ML Riechers Systems Engineering

Taking the Time to do the Firmware Right.

You will find the program useful for retrieving traffic counts from the Rilco Technologies, Inc. P5KC25 Traffic Counter ². Please use the tcread program as a basis for your own retrieval program. It is yours to do as you wish as long as you don't publish it outside of your organisation; if you do publish it, please abide by the letter and spirit of Free Software -- free as in free speech, not as in free beer. Share the source. And we'd appreciate any improvements you care to share with us, to make tcread better.

The P5KC25 Traffic Counting System comprises the P5KC25 Traffic counter module (which we make), and various combinations of custom application photo eyes (which we don't make). The system is intended for permanent installation in business establishments, parks, museums, and the like to count pedestrian traffic. It's usually employed to track customer patterns in commercial shops, but it has found niche applications in public service organizations.

The sensors are usually placed at a shop's door entrances and exits, so we typically refer to a place where we count people as a "door." Of course, the system can count pedestrian traffic wherever you can "count" (pun intended) on a traffic stream. Sometimes the application requires a custom sensor, such as an overhead sensor system with multiple sensors and height discrimination, but that's all part of the value-added service Rilco gives you. But, for counting purposes, a door is a door is a door.

The P5KC25 Traffic Counter can count simultaneously at up to four doors, and retain the counts at these doors even when the electric power goes. The Traffic Counter displays the counts on its frontplate display, as long as it is powered. Normally the Counter shows the total count from all doors, but you can select the count from "Door 1," "Door 2," "Door 3," "Door 4" from the front panel.

The P5KC25 Traffic Counter has an RS-232 serial interface so that its counts can be retrieved remotely. Typically, you would hook up the P5KC25 to an in-store computer or cash-register, (or a modem or some like device for remote retrieval), then write a program to retrieve and/or clear the counts from the P5KC25 Traffic Counter.

We initially developed tcread to be POSIX compliant under NetBSD, a UN*X-like operating system similar to Linux. Due to customer demand, we then ported the program to MicroSoft operating systems.

1	tcread is Copyright 2006 Michael L. Riechers. It is licensed under The GNU General Public License (GPL) Version 2, June 1991. For current information on the GPL, please check out for the latest version of the GNU General GPL.
2	We wrote tcread under contract to People Counting, Rilco Technologies, Inc, in support of their products.

Contact Information

M. L. Riechers Systems Engineering     Voice:  +1-513-844-2220
530 Main Street                        Fax:    +1-513-844-2279
Hamilton, Ohio 45013-3222, USA         mlr(at)rse(dot)com

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