FAQ

At this time, these deal mainly with LRS Alpha Pagers, RXE467 and SP5.

The pager has a “1” sticker on the back indicating station ID 1. How do I find out which RID it is set for?

Use the command STAT to see how the transmitter is programmed, in the output there will be the current setting for Restaurant ID, or RestID.

We interchange the name RestaurantID and SystemID which acts as an upper address selection for each pager. SystemID sounded better for non-restaurant customers. The StationID is different and is only used as part of a message to indicate what transmitter sent the message, for C232 it can be ignored.

For Alpha Pagers, each pager has three addresses, or CapCodes, that will be checked to see if they match any incoming transmitted signal. The name CapCode comes from the definition of the protocol that is transmitted, POCSAG, which is an older, but still current transmission protocol for alphanumeric pagers.

In general the CapCode is defined as: CapCode = SystemID + 8*ID

• The first CapCode (Address #1) is the pagers individual number or ID
• The second CapCode is the pagers all page number (typically programmed to 911)
• The third CapCode represents only the SystemID or RestaurantID and is used for broadcast control messages i.e. turn buttons on/off, set time or date, etc.

For SystemID less than or equal to 13, we create the CapCode from a mathematical equation that combines the SystemID (or RestaurantID whatever you want to call it) and the pagers individual number or ID.

The equation is: CapCode = (PagerID 8) + (100000 SystemID) + 700000

So for example Pager 23 on System ID 3 has for Address 1 (CapCode 1) = 238 + 1000003 + 700000 = 1000184

This works only up to SystemID 13 and then gets really convoluted. POCSAG only specifies addresses to just over 2000000 so we folded the numbering back around and started at the bottom again with each System ID occupying groups of only 10000 instead of 100000 and they follow the following logic:

C

{ 
	if (SystemID > 13) 
  	return ( ((((SystemID-14)%9)*10000L) + (((SystemID-14)/9)*100000L)) + 10000L ); 
  else 
    return ( 700000L + (SystemID*100000L) ); 
 }

So as you can see for 14 and above the equation is a bit more complex. The pager code we have actually decodes the CapCode and displays for the user upon reset the SystemID and PagerID derived from the CapCode: [0] 1 is simply SystemID 0 Pager# 1 (CapCode 700008). The pager does not decode these upper CapCodes (14 and above) though and will simply display it’s programmed addresses as the raw CapCode.

How do I change the SID or RID?

Use the command RID,nn where nn is the new RestaurantID (or SystemID)

Why doesn't the FPROG command doesn't work?

This command is for numeric pagers which are now obsolete from LRS. The correct command is:
CCPROG, Address, CapCode

Where Address is the slot in the pager, 1,2 or 3 (PagerID, AllPageID, Restaurant/SystemID) and CapCode is the raw CapCode using the formulae above.

So to program a pager as #23, AllPage 911 on Restaurant/SystemID 4 the three CapCodes would be:
238 + 4100000 + 700000 = 1100184 Pager Number
9118 + 4100000 + 700000 = 1107288 All Page Number
4*100000 + 700000 = 1100000 Just the Restaurant/SystemID

You have to send three individual commands and wait for the response from the transmitter before sending the next, here they are:

CCPROG,1,1100184

Transmitter responds with SFPG,100000 CCPROG,2,1107288 Transmitter responds with SFPG,100000 CCPROG,3,1100000 Transmitter responds with SFPG,100000

The transmitter responds with SFPG,100000 because the internal fixed programming capcode is 100000 and can never be changed, we use that address to program not only the CapCodes, but the welcome message, group number, group names, time date format etc. Items that do not change regularly.

SFPG indicates “Sent FM Page” (POCSAG messages are only transmitted in FM)

VOL: which volume does this affect? It did not seem to be the pager.

Only affects LRS SP4 type pagers which you are probably not using

SID: changed the SID on the transmitter, but this did not seem to affect being able to communicate with the pager since both the FPG and PAGE commands require specifying an SID.

Not used with alpha pagers because the message is always composed by you the user, other LRS staff pagers may use the StationID to indicate what transmitter sent the message, it’s either a light or merged in with some canned message.

DPROG,dd,mm,yyyy (program Alpha Pager current date): resets date to 1/1/1970 and resets time to 12:00 am. It responds with SFPG,50000. (TPROG to set the current time works fine and it responds with SFPG,50000 also.)

DPROG only uses two digit year input, the correct command is DPROG,dd,mm,yy
Both DPROG and TPROG use the “RestaurantID or SystemID” CapCode to program these settings, the response from the transmitter is correct, it paged directly to the CapCode that has no pager number in it which is the RestaurantID CapCode.

What is the “Alpha pager” in this description?

Any POCSAG Alpha Numeric pager, but many of these special features (wireless programming, date, time, CapCodes, groups, names etc) are only available on the LRS designed and built 4-line Alpha or SP5 one-line alpha pagers.

FMTPROG,x,y (programs date time format): what are x and y and what are the options?

“X,Y” – Sets Format
X = 1 (12 Hour format)
X = 2 (24 Hour format)
Y = 1 (Display MM/DD/YYYY)
Y = 2 (Display DD/MM/YYYY)

RFBAUD,#: what are the reasons that we might consider changing the RF baud rate?

At 2400 baud the messages take ½ the time to transmit. It is recommend to operate with the default 1200baud settings, because you need to change the pager and this is not an option on the SP5.

TIM: reports transmitter time. Is there a way to get the pager time?

No, you can program the time so the pagers match the computer controlling the system, the transmitter doesn’t use the time internally at the moment.

SETT: sets transmitter time. What is this used for?

Nothing at this time

FPG,#,#!MSG seems to require an A right after the ! to get the message to the pager.

This is a very old method of sending pages to numeric or alphanumeric pagers and is not recommended. Use the PAGE,nnnn,mm,msg command instead where nn=PagerID, mm=SystemID and message is an alphanumeric message

FPG,1,3!A……\\\////// returns ERROR No Value

You are missing an unused, but necessary variable, the correct syntax is FPG,PagerID, 0, PowerLevel !Ayour message here The 0 after the PagerID is a required.

Both FPG and PAGE sometimes don’t seem to transmit the / or . characters. Is there a list of which characters are valid? Also \ sends only one . And alternating \ and / seemed to only send the /.

The ‘\’ character is special and used to send special characters in the string and so the first backslash is absorbed. There are two major format characters supported, ‘\n’ for new line which helps in formatting messages on the screen of the pager and ‘\FF’ in which you must put an ascii formfeed right after the ‘\’ to tell the pager that the characters following the formfeed are to be used to override the default paging mode. This allows you to control vibration, beep, cadences for each, backlight etc. This document specifies all these options under the title Advanced POCSAG Paging.