Gainco Scale Integration

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The following describes how to set up the Gainco Infiniti scale head and the Coolearth Scale Sender Service. You should acquire the Gainco Infiniti Smart Scale Interface Manual (available from Gainco, though we cannot locate a open internet link for this -- it is available with the scale as a paper document, and from the vendor as a PDF file).

Initial Issues

Firewall Settings

The Scale Sender Service listens for clients on port 8650 (TCP). The local firewall (if any) must be open to communications on this port.

Serial Port

The scale uses a traditional RS-232 serial port. The scale default communication settings are 57600 baud, 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit, and no handshaking. This should be attached to the COM1 port of your workstation. You can check this with hyperterm or putty to see if it is operating. If it is not, see the Gainco Scale Factory Reset Situation section.

Scale Settings

There are a small number of settings which need to be set on the scale for it to operate properly which differ from the factory defaults.

Here are the settings and why they are needed:

  • F1.16.1 - Comm=Sig (Needed to set the Sigma communication format -- this is so the program can tell how your unit has been set (Lbs, Kgs, Oz, G). In this way it can always convert the unit to the expected units for processing no matter how the head has been set.)
  • F1.1.3 - Grads=.002 (Needed to give sufficient resolution to resolve Grams properly -- .002 will set gram resolution to about 1.0 grams)
  • F1.1.4 - Stabl=4d (Needed to permit settling to happen with very small weights such as we will see with fillets and nuggets)

Procedure for Setting Scale

  • Put the Scale in Setup Mode:
    • Press the left-most (gross/net -- button 1) and right-most (units/enter - button 5) buttons on the head at the same time.
    • Enter the setup code -- press the down, up, right, left buttons (button 4, then 3, then 2, then 1).
    • Then hit the unit/enter button (button 5)
  • Navigate to your setting:
    • The setting starts at F1 -- hit enter (button 5), the display will then be F1.1
    • Hit the down arrow (button 3) or up arrow (button 4) to navigate to where you want (these buttons act backwards, the up arrow goes to the next number, while the down arrow goes to the previous) -- for example F1.16 you would hit the up-arrow until you see F1.16, then you would hit enter again and you would see F1.16.1 -- once you have gotten all the way to your setting you can then hit enter and see what the F1.16.1 setting is set to.
    • If you have want to navigate back up a level--say going from F1.16.1 back to F1.16)--you hit the left arrow button
  • Set your value:
    • Once you have navigated to your setting and hit return and see the value you want to change, hit the right arrow button (button 2). It will then show your value and nothing else. You can then scroll up and down with the up and down arrows to select the value you want.
    • Hit return to set the new value, hit the left arrow to go back without changing the value. After this the system should show what the value is now set to.
  • So now, change all of the values you need to set.
  • When finished, get out of setup mode and save your changes:
    • Hit the back arrow (button 1) until the display says Enter=Save.
    • Hit enter, and it will save your changes.