Jerry's Tag Monitoring Scenario Revisited - Siemens SIMATIC RF310M Function Manual

RFID Reader Interface User's Guide
2.3 Extending the Reach
Configuration Parameter Name
Scan Key Top
Application
Checking the parameter values from our default RF-MANAGER configuration, we find the
following setup:
We are running in RF-MANAGER mode and we are only allowed to monitor tags but not to
change them. All keys trigger as long as pressed and trigger RFID reading except for the
pistol grip which is associated with barcode. And there is a software trigger available as well
that we can use.
Comparing this setup with our introductory scenario it looks like it suffices to fulfill Jerry's
requirements.
2.3.5

Jerry's tag monitoring scenario revisited

Let's start out by making our life easy: Before we deal with key handling we first explore the
possibilities for software triggering. We now know that there is an application trigger
connected with the internal RFID data source. So we start reading tags by just telling this
trigger to work and here is how:
We add a new menu item that uses the RFID reader interface's function SetTrigger to
change the state of the application trigger. As we learned from the configuration parameter
settings this trigger acts as a on/off button and we take that into account by toggling the
trigger's state with every invocation of the menu item (that is what our internal Boolean flag
fAppTriggerState is for).
private void menuItemAppTrigger_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
private void menuItemAppTrigger_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
}
If we now start our test application, start the reader service in RF-MANAGER mode, wait
until we got the 'API valid' event and then toggle our trigger while an RFID tag is within reach
we can now see read tags.
You don't see them? Well, to be honest, so far you won't see any tags within our test
application but you will see them within the connected RF-MANAGER runtime if you open a
screen at runtime that shows an RFID view. This view shows the tag events we want to
monitor.
While this is great for the guys in front of the RF-MANAGER runtime PC, it won't help our
poor plant floor guy Jerry with its RF610M device because he still does not know whether the
tags have been read or not.
So, next let's make sure that poor Jerry sees the read tags on his device as well.
30
...
RfTriggerState newTriggerState = RfTriggerState.On;
if (this.fAppTriggerState)
{
newTriggerState = RfTriggerState.Off;
}
RfReaderApi.Current.SetTrigger(RfTriggerType.Application,
newTriggerState);
this.fAppTriggerState = !this.fAppTriggerState;
...
Possible Values / Description
Information about the scan key button on top of the device
Information about the virtual software trigger
Function Manual, 02/2009, J31069-D0198-U001-A1-0076
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