Send alarms to a fax machine?

[Nutter]

Looking to send alarm information to a fax machine in our office during business hours and then to our answering service after business hours?

[Khalid]

Hi Nutter,

About sending alarm info' to FAX machines, the obvious option is to use either the built-in FAX program (as in Windows XP), or procure one (like WinFAX Pro from Symantec). Set this FAX program as the default printer.

You would have to setup a panel in Lookout to display the Alarm info' you're interested in. And then use the print datamember to print this panel. When this happens the panel with the alarm info will get FAXed. You'll need a FAX-modem for this. And the bad part is that you will have to set the FAX program as the default printer.

The other option is to use one of the email-to-FAX services out there. eFAX.com and FAXaway.com are popular. Apparently, FAXaway is better than eFAX as per David Pogue's NYTimes' column 'Circuits' from last week. Here's what he had to say about the two:

" Unfortunately, eFax carries a hidden price: you also get a wall of spam taller than the Empire State Building. The fax feature is just a come-on so they can snag your e-mail address.

Faxaway.com is the same sort of deal -- they provide a phone number that you can give to your friends -- but you pay $1 a month, and you don't get spam. Incoming faxes go straight to your Mac or Windows e-mail program. You can also SEND faxes by e-mail, just by using the phone number as an e-mail address (like 12125551212@faxaway.com); sending costs about a dime. I've used this service for about a year now, and I absolutely love it. "

Anyways, if you choose this option, you will use the Mailer object in Lookout. And obviously you'll need to be connected to the Internet (or at least be on a network with an SMTP Server) to use the Mailer object.

Sending alarm info' to a phone as-is isn't that straightforward. Sending text messages to cell phones and pagers is one option (using ASCII and Pager Objects). There are however similar email-to-phone services out there (email2phone.net being one), but I have no idea as to how good they are.

Hope this helps,

Khalid

[EL]

Nutter -

As previously mentioned, there is a pager object which allows you to send numbers and letters in the manner that allows you to send messages to a text pager. This, however, is not the same format a FAX machine uses.
One idea may be to use existing fax software you already have on your computer (these usually come with your modem). These kinds of programs usually add a printer that is actually your modem and allow you to send a fax just like you would print to your printer. You can print programmatically using process's print data member.

For Example:
I opened a new process and called it Process1. I created a pushbutton named PB1. I then connected Process1.print = PB1.value . When I push PB1 in run mode it automatically prints the front panel to the print
er. If I changed the default printer to the fax sender then I could send faxes programmatically.

Regards,
EL
National Instruments