ASCII Object

[chiphowell]

I have a device (video switcher) that will accept ASCII commands.  One of the acceptable commands is used to set date and time.  In order execute this command it must be in the proper format "ZaMM/DD/YY/HH:MM:SSa".  Lookout uses a floating point number (implicit data member) that represents date/time.  How can I change this to a numeric format and connect it to my "RQV" data member?

[Bassett_Hound · Accepted solution]

Hi chiphowell,

Lookout stores all absolute dates and times as numeric signals. It uses the 1900 date system in which the number 1 corresponds to midnight January 1, 1900. The number 2 corresponds to midnight January 2, 1900. For example, the number 34491.5 represents noon on Jun 6, 1994. If you are using an older version of Lookout and would like to force your time to stay in the time format, you can convert it to text using the TEXT function. The syntax for the TEXT function is TEXT (numeric, text). If you wanted to format your time value, you would use TEXT (time value, "HH:MM:SS").  You can also use the NumericFormat Object to select the numeric format to use with Lookout. 

Regards,

S. Bassett