Capture Settings are set-up separately for each capture channel. Once these settings have been specified, OK or Apply should be clicked. This tab specifies General 2 capture information.
Notify New Line Audibly
This option allows newly captured lines of data should be notified audibly, either by a PC beep or by playing a specified sound file.
This feature is really designed for low volume data capture, such as swipe card logging. This feature works with the service version, and may be useful as a gentle confirmation that data is being captured.
Gap Between Sounds
A gap in seconds may be specified between audible notifications, to prevent continual noise when receiving frequent data. This gap is common to all capture ports, so there any further sounds are suppressed until the specified gap for the latest capture port has expired.
Play Sound File Name
A sound file camera.wav is supplied, as an example of what may be played.
Commands to Send upon Start and Stop Capture
Command strings may optionally be sent when capture is started and stopped, perhaps to trigger a remote appliance to start or stop. The strings may include escape sequences to specify non-printing characters:
\n |
New line (CRLF) |
\f |
Form Feed (FF) |
\c |
Carriage Return (CR) |
\l |
Line Feed (LF) |
\\ |
Backslash (\) |
\e |
Escape (ESC) |
\xnn |
Any hex code where nn is 01 to FF |
\P |
50ms pause in the data being sent, with multiples allowing a longer delay. Note the pause may not necessarily be effective with TCP/IP, because packets may get combined at transport level, nor may the pause be exactly 50ms due to other activity within ComCap |
Note that no line end is normally sent, so \n will commonly be used. A delay in seconds may be specified before the data is send, to allow the connection to settle and perhaps for start-up data to be received. Zero means no delay.
Repeat Start Command
Setting 'Repeat Start Command' to a non-zero value of seconds causes the Start command text to be repeatedly sent at the specified interval. The maximum interval is 999,999 seconds (277 hours), with zero meaning don't repeat the command. This is a fail safe for appliances that only return data when triggered, in case they are reset or repowered while capture is running.
Log Only First Command Sent
Ticking this option prevents repeated logging when the Start Command is repeated sent, filling up the info log.
Remove Printer Control Sequences
This option offers various means of cleaning up data captured from older computer printer output. If possible, the old computer printer driver should be configured for something as basic as possible, to avoid additional print formatting escape commands being added. If this is not possible, ComCap will attempt to remove these escape commands.
HP PCL, PJL, GL/2 Escapes |
Removes the PCL3, PCL4 and PCL5 codes used by most Hewlett-Packard printers and many others emulating them, including fonts and raster graphics. PCL6 codes are ignored. |
Ansi/Epson Matrix Escapes |
Removes codes mostly used by old impact printers, note there are many permutations of these codes defined by different manufacturers, and only the most common codes are handled. |
Vertical Movement to Line End |
Converts PCL cursor movement to a line end. |
Horizontal Movement to Space |
Converts PCL cursor movement to a space. |
'Horizontal Movement to Tab |
Converts PCL cursor movement to a tab. |
Beware printer drivers can use massive amounts of cursor movement, even placing each word or character individually on a page, so captured data may not be as expected. For instance, some Windows applications printing using PCL5 send each word on a separate line preceded by several PCL cursor movement escapes, and followed by CRLF, so even after removing the escapes, ComCap will end up with one word per line.
For debugging purposes, ticking 'Ignored Lines to Info Log' on the Logging tab causes any removed printer controls (except binary and graphics) to be logged to check that no real content is being removed.