R232 and P1 Port information help

[Malscythe]

Hey guys I'm about to plug my computer into a Tokeheim D-Box (For gas station fueling systems) I'm currently designing a program that will interface with pumps and all that sorts of fancy stuffs.

So inevitably when I find out I have no idea what I'm looking at, does anyone have any experience with any of this stuff, from a catalogue of some type? Or know where they can point such an adventurer of things as myself.

 

Also a little bit of a disclaimer: I own the dispensers, I own the station so there will be no issue or legal issues on my end, I'm just curious if anyone knows anything before i start this long lonesome road.

And as I know most programmers are "GO GOOGLE IT I CAN FIND A MILLION DIFFERENT RESULTS PERTAINING BLAH BLAH REEEEEEEEEE" posting, trust me I've tried really no information on some of this stuff.

[Mr Bill]

Note: The proper name is RS232, so if googling the proper name will give you a lot better and informative hits.

 

RS-232 is a serial interface (quite slow too) using any of at least 2 connectors (9 and 25 pins). You would need a terminal program to talk to the device as well as the speed configuration (300n8-1 up to 115000e7-2).

 

Connection speeds are defined in a pattern:

ssssssPb-S

ssssss = speed, 300 to 115000 bits per second

P = parity, one of "n"-none, "e"-even, and "o"-odd

b = number of bits per character, 6,7,8 were used

S = Number of Stip bits, 0,1,2 were commonly used

 

Beyond this, it's a deep rabbit hole of old info

Edited December 4, 2019 by Mr Bill
one handed typing... pebkac!

[Malscythe]

4 minutes ago, Mr Bill said:

Note: The proper name is RS232, so if googling the proper name will give you a lot better and informative hits.

 

RS-232

Well not necessarily, even with correct terminology you can get very very different results

[Mr Bill]

@Malscythe true, but just thought I'd start scratching the surface at the most common point in case it was useful

[Malscythe]

@Mr Bill Interesting information you got going on there, I don't think that will be a huge form factor in what I need, but maybe I don't know yet still have yet for my cable to come in and was just gonna ask for any general advice on what kind of data I should be seeing. 

[Mr Bill]

Wow, "The data you should be seeing" could be anything

It could be pure binary only readable by a special program/tool; it could be a full-on menu style system to "do stuff"; it could be a command prompt. If you don't know what it's supposed look like ... you're in for a bad time. Sorry.

 

While you're waiting for the cable, I'd do some digging to see what kind of info you could expect to see.

[Malscythe]

12 minutes ago, Mr Bill said:

Wow, "The data you should be seeing" could be anything

It could be pure binary only readable by a special program/tool; it could be a full-on menu style system to "do stuff"; it could be a command prompt. If you don't know what it's supposed look like ... you're in for a bad time. Sorry.

 

While you're waiting for the cable, I'd do some digging to see what kind of info you could expect to see.

Ya that is the best thing about this stuff its uncharted territory and I'm currently looking around for this mythical P1 port cable if it even exists in any fashion. The exciting part about this though is they both use the VGA 15 Pin style, which in is self could be great news.

[trag1c]

Communicating through rs232 is pretty trivial thr hard part is figuring out what to communicate and how to read the response. I would try to find data sheets regarding your pumps and see what the communication programming interface is. (How to have meaniful communication)

[Franck]

You should contact the manufacturer of the pump directly. These device should have an ETL label or some sort of electrical/mechanical nameplate that has the model and manufacturer written on it. Contacting them to get the user manual should help you alot. You are looking for the control manual or the BMS manual

[Malscythe]

5 hours ago, Franck said:

You should contact the manufacturer of the pump directly. These device should have an ETL label or some sort of electrical/mechanical nameplate that has the model and manufacturer written on it. Contacting them to get the user manual should help you alot. You are looking for the control manual or the BMS manual

The fuel dispensers are so old they actually date back almost a 23 years ago about, and are older than myself, but this could be a good starting place, I would really love to get my hands on this Mythical P1 cable, who knows i might be able to just plug in my RS-232 cable into it.