Article: Want that instrument to talk to your database? It’s easy...

WinWedge is an extraordinarily ingenious piece of software which is being used the world over in technical applications to provide the “link” between measuring instruments and software which requires input in a certain format, such as databases and spreadsheets. You want an example? Let’s go all the way to South America then, to one of the largest bakeries in Ecuador...

Engineers at the Moderna Group are using WinWedge in several applications. In one instance, a Mettler-Toledo Jaguar Scale is used as a weighing-recipe system. The Jaguar allows control over both the consumption of recipes and raw materials. WinWedge is used to collect data sent by the Jaguar and inputs that data in real-time into an Informix database running on a Windows PC. The real consumption is compared against the database.

In another instance, a Mettler-Toledo Digital Scale sends quality control weight data to a Windows PC. Using WinWedge, this data is input in real-time into Excel. For quality assurance purposes, a statistical spreadsheet is designed to record statistical weights of products.

The key to all this is the simplicity of WinWedge, which enables users to collect data from scales and balances, gauges, laboratory instruments, sensors, barcode scanners... indeed, any RS232 instrument or device. WinWedge captures serial data, custom tailors it as required, then transfers the data to any Windows or DOS application - either by sending keystrokes to the application’s window or by passing the data through DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange) conversations. It’s solving infuriatingly tricky problems for thousands of users, and is well worth a look.