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MODULAR SMART SWITCH
9.2 Connect Command
9.2.1 S
ELECTING A
D
ESTINATION
P
ORT
By default, the Modular Smart Switch automatically sends all data to port 1.
To send data to a different port or route back to port 1, use the following
command:
<PM CONNECT port>
where “port” represents a port number from 1 to 12.
The new destination will now be used for all subsequent data sent into the
port that gave the command until either a new command is sent, or the
Modular Smart Switch is powered off.
9.2.2 P
RINTING
S
EVERAL
C
OPIES
If several copies of a document are required, you do not need to send the file
repeatedly. The connect command allows up to 255 copies to be generated
from a single file. The format of the multiple copy command is:
<PM CONNECT port:copies>
To print three copies of a file on the printer/plotter attached to port 1, the
command becomes:
<PM CONNECT 1:3>
NOTE
The extra copies will not begin to be printed until the Modular Smart
Switch has accepted the whole file into its memory. This is normally
when no further data has been received for the timeout period, which is
initially set to 16 seconds. The timeout may be altered or switched off if
necessary (see Section 9.2.4). Alternatively, an end-of-file command will
tell the Modular Smart Switch that it now has the whole file (see Section
9.4). If the file is too large to fit inside the buffer, then you cannot print
more than one copy.
9.2.3 B
ROADCASTING
D
ATA TO
S
EVERAL
D
EVICES
To set the Modular Smart Switch to broadcast data to several ports
simultaneously, use the CONNECT command and specify a list of ports that
the data is to be sent to (up to 4 in total). Separate the port numbers with a
space. The multiple copy CONNECT command can also be repeated in this
way. For example, to print two copies on port 3 and one copy on port 1 of
every file sent from the computer, issue the following command:
<PM CONNECT 3:2 1>
44
MODULAR SMART SWITCH
9. Software Commands
9.1 Introduction
The Modular Smart Switch can be controlled by sending software commands
to it from any computer (serial or parallel). These commands let you change
to switch between ports and give access to some more advanced features of
the Modular Smart Switch. The control software (see Chapter 6) for use with
IBM PCs automatically generates the required software commands. This
section gives the format and purpose of each command.
All software commands have the following format:
<PM command {parameters}>
The command must begin with the three characters <PM and end with a
single character >. In the following text, UPPER CASE is used to represent a
keyword, for example, CONNECT. Anything that is in {brackets} is optional.
Text that is in lower case should be replaced by the keyword or option that it
represents.
For example, the command to connect to channel 2 (serial) would be as
follows:
<PM CONNECT 2>
A string of characters will only be recognized as a command if all the
characters are correct, thus making confusion with normal text extremely
unlikely. Software commands should be sent to the Modular Smart Switch as
a string of ASCII characters. A suitable way of doing this would be to create a
file containing the required command, and “print” it when needed, though
there are many other possibilities such as inserting the required selection
string at the top of a word processor document (refer to your computer
manuals). Users of IBM compatible computers can create batch files that
send software commands (see Section 9.5 for notes on how to create these).
Items in a software command can be separated by spaces, tabs, line feeds, or
form feeds; however, only one of these may be used between each item. In
the following sections, references to single spaces apply equally to single tabs,
single line feeds, and single form feeds.
