HELP DOCUMENTATION
==================

B&K PRECISION
FREQUENCY COUNTERS
MODEL: 1856D, 1823A

VERSION HISTORY:
-------------------------
V2.02
- Added support for COM 5 and 6
V2.0
- New feature added to allow continuous reading of display data into excel workbook format.
- Added time interval feature for customizing data recording rate into excel.
- Fixed delay issues for read operation.
- Cleaned up program
V1.2 
- Bug fix on MSCOMM32.OCX file issue.
- Clean up program
V1.1
-  Added features and additional functionalities to comply with frequency counter 1823A.
V1.0 
- All read write operations for frequency counter 1856D are fully operational.


INSTRUCTIONS:
---------------------
The following instructions apply to the CountApp.exe application included in the folder along with this documentation.  The application 
is specifically for B&K Precisions Frequency Counter instruments, model 1856D (Frequency Counter) and 1823A (Universal Counter).


HOW TO OPERATE:
-------------------------

Overview:

The B&K Precisions frequency counters provide features that will allow you to count frequencies, period, and adjust gate timing.  
In particular, model 1856D will allow you to additionally measure the frequency in RPM.  For model 1823A, it provides additional options 
for reading data such as ratio and T.I.  It also provides toggling the hold feature as well as the remote access control feature.  The 
application software provided will fully demonstrate remote control via RS232 to toggle between all the different functions of these frequency 
counters, all the more while allowing the capability to record continuous data of a particular function (Frequency A, B, C, Period, Total, 
Ratio, T.I, RPM) into MS Excel.

Preliminaries:

There are certain settings that must be noted before using this software.  They are described in the following:

	- Model 1856D and 1823A both must use a straight serial cable for RS232 communication with a PC.
	- The settings must comply with:
		1. Baudrate: 9600bps
		2. Parity: None
		3. Data bits: 8
		4. Start bit: 1
		5. Stop bit: 1
	- For RS232 communication, a standard PC DB9 serial port is required for proper connection.
	- A PC computer running on Windows 2000 or XP.
	- Microsoft Excel 97 or later is required for data record feature.

Please check that your system can meet all the above requirements before using the provided application software.

INSTRUCTIONS:

The provided instructions below will give you a step by step process to run the program correctly.
1. With a straight serial cable, connect frequency counter to the serial port of your PC.
2. Be sure you have both the CounterApp.exe and MSCOMM32.OCX file in the same folder.  If you unzip the file correctly, these should be in 
the same folder, along with this documentation.
3. Open the CounterApp.exe application, and do the following FIRST:
	a. Select the COM port you will be using.  The program allows you to choose between COM1- COM4.  Most PCs only have 1 or 2 COM ports.  
	   If you are unsure which COM port matches the one you connected the serial cable to, do the following:
		(i) IN WINDOWS XP
			1. Click on Start Menu -> Control Panel -> System
			2. Select Hardware tab at the top of the System Properties window
			3. Click on Device Manager and Double-click on Ports (COM & LPT) to collapse the list of ports.
			4. The Communication Port has the COM number in parentheses next to it.  That is the COM port number that correlates 
			   with the port connected to the frequency counter.  If you have more than one serial port, you may see two of these.   
			   Pick the one that you prefer to use.
		(ii) IN WINDOWS 2000
			1. Go to Control panel -> System -> Device Manager
			2. Double-click on Ports (COM & LPT) to collapse the list of ports.
			3. The Communication Port has the COM number in parentheses next to it.  That is the COM port number that correlates 
			   with the port connected to the frequency counter.  If you have more than one serial port, you may see two of these.   
			   Pick the one that you prefer to use.
	b. Select the Frequency Counter model that you are interfacing with.
	c. Now you can select the function you want to read.  You can also toggle the gate time, hold, and remote features.  To display the data 
	   from the frequency counter, click Data and it will display in the blue screen area.  To clear the screen, press Clear. 
	d. To exit the software, press Exit button.
	e. To record data continuously into MS Excel, select the time interval FIRST.
	f. The program allows you to choose between 2, 5, 10, 20, 30 seconds, and 1 minute as the time interval to read and record data into MS 
	   Excel.
	g. Once you select the time interval, click Data to Excel button.  Doing so should automatically open a new Excel Workbook with the 
	   first data reading displayed in the first row and first column. Note: This feature only works if you have MS Excel installed on your 
	   computer.  If not, it will not function properly.

Additional note:

- When you are using the data recording feature into MS Excel, do not click on any other buttons in the program.  Doing so will interrupt and stop the recording process prematurely. 
- Please be aware that when you try to save data in Excel, it will automatically stop the recording, whether you have successfully saved the file or not.
- When you have completed and saved your Excel data, close the counter application software FIRST by pressing the Exit button.  THEN, close Excel after.  Closing Excel before the program may cause an error, especially if it is still reading data from the frequency counter.





For any problems or questions, please contact us or visit our website at www.bkprecision.com


B&K Precision
22820 Savi Ranch Parkway
Yorba Linda, CA 92887
Tel: (714) 921  9095
Fax: (714) 921 - 6422
