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APPENDIX A – TAP INTERFACE SPECIFICATIONS
This appendix is included for those who want to develop their own paging control software or add an
interface for the SPS5 v9 Series Paging Systems to their existing software applications.
TAP (
Telelocator Alphanumeric Protocol
) normally requires a connect and disconnect process and
also normally assumes that a Host Device maintains a database of pager reference numbers called IDs.
The
paging system maintains a database of all paging parameters associated with each ID.
The TAP Interface supports paging messages up to 244 characters in length.
The actual maximum
length of transmitted messages in The SPS5 Paging Systems’ TAP Interface is 245 minus the ID field length.
With an ID value of 5, you can transmit up to 244 characters per message. With an ID value of 1233, you can
transmit up to 241 characters per message.
To configure your paging system for TAP, you may be required to configure the COM port settings
for your paging system’s serial input. Your paging system typically communicates with a PC or a host device
via RS-232 at:
9600 Baud, 1 stop bit, and 8 data bits with the eighth data bit ignored.
You can configure the
paging system for other serial communication parameters:
See Appendix B – Com Port Settings
, for details on
serial communication parameters.
The SPS5 v9 Series Paging Systems maintain an input buffer which can receive commands from the
PC while a page is being transmitted. The input buffer should be able to contain approximately ten paging
messages before getting full. When a command is received from the PC, the paging system responds with a
message that includes error messages if the command was not understood or not properly transmitted. The
first three digits of each paging system response conform to the response codes defined in the TAP v1.8
specification.
See Appendix E – TAP Response Codes
for a listing of the response codes.
CONTROL CHARACTERS RECOGNIZED BY THE SPS5 V9 PAGING SYSTEMS IN TAP MODE INCLUDE:
•
CARRIAGE RETURN
–
<CR> | 13
•
START OF TEXT
– <STX> | 02
•
END OF TEXT
– <ETX> | 03
•
END OF TRANSMISSION
– <EOT> | 04
•
SUBSTITUTE
– <SUB> | 26
•
ESCAPE
– <ESC> | 27
