Tips & Tricks Back


• Choose the right card:
Cards with relays are relatively loud. Switching the relays is clear to hear. Purely electronically working cards (open collector outputs) are completely silent. The disadvantage of these cards, for example 8255, ELV IO 88, Velleman K8055, is that they are build only for small voltage and small capacity. To control little 12 volts lights or LED's these "open collector" cards however are very well suitable.

If you want to control 110V/220V devices you should use a card with appropriately strong relays, for example the Conrad serial card, Velleman K8056, ELV CSI 8 or a parallel card with strong relays. Or you have to connect a second relays (or thyristor / triac) that can switch the needed current.

Parallel cards cannot become cascaded, that means max. 8 outputs are available. So if you want to control more than 8 outputs you should use a serial or a USB card. Parallel cards can have undefined states of the outputs with power on until software starts.

If you need short switching times, for example less than 0,1 second, you have to use a USB card! The data processing time for USB cards is around 1-5 milliseconds. With USB cards you can have program runs with 0,02 seconds impulse time. The 8 channel parallel and the 8255 cards can process data signals very fast, too.

• Inputs:
At the moment there is only support for use of inputs with the Velleman K8055 USB card, on other cards the inputs are not supported yet. Update: Since the release of our own bksoft 8 Channel Digital IN/OUT Module this card is supported, too!

• Command line:
Because the Licht24 Pro program has grown it takes time to lunch the application. If you need command line functionality and fast switching, let Licht24 Pro run all the time and send the command line using the sndmsg.exe tool.

• Control more than 24 channels:
It is possible to control more than 24 channels by installing the program Licht24 Pro twice (respectively in a separate directory) and run two instances simultaneously. For example use 3x Conrad serial with the first instance on COM1, and use 3x Conrad serial with the second instance on COM2. We plan to release a version which supports 32 channels => Licht32 Pro. Please visit our website to familiarize yourself about all our current products: http://www.bksoft.de

Because normally we use the COMMON_APPDATA folder (c:\ProgramData\bksoft\licht24pro) to save all settings, you have to disable first the setting "Use COMMON_APPDATA Dir" in the first installation, then the local installations directory is used to store all settings.

• Editing data files manually:
The most important data files are in simple text format so you can also edit them with a editor. For example, open the file channel1.uhr or the licht24pro.ini with a editor. If you do any manual changes you have to reload the files with "Programs, Automatic timer, Reload now" or restart Licht24 Pro to take these changes affect. First create a backup of the files you want to change manually. If you have problems because some of your changes made are not correct just copy your backup files back or reinstall the program to get a clean installation again.

• Copy Alarm lists:
The alarm lists files can be found in the main folder of Licht24 Pro: channel1.uhr up to channel24.uhr
To copy the program of the automatic timer Channel1 into the automatic timer Channel2 first open the file channel1.uhr with the editor or a text program. Mark the desired entries with the mouse and copy them via the copy function of the editor's main menu to the clipboard. Now open the file channel2.uhr and paste the entries from the clipboard into the opened channel2.uhr file. Save the file channel2.uhr and run Licht24 Pro.

• Save Alarm lists:
If you save alarm lists they are stored in the sub folder alarms. Licht24 Pro always works with the files in the main directory, so when you load saved Settings1 all files are copied from the alarms/alarms_01 folder to the main directory.

• Sequence programs:
The sequence programs are stored also in the main folder of Licht24 Pro: prog1.txt up to prog999.txt
The end values of each program are stored in the file steps.txt, row1 = end value program1, row2 = end value program2, and so on... You can edit these files in the editor, too. The speed is regulated with the rotary knob. The rotary knob can also be controlled with the keyboards arrow keys respectively with the Pos1 and End key, to this the knob must be active (click once on the knob so it is getting the focus).

• Reports
We suggest to open a new browser tab for every report. With a simple "refresh" of the website all reports are available very quick!

Reports

• Autostart / System Boot
Create a link to the file licht24pro.exe in the Windows autostart folder.
If you have start problems with the serial port you can start Licht24 Pro with a command line parameter STARTDELAY=x (x in miliseconds delay).

Example:
"c:\program files\licht24pro\licht24pro.exe STARTDELAY=10000" does a start delay of 10 seconds.
The inverted comma must be added because of the space between the parameter!

It is now also possible to activate the auto start on boot directly within the Licht24 Pro software. Just activate Extras, "Autostart on boot" in the main menu. We use the Windows registry HKCU RUN section.

• Error messages
With our tests with several Windows versions the installation and start of Licht24 Pro works without any problems. Because of the many different supported devices there is mostly a driver for that exactly card needed. If you get nevertheless a error message you should (re-)install the correct 32 or 64 bit driver. Drivers for Quancom, Deditec and ftd USB devices can be found in the Licht24 Pro installations directory or download it from the manufacturer website.

• USB to serial converter:
To avoid problems we suggest to NOT use relays boards with a converter. A serial card needs a real serial port. If there is no serial port available insert a PCI or PCMCIA COM card to your PC or just use a USB type relays card.

• Joystick as input device:

JoyToKey With the software JoyToKey you can simulate keyboard key strokes by joystick.

In the installations directory you can find the application joytokey.exe with an example configuration for the keys F9, F10, F11 u. F12. These keys control the program run, e.g. F9 is program step, F10 is program down, F11 is program up and F12 is program 1 (Reset).

Joyport Wiring Joyport.

If you have no joystick port with your pc you can add a cheap (10 EUR) PCI sound card with joy port, and get a real 15 pol. joystick port.


• File locations:

All data files can be found either in the Licht24 Pro installations directory, normally c:\Licht24Pro, or in the COMMON_APPDATA dir (c:\ProgramData\bksoft\licht24pro\). If the "Use COMMON_APPDATA Dir" is activated in the Licht24 Pro software it uses the c:\ProgramData\bksoft\licht24pro directory. Because the COMMON_APPDATA is a hidden system file you may have to change the folder settings in your windows explorer and show hidden and system files to get the c:\ProgramData directory visible!

Licht24 Pro settings are stored in the file "licht24pro.ini" All alarm lists are stored in the files "channel1.uhr" to "channel24.uhr" Sequence programs are stored in the files "prog1.txt" to "prog999.txt" This files you can and should save for later needs to USB stick or CD.

• Backup:

If you run the setup (e.g. new software version update), we store a backup of all data files in the COMMON_APPDATA dir (c:\ProgramData\bksoft\licht24pro\backup\{version number}). If you delete by mistake something check the backup directory for a backup file.

• Support:
If you discover a program error we try to fix this immediately. Your questions about Licht24 Pro are welcome, too. Just send a e-mail to info@bksoft.de or use our e-mail form on our website.
Please visit also our Forum

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