Cascade Connect™

Version 4.0

Jan 09, 2003

Real-time bi-directional data connectivity between MS-Windows® and QNX® or Linux.

With version 4.0, Cogent software now includes source-code compatibility among the QNX 4, QNX 6 and Linux operating systems, a reorganized and expanded API, and other improvements. Version 4.0 of Cogent's tools will not interoperate with version 3 or older. This documentation has been edited and reorganized to reflect those changes. For documentation of Cogent software version 3.x, please contact Cogent Real-Time Systems, Inc.

Go to the Cogent Web Site.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

1.1. What is Cascade Connect?

1.1.1. The Cascade DataHub

1.2. Applying Cascade Connect

1.3. Where can I get help?

2. System Requirements

2.1. Hardware

2.2. Software

2.2.1. Windows
2.2.2. QNX 4
2.2.3. QNX 6
2.2.4. Linux

2.3. Necessary Information

3. Installation

3.1. Cascade Connect in Windows

3.2. Connect Server on the data server computer

3.2.1. QNX 4
3.2.2. QNX 6
3.2.3. Linux

4. Testing

4.1. Testing Overview

4.2. Testing the Connect Server installation

4.2.1. Troubleshooting the installation

4.3. Testing Cascade Connect operation

4.3.1. Preliminaries
4.3.2. Running the test

4.4. The Cascade Connect runtime window

5. Tutorial

5.1. Summary

5.2. Receiving data in Excel

5.2.1. Set up a spreadsheet
5.2.2. Edit a configuration file
5.2.3. Configure a shortcut icon
5.2.4. Receive the data

5.3. Sending data from Excel

5.3.1. Create a macro
5.3.2. Complete the spreadsheet
5.3.3. Send the data

5.4. Incorporating the Cascade DataHub

5.4.1. On the data server
5.4.2. In Windows
5.4.3. Send and receive data

6. Setup

6.1. Setup window and configuration file

6.2. Program Launch Options

6.3. Decimal Translation

6.3.1. Example of decimal conversion

6.4. TCP/IP Settings

6.5. Domain Settings

6.5.1. Examples using domain names

6.6. DDE and Name Settings

7. Connecting to Excel

7.1. Preliminary check: sending data between Excel and the data server

7.1.1. Windows configuration

7.2. Displaying data server data in an Excel spreadsheet

7.2.1. Naming Cells
7.2.2. Domain separator character in Excel

7.3. Using Remote Reference Formulas

7.4. Multiple Cell References

7.5. Tips for Writing Reports in Excel

7.5.1. Referencing Data Points
7.5.2. Passing strings from Cascade Connect to Excel

7.6. Creating write-backs from Excel to the data server

7.6.1. Sending a single variable
7.6.2. Sending multiple variables

7.7. The system variable

8. Connecting to InTouch

8.1. Defining a DDE Access Name for Cascade Connect

8.2. Defining Variable Types

8.2.1. Read-Only Variables
8.2.2. Read-Write Variables
8.2.3. Example DDE variable definition

8.3. Defining Tagnames from other datahub domains

8.4. Configure Cascade Connect

9. Making Multiple Connections

9.1. One Data Server computer to One Windows computer

9.2. One Data Server computer to Many Windows computers

9.3. Many Data Server computers to One Windows computer

9.3.1. For QNX 4, QNX 6, and Linux
9.3.2. Only for QNX 4

9.4. Many Data Server computers to Many Windows computers

9.4.1. For QNX 4, QNX 6, and Linux
9.4.2. Only for QNX 4

9.5. Special Cases

9.5.1. Multiple clients on the same Windows computer
9.5.2. Single Windows client using multiple Cascade Connects
9.5.3. Windows client in read-only mode

10. Technical Information

10.1. How Cascade Connect works

10.2. The Cascade DataHub

10.2.1. Data points
10.2.2. Automatic reduction of network traffic
10.2.3. Cascade DataHub domain independence
10.2.4. Field device drivers

10.3. When to use the Cascade DataHub

10.4. If not using the Cascade DataHub

10.4.1. The cserve executable
10.4.2. Writing to cserve
10.4.3. Receiving from cserve
10.4.4. Non-blocking data transmission
10.4.5. Multiple connections

10.5. Start-up sequence

10.5.1. An example start-up

I. Cascade Connect Utilities

cascade.exe -- The Cascade Connect TCP/IP to DDE bidirectional translator for Windows.
cs_setup.exe -- The Cascade Connect setup utility.
cascade -- Used internally only.
casctest -- Test utility for the data server installation.
cascwait -- Test utility for Windows/data server connection.
cascwait.c -- C source for the cascwait utility.
cserve -- The Cascade Connect TCP/IP to SRR/IPC bidirectional translator.
demowrite -- Test utility that passes IPC messages to cserve.
demowrite.c -- C source for the demowrite utility.

A. Error Messages

A.1. QNX Error Numbers
A.2. Windows Error Numbers
A.3. WINDOWS TCP Error Numbers
A.4. WINDOWS DDE Error Numbers

B. TCP/IP Installation and Testing

B.1. TCP/IP Installation

B.1.1. Windows 95/98
B.1.2. Windows NT
B.1.3. Data Server TCP/IP Setup

B.2. Testing TCP/IP

B.2.1. Testing Windows TCP/IP
B.2.2. Testing data server TCP/IP

Index

Colophon

List of Tables
5-1. Testing and Tutorial Summary
10-1. Relative difficulty not using the Cascade DataHub

List of Figures
4-1. The Cascade Connect runtime window
6-1. Cascade Connect Setup window
6-2. Program Launch Options
6-3. Decimal Translation
6-4. TCP/IP Settings
6-5. Domain Settings
6-6. DDE and Name Settings
7-1. Excel cells and their names
7-2. Naming an Excel cell
7-3. Defining cell names using the Define Name dialog box
7-4. Referencing data tags from other domains
7-5. Copying data to other locations on the same sheet
7-6. Referencing data from a datasheet contained in the same .XLS file
7-7. Referencing data from a datasheet contained in the separate .XLS file
7-8. Passing labels and formulae to Excel
8-1. The Modify DDE Access Name window
8-2. The InTouch tagname definition screen
10-1. How Cascade Connect works
10-2. Cascade Connect components
10-3. An example of how Cascade Connect works

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