button. The User-Defined Protocols tab is available only when you have previously created a user-defined protocol.
When defining a new scale model in the Add Scale Wizard, select the New button on the Define a Scale Model page.

When you create a new protocol that is not natively supported by BarTender, you need to specify a Command and Response Pattern for each of the scale commands you require. A command is the set of instructions sent by BarTender to the scale that tells the scale to do something. A response or response pattern is the scale's response to the specified command.

BarTender uses the following five basic commands for communicating with the scale. At a minimum, BarTender requires the scale to support either the Request Immediate Weight or the Request Stable Weight command. All other commands are optional.

Request Immediate Weight. Requests and receives the weight data, even if the scale is in an unstable state.
Request Stable Weight. Requests and receives weight data when the scale is in a stable state.
Tare. Sends the tare weight (i.e., the weight of the unladen container) to the scale.
Get Tare Weight. Requests and receives the tare weight from the scale.
Clear Tare Weight. Requests the scale to clear the tare weight.

The response pattern must use regular expression syntax. For more information, refer to Field Names Used in Regular Expressions and Regular Expression Examples.

If your command and response pattern matches that of an existing protocol, you can choose to copy an existing protocol from one of the common protocols installed with BarTender by clicking the Copy Existing Protocol button.

For additional information regarding scale commands and the common protocols installed with BarTender, see Weighing Scale Configuration.

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