Designed & Made in the USA Since 1983
Applicable Devices
WedgeLink AT
The WedgeLink AT lets you take RS-232 serial output from precision measurement devices—such as scales, DROs, barcode scanners and other instruments—and translate it into Keyboard Wedge input so the data can be entered into virtually any program. Instead of requiring special drivers or custom integration, WedgeLink AT “types” the incoming serial data at the cursor location just like a keyboard, making it easy to capture readings in tools like Excel, cloud-based application, SPC software, web forms, or custom applications. This provides a simple, reliable path to modernize older RS-232 devices and streamline data collection without changing your existing software workflow.
Many RS-232 devices such as scales transmit “busy” data packets that include headers, units, status flags, timestamps, tare value, stability mode and other text that the host software doesn’t need—only the actual measurement value is needed. With WedgeLink AT’s Find First Numeric Value parsing scheme, you can automatically extract just the first valid numeric measurement from that complex serial string and ignore the surrounding characters. This lets you feed clean, consistent measurement data into any application via keyboard-wedge output, even when the original RS-232 message format is long, inconsistent, or filled with extra fields.
Andy Duvall is an owner of MicroRidge Systems and serves as the company’s sales director. With over a decade of experience as a product design and launch engineer, Andy works closely with MicroRidge customers to identify and implement the most effective measurement and interface solutions for their organizations.
2 Responses
I’m interested in your WLNK-AT product. Is there a feature that can produce the measurement in multiple units?
That’s a great question. The WedgeLink AT doesn’t have the ability to convert units, such as going from inch to mm. If the RS-232 device sends the units along with the measurement, you can pass that along to the software application and do the conversion there. If the RS-232 device doesn’t send the units along with the measurement, you can append the units to the measurement with the WedgeLink AT and then convert it in the software application to the desired units. There’s a lot of flexibility when combining the WedgeLink AT with a program such as Excel.