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Digital Scale Operation -- USB 2.0 Communication

Over 30 years ago, Doran introduced the industry's first Stainless Steel Checkweigher. Today, Doran is blazing new territory with the new, exciting and powerful features of the Excel board found in the 7400, 7000XL, 8000XL, and 4300. Once again, Doran is "changing the way we weigh" with the new USB communications which is paving a way for many customers to accelerate their weighing applications. Doran's USB scale communication feature is growing in popularity among scale end users.

Doran USB Option for Excel Series Indicators

OVERVIEW
With Doran’s New Excel Series Indicators line, comes an array of “Value Added Standard Features and Options” for a wide variety of applications. With that in mind, Doran is now able to provide a solution for customers requiring USB communications.

In the scale industry, the RS232 Serial Port has been used for communications between scales, computers or printers since the introduction of the personal computer. In 2002, PC manufacturers have agreed to obsolete Serial Ports over time and replace them with USB communication ports. Therefore, today’s computers are not always equipped with an RS-232 port, which makes the use of USB absolutely necessary.

With the migration to USB comes several benefits of using USB communications over RS232 Serial Ports. These include ease of use, reliability, flexibility, and compatibility. When a USB device is connected:

Doran has responded to this industry trend by introducing the USB option for our Excel Series Indicators. USB allows a PC to monitor several scales at once, utilizing included USB ports on the PC or through USB hubs, which expands the number of USB ports available. Doran's USB option utilizes a driver that allows the USB port to be recognized by the PC as a Serial Com Port. This allows the end user to view and collect data easily using standard hyperterminal or data collection programs, such as the Doran Excelerator Data Acquisition Program.

As with all Excel Series communications options, the USB option exceeds the NEMA 4X and IP67 washdown standards. A bulkhead connector at the rear of the scale, along with Doran’s optional USB cables, provides a rugged and reliable USB cable connection. A mating cap is molded to the USB cable and screws into place, which seals and solidly holds the USB connection. A protective cap is included at the rear of the indicator to provide washdown protection when the mating USB cable is disconnected. Doran offers a 6 foot and a 16 foot cable that includes these washdown features. The USB standard limits cable length to 16 feet, although a maximum distance of 96 feet can be achieved with the use of five USB hubs connected in series.

APPLICATIONS
One computer receiving data from five scales into an Excel spreadsheet via USB:
A customer had a requirement to collect QC data to monitor his production line. The customer wanted to collect data with a single PC into an Excel spreadsheet from five scales simultaneously. This user did not have an RS232 port on his PC and didn't want to invest in a five-port RS232 expansion board for his PC. This customer also did not have an Ethernet network to connect the scales to. A new 7000XL bench scale with the USB option was the most economical and convenient solution for this application.

To allow for five scales to be connected via USB to a PC at one time, a five-port USB hub was purchased. This hub connected to each of the five Doran 7000XL Indicators via a USB cable. In order to sort the data in the Excel spreadsheets at a later time, a custom data string was created using the Doran Dimension Indicator setup software. Each scale had a data string that included a scale ID and the current weight and units. Once configured, Doran’s Excelerator Data Collection Software, sent data from the scales directly into the Excel spreadsheet, with each scale sending data to a different sheet in the workbook. Since Excelerator automatically sent data into Microsoft Excel, the data can be immediately analyzed to determine the precision of the QC sample from the manufacturing line. The customer now controls his line process with a ten piece sample from his line three times daily and makes equipment control adjustments when necessary.

AVAILABILITY AND ORDERING INSTRUCTIONS
Doran is able to provide the following options for USB

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