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Transmitters

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So far, the basics of the protocol used by the LRS alphapager have been discussed without relation to how they are used with a transmitter. Partly, this is because the alphapager protocol does not depend on how any given transmitter works. It is instructive, however, to see how the alphapager protocol works together with protocols used by real transmitters.

T74C232 and T74USB

The T74C232 is a transmitter that can be controlled via an RS-232C serial port. The T74USB is identical, except that it uses USB rather than RS-232C. The T74USB implements a USB CDC serial device, so it looks nearly identical to client software. For this documentation, T74C232 will be used to refer to both the T74C232 and the T74USB.

The T74C232 provides many commands for working with alphapager. However, most of these commands are for convenience. For maximum flexibility and compatibility, it is recommended to use the lower level commands, rather than the convenience commands. Further, it is recommended that the client software not turn on the T74C232’s antitheft and group paging features, and drive these manually.

For full control over the paging, only two T74C232 commands are required, PAGE and CCPAGE. The following sections explain how these commands can be used to access all of the LRS alphapagers functionality. For further information on the T74C232, refer to the T74C232 documentation.

T74C232 Escape Sequences

The T74C232 understands the following escape sequences in the message portion of a command:

  • \n = Newline sequence
  • \f = Form feed character (used with alert override sequences)

Basic Paging

Basic alphapager paging functionality is provided through the PAGE command. To send Hello world! to pager 105, system ID 4, use the following command:

PAGE,105,4,Hello world!

To send a flash / vibe 30 seconds page to an alphacoaster 23, system ID 1, the following command would be used:

PAGE,23,1,Your table is ready!\fF30Vv5

All Page

Since all pages use a standard pager ID, usually 911, all pages are just a standard page to the all page ID. The following command sends the message Meeting in 5 minutes to all pagers on system ID 3 (assuming the all page ID is 911): 

PAGE,911,3,Meeting in 5 minutes

Group Paging

Group pages are transmitted on the system capcode (pager ID 0), with a group number prefixing the message. To send Customer in showroom to all pagers belonging to group 14, system ID 5, the following command would be used: 

PAGE,0,5,[14]Customer in showroom

System Control

System control pages are transmitted to the system capcode (pager ID 0). To send an anti-theft enable / reset command to all pagers on system ID 7, the following T74C232 command would be used: 

PAGE,0,7,[0]

Pager Programming

Pager programming commands are sent to the programming capcode, which is fixed at 100000. There is no system ID / pager ID combination which translates to a capcode of 100000. Thus, the CCPAGE command, which allows paging capcodes directly must be used.

To program a pager’s first capcode to be 1100840 (system ID 4, pager ID 105), the following command would be used: 

CCPAGE,100000,[C11100840]

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Compatibility Notes

  • Some early versions of the T74C232 did not support the PAGE command. The FPG command is present on all versions of the T74C232, and can be used in place of the PAGE command.
  • Some early versions of the T74C232 did not support the CCPAGE command. There is no workaround for a transmitter lacking the CCPAGE command.
  • If desired, the CCPAGE can be used in place of the PAGE command by calculating the capcode manually.

LRSN (NetPage) Transmitters

LRSN is a protocol used by LRS’s network enabled transmitters. This section covers how various types of pages may be performed using LRSN. The PageRequest message is used when a message is to be transmitted. For more information LRSN, refer the LRSN documentation.

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Note

In the included examples, line breaks are included for readability. These should not be used when sending messages to the server.

Escape Sequences

The LRSN protocol supports using the following escape sequences in message text:

  • \f = Form feed (used for alert override sequences)
  • \n = Newline sequence
  • \\ = A single "" (backslash)

Basic Paging

To send Hello world! to the pager 105, system ID 4, the following message would be sent to the LRSN server:

<PageRequest>
	<Pager Type="Text" SystemID="4" ID="105" />
	<Message>Hello world!</Message>
</PageRequest>

To send a flash / vibe 30 seconds page to alphacoaster 23, system ID 1, the following message would be sent to the LRSN server: 

<PageRequest>
	<Pager Type="AlphaCoaster" SystemID="1" ID="23" />
	<Message>Your table is ready!\fF30Vv5</Message>
</PageRequest>

All Page

Since all pages use a standard pager ID, usually 911, all pages pages are just a standard page to the all page ID.

The following message would be sent to the LRSN server to page Meeting in 5 minutes to all pagers on system ID 3 (assuming the all page ID is 911):

<PageRequest>
  <Pager Type="Text" SystemID="3" ID="911" />
  <Message>Meeting in 5 minutes</Message>
</PageRequest>

Group Pages

Group pages with LRSN may be sent by using a group pager type (e.g. "Text Group", "SP5Group", or "Alpha-CoasterGroup").

The following example message would send Customer in showroom to all pagers belonging to group 14, system ID 5:

<PageRequest>
  <Pager Type="Text Group" SystemID="5" ID="14" />
  <Message>Customer in showroom</Message>
</PageRequest>

System Control

System control pages are transmitted to the system capcode, which is pager ID 0.

The following example transmits an anti-theft enable / reset to all alphapagers on system ID 7:

<PageRequest>
  <Pager Type="Text" SystemID="7" ID="0" />
  <Message>[0]</Message>
</PageRequest>

Pager Programming

Pager programming commands are sent to the programming capcode, which is fixed at 100000. Thus, programming messages use the same basic PageRequest message form, but specify the destination by directly using a capcode, rather than the system ID and pager ID.

The following message would program the first capcode to 1100840 (system ID 4, pager ID 105):

<PageRequest>
  <Pager Type="Text" Capcode="100000" />
  <Message>[C11100840]</Message>
</PageRequest>

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