ALVA VCOMM is a program, developed by ALVA BV, which enables
communication via a parallel (LPT) port with ALVA ABT3 and ALVA Delphi
series braille displays, under Microsoft Windows NT.

This is established by means of a so called "virtual com port" 
mechanism. This virtual comm port is installed with an easy to use 
setup program. After installation, an extra serial (COM) port is
created on your system.

Your GUI access software will need to be installed to send braille 
output to a serial port; the virtual comm port. The ALVA VCOMM software
internally routes this output to the parallel (LPT) port to which your
ALVA Braille display is connected.

You can start the setup program by opening the run dialog in the start
menu and typing a:\setup
The program will ask you some questions, like which type of ALVA 
Braille Terminal you use and which parallel port it is connected to. 
It will also ask you for a port number to assign to the virtual comm 
port. You should choose a port number a low as possible because some 
setup programs for GUI Access software only support COM1 through COM4.

After the installation of ALVA VCOMM you need to reinstall your GUI
access software. Or make some adjustment to the settings file of the
GUI access software so that it uses the virtual comm port. 


October 1998
ALVA B.V.
