Want to communicate with HLR

Hi friends.
    I want to develop an application which can  talk to HLR to retrieve certain information. I would like to communicate using MAP protocol. I have access to HLRs and all other network elements like SGW, STP etc. But I have no clue as to how to start and from where to start. I want to implement this using SIGTRAN.
Pls help. I have pretty good knowledge about Protocols in SS7. I have seen earlier posts recommending openss7.org. But how do I do it? Anybody have experience in real implementation?
P.S. I work in Telcom ISP and have access to all network elements. I stumbled upon a sun solaris server which was used as a "signaling server" for IN applications.Now its not being used and I want to use this.