Campbell Scientific BMP5 Direct SDK - Manual (Page 9)

Section 1. BMP5 Direct SDK Overview
The BMP5 Direct Software Development Kit (SDK) is a programming
interface that facilitates simple and direct communication with a single
datalogger containing a PakBus operating system. This SDK uses a simple
call-level API (SimplePB.DLL) that does not need to be registered on the PC.
However, the SimplePB.DLL wrapper accesses and therefore requires the
included communications engine, CORALIB3D.DLL, to be installed in the
same folder.
The BMP5 Direct SDK allows the creation of basic BMP5 application packets
that are sent to PakBus dataloggers over the PakBus network. Examples and
controls are installed by default in C:\Campbellsci\BMP5DirectSDK.
1.1 General Notes on BMP5 Direct SDK Usage
In order to communicate with the datalogger, a direct connection must be
created using the SimplePB.DLL. The BMP5 Direct SDK allows a connection
to a single datalogger through either an IP port or a COM port using the
OpenIPPort() or OpenPort() command.
Opening the COM or IP port starts the CORALIB3D.DLL. Therefore, the
COM port or IP port opened by the application must be closed before exiting
the application or the CORALIB3D.DLL will crash. Use the functions
CloseIPPort() or ClosePort() before the application exits to stop the
CORALIB3D.DLL and to properly close the connection. Starting the
CORALIB3D.DLL creates a working directory including log files by default in
C:\Campbellsci\SimplePB.
Once a connection is established, additional commands can be used to access
and administer the datalogger. A datalogger program can be sent, the clock can
be checked or set, values can be set, and data can be collected. Use a
combination of the commands found in the SimplePB.DLL to accomplish the
desired task.
1.2 Datalogger Program Table Structure
One default table in a PakBus datalogger is the Status table. The datalogger
may also include either a Public table or an Inlocs table. The Status table
contains values describing the datalogger and datalogger program and the
Public or Inlocs table stores all public variables or input locations. The user
defines any additional tables in the program sent to the datalogger.
When using the SimplePB.DLL to access specific tables and fields in a
datalogger program, the table number and the field number are implied by their
respective positions. For example, table number one is the first table in the
datalogger program and field number one is the first field following the
mandatory record number and timestamp fields within the table. The user must
understand the table structure of the program running in the datalogger because
table and field names and numbers are used to identify and access specific
tables and fields in several of the SimplePB.DLL commands.
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