At chuteside, in the feed truck, and in a scale house, Fusion needs to know the weight on the scale at all times. To accomplish this, Fusion can be connected to a regular scale head, as long as it meets certain requirements.
For a scale head to work with Fusion, it must meet these requirements:
You will need to check the scale head documentation or give the scale head company a call to see if a particular model is compatible with these requirements. Make sure they know which version of firmware you have since this often makes a difference, even with the same model.
If the scale head is compatible it will probably need some settings changed. Please consult the manufacturer for help in getting the scale head ready for use with Fusion.
When Fusion is connected to an scale head, it is simply reading the weight the scale head sends to it and then applying an offset based on where the truck was last zeroed before displaying the weight in Fusion. This means a few things:
Once the scale head is working properly and has been setup to stream gross weights to Fusion, we can help with setting Fusion up to receive these weights.
After turning on the scale system in the Physical Computer Management window, click the Setup button to open the Indicator Setup window. Here you can add one or more scale heads as well as set each up in the three tabs .
The Serial Port Setup tab is where you tell Fusion which serial port the scale head is communicating on and the parameters for connecting. An example value is shown to the right of each field, but you will need to consult the scale head manual to find out which settings to use.
The Communication Setup tab is where you can enter specific codes and other settings for communicating with the scale head after the connection has been made:
If the scale head gives the choice to always streaming weights or needing Fusion to send some characters to get it to start streaming, it is best to choose the former. This means one less thing that can go wrong and it is easier to user the Serial Debugger utility to see what is happening.
Note that the Serial Debugger can be used to see what format the scale head is sending weights which helps in figuring out the above settings. See the the Serial Port Debugger section in this guide for more information.
The Device Setup tab is for the rest of the options:
When you enter command strings in the first four fields, you may need to enter characters that don’t have a keyboard equivalent. You can do this by entering the ASCII decimal value surrounded by less than and greater than signs. For example, the ASCII decimal value for a carriage return is 13 and could be entered into the command string as <13>. Fusion will convert these codes to the appropriate character during communication with the scale head.
If you need to enter a < or > sign directly, you will need to escape it with a backslash (\) character like this: \<. A backslash character can escape itself like this: \\.
While you can type the command codes in directly, Fusion makes it a little easier when you click the button to the right of each field. After clicking the button you will see the command string on the right and a list of ASCII codes on the left. The list shows the ASCII symbol along with both the decimal and hexadecimal equivalents. Some scale head manuals will give you the special characters in decimal while others will give it to you in hexadecimal. Find the character you want and either double-click it or click the Insert button to insert that code into the command string. Click OK when you are done.
You can also use the gear button on this window which will be give you a list of scale heads models to choose from. If you choose one of the models, the settings for all three tabs will automatically be filled in for you. Or you can choose one that is close to start with and make changes from there. If you have successfully set up a scale head that is not listed, please send us the model number and a screenshot of the settings and we will add it to the list in the next version of Fusion.
Once the serial port settings and the communication setup settings are in place, you can click the OK button to save. If the Scale Indicator window is already open, you can also click the Apply button to give you a chance to try connecting to the scale without this window closing. This makes it easier to quickly test different settings until you find the ones that work.
Because Digi-Star scale heads seem particularly popular with our customers and we have had more experience with them, we’ve included some extra information regarding them here.
Not all Digi-Star models will work with Fusion, although many made in the last ten years probably will. The scale head needs to have a J904 or J905 port installed and you will need a cable from this port to the serial port on the computer. If the scale head doesn’t have one of these ports, it may be possible to upgrade it which is less expensive than purchasing a new one. The scale head needs to support the “EZ2 2.0” or higher command set.
Before Fusion can communicate with the Digi-Star, the scale head’s D.A.N. 215 (COM IN) setting must be set to “EZ2CMD” and its D.A.N. 221 (C1DLY) setting must be set to “OFF”.
If the D.A.N. 213 setting can be set to “24” permanently, this is the best setting. The next best way is to have Fusion set this parameter each time it connects. If “24” is not available we would have to see what the next best setting would be as this affects both the format of the weight sent to Fusion and the frequency of the weight streaming.
Remember to turn rounding off and make sure the device is set up to not go to sleep after so many minutes of inactivity (since no one is actually touching the scale head it will assume there is no inactivity).
We have found Digi-Star staff to be very helpful in guiding customers through these settings changes over the phone.
If you will be purchasing a new scale head and would like to use Digi-Star, they have given the following information regarding the best model number to choose and the setup steps required once it is installed.
The EZ2500 with a J905 port is recommended. This is part number 407120. Make sure you also order the serial cable which is part number 400070.
Once installed, follow these instructions on the scale head to set it up for use with Fusion:
Digi-Star scale heads are factory calibrated for certain load cells, but you should check to make sure it is correctly calibrated for you. The EZ2500 User’s Manual has information on this. You can also call the distributor where you purchased the scale head from for help with calibration.
At this point you can use Fusion to go to the Physical Computer Management window, click the Scale System Setup button. Then select the correct port, click the gear button, and choose “EZ2500”. Fusion should now work with the EZ2500.
When Fusion is connected to an scale head it will show the Scale Indicator window. This window has several modes. In normal operation Fusion will automatically ensure that the correct mode is used. However, for testing purposes you may want to force it into a different mode. You can do this by clicking the big Options button in the main menu window and choosing one of the Scale System options.
Except for the last one, if you choose any of the above options when the Scale Indicator window is closed it will automatically be opened and a connection to the device will be attempted.
Note that if you close the Scale Indicator window while the device is communicating, this does not turn the scale system off. To manually turn it off you need to use the Scale System—Off options. Of course, in normal operation Fusion takes care of this as well. You only need to worry about this when you are manually using the scale system.
Once you start using Fusion you will notice that there are two other modes that Fusion will automatically use. One is for weighing animals during chuteside jobs and simply shows the weight and has a button for zeroing. The other is used in feed trucks and shows two weight values. The small one always shows the actual weight on the truck while the big one is usually used to guide you in adding or dropping off the correct amount of feed.
The blue I button in the Scale Indicator window has a few other options. Most should only be used under guidance of our support team. However, the following deserve mention:
