SonTek/YSI Argonaut-XR Technical Manual - HydroScientific West

SonTek/YSI
44
ARGONAUT Command Line Options
Command Function
ARGONAUT –c Command file. This causes the program to send all commands in the usergenerated
ASCII text file USERCONF.CMD to the Argonaut before entering the
setup screen. Thus, the parameters shown in the setup menu will reflect the
settings given by commands in USERCONF.CMD.
ARGONAUT –f Automatic file recording. This option causes the program to automatically
select a file name for recording to the computer hard disk. See below for
details on the file naming convention.
ARGONAUT –g Automatically start data collection. This causes the program to skip the setup
screen and immediately begin data collection. The Argonaut will use the same
data collection parameters previously used (stored in internal memory in the
Argonaut). This option includes automatic file recording. This command can
be put at the end of the AUTOEXEC.BAT file and collection will resume after a
power failure.
ARGONAUT –w Black and white display. This option is useful on portable computers being
used outdoors.
Automatic file recording
When using the automatic file-recording feature (-f or -g), you must edit or create the file
ARGFILE.DEF to specify details relating to data file recording. This is a one-line ASCII text file,
an example of which is shown below.
C:\ARGONAUT\AA HOURLY
The first word specifies the path (C:\ARGONAUT\) for the data file and the first two characters
(AA) in the file name. The remainder of the file name is generated using the date and time from
the computer clock (see Appendix 1). The second word on this line specifies the interval at
which new data files are created. This is either done at the start of each hour (HOURLY) or when
the file reaches a particular size (SIZE ). For example, C:\ARGONAUT\AA SIZE 140
will create a new file each time the data file reaches 140 KB.
Combinations of command line options
Many of the command line options shown above can be used in combination to increase the
flexibility of the data collection software. For example, the command “ARGONAUT –cg” combines
the command file and auto start options. When this command is used, the program will send the
commands specified in the ASCII file USERCONF.CMD to the Argonaut. It will then immediately
begin data collection with a recording file named based upon date and time. Placing one of these
commands at the end of the AUTOEXEC.BAT file can automatically re-start data collection in the
event of a power failure.
When combining multiple command line options, all single character options should be listed
following the same hyphen; the order in which options are listed does not matter.
Communication settings
Using the default settings, ARGONAUT will communicate with the Argonaut on COM1 at 9600
baud. The following options can be used to modify the communication port settings.
COM1, COM2
BR1200, BR2400, BR4800, BR9600, BR19200, BR38400, BR57600, BR115200
Argonaut Software Manual (March 1, 2001)