CommPort 1.01 (3.67Mb)

	Narrow hex view - Shows ASCII and hexadecimal data in 8 byte wide rows, connection information and communications events.
	Wide hex view - Shows ASCII and hexadecimal data in 16 byte wide rows, connection information and communications events.
	ASCII view - Shows line-wrapped ASCII, connection information and communications events.
	Terminal view - Shows sent and received data in terminal format.  In terminal view, the output can be colour coded using a set of user-defined rules.

The button at the top right of the output window () resets the clears the contents.   The output window context menu is available from the main menu bar at the top of the application, or by right-clicking on the output window.

Each item of sent or received data that appears in the output window can be selected by clicking the item using the left mouse button.  

	Hex Viewer - Open the data in the hexadecimal viewer.  Option available in hexadecimal and ASCII view only.
	Set as input - Send the selected data to the input window.
	Clear output - Clear the output.
	Output format - Change the output format.
	Color coding - Open the color coding window.  Color coding rules can be applied to the terminal window to make the sent and received data more readable.
	Export to file - Export the entire content of the output window to a formatted text file.  The format of saved data matches the output format selected when the export was made.  For example, data exported to disk while viewing the output in ASCII view format would be also formatted using the ASCII view layout.

	Clear the input window.
	Send the data to the serial port.  Same as pressing Ctrl-Return.  (Only available when connected.)
	Create a new macro using the contents of the input window.

The input window menu is available from the main menu at the top of the application.

	Send - Send the data to the serial port.  Same as pressing Ctrl-Return.  (Only available when connected.)
	Clear input - Clear the input window.
	Paste input from clipboard- Paste any textual clipboard data to the input window.
	Create macro - Create a new macro using the contents of the input window.

Macros can be run by selecting the macro in the macro bar and clicking "Run" from the macro menu, or by double-clicking the macro.  Macros can also be automatically triggered to run by the following:

The macro menu is available from the main menu at the top of the application, or by right-clicking one of the items in the macro window.

	Run - Available when connected, sends the macro data to the serial port.  Macros can also be run by double-clicking.
	New - Create a new macro.
	Disable automatic macros - prevent any macros that have an automatic component from running.
	Remove the selected macro.
	Remove all macros.
	Open the macro editor.

To create a new macro, click the "New..." menu item from the macro menu.  

Enter a Name for the macro at the top of the window.  The name must be unique, and is used for display purposes only. In the Data section, define the data that will be sent to the serial port when the macro is run.  Use the button to the right of the data to open the hex editor. The Single byte send option is for sending data one byte at a time. Below the Data section is the Automation section where the automatic triggers for the macro are defined.

Macros can also be created using the "Create macro..." button in the input window.

The first four pages (Details, Flow Control, Timeouts and Events) are for configuring the port settings.  

If the changes made in the Open Connection window are incorrect and the user wants to return to the current settings for the selected serial port, click the "Restore Default..." button at the top of the window.

The last page of the Open Connection window, Archive, is for saving and retrieving previously used port settings.  Use the archive facility to build a list of settings that will connect to all of your serial port peripherals.  Once a connection has been correctly configured, click the Save... button on the Archive page, and enter a name for the configuration.  To return to these settings at any time, open the Open Connection window, go to the archive page, select the stored configuration in the list and click the Load... button.  

Open the parameter scanner by clicking the Scan... button at the base of the Open Connection window. At the top left of the window the user can define the test data that is sent to serial port each time a set of connection parameters is tested.  The default is "AT<CR><LF>" as the serial port usually talks to a modem, which will respond with "OK<CR><LF>". Once a baud rate has been selected, define which parameters are to be variable during the scan.  Try and keep the number of variables as low as possible to save time.  Use the Fix All button to fix all of the parameters.  To start scanning click the Start button. Each successful attempt to connect is recorded in the results list, including the parameters and the response.  Once the scan is complete, click the Close button to close the window.   Use the Apply button to copy a selected result configuration to the Open Connection window.

IMPORTANT: Some hardware may be damaged by using incorrect port settings.

Use the Default Colors setting to define the color of sent and received data.  This setting applies to all types of view - hexadecimal, ASCII and Terminal. Color Coding Rules apply only in Terminal view. The coloration of terminal data is defined by the user setting up a list of rules that association data with a color.

Each colour coding consists of a description of the type of text to look for in each row of terminal data, and the color to apply to the line.  Text can be located at the start, middle or end of a line.  For example, AT commands usually begin the line with the two letters "AT", and AT commands that fail usually return the word "ERROR" also at the beginning of a line. Each color coding rule can be applied to data received, sent or both. Color coding rules are applied in the order in which they are listed.

Advanced Macros allow the user to edit a command by using a lists of tailored options presented in a form.

The following is an example of setting up an Advanced Macro.

Imagine we have a serial controlled motor controller that takes the following command:

    SET SPEED=x,CURRENT=y{cr,lf}

The value of x, the speed value, can be any number between 1 and 100.  The value for y, the current rating, can be HIGH, MEDIUM or LOW.

Instead of creating a macro for combinations of speed and current, it would be simpler if the user was provided with form from which they can select the speed and current before the message was transmitted.

Step 1

Create a new Macro by selecting "Macro, New Macro..." from the main menu.  Enter a name for the macro and select the group.  Enter an outline of the command in the Data text box, and check the Advanced macro format option.

Step 2

Select the Prompt page, and set the Title field to "Set Motor Speed".

Step 3

Click the add button to add a new macro field.

Enter a Name for the field, "Speed".  The speed value ranges from 1 to 100 so the Format will be a number.  Set the Default value to 50.  The speed field has a single valid range of values, from 1 to 100.  Padding is used to fill number out to a predetermined number of characters.  We will not need this.

Click OK to save the field.

Step 4

Click the add button again to add a second macro field.

The current field can be set up as an enumeration because it is limited to three fixed values - HIGH, MEDIUM and LOW.  An enumeration is a set of unrelated text or numeric values.  To add a value to the enumeration, enter Value and Description and click the add button.  In this example the Value and Description are the same, but it may be that the HIGH, MEDIUM and LOW could have been set using values 0, 1 and 2.

There are two other options available when creating an enumeration field.  The option copies an enumeration from another macro.  The option creates values based on a numeric range.

Click OK to save the field.

Step 5

Now that the macro fields have been created, return to the Details page, and replace the speed and current values in the Data text box with field names.

For the speed value, select the text "50", click the macro fields button (shown on the dialog below by the arrow), and select Speed from the popup menu.  Replace the "HIGH" with the Current field name in the same way.

The command should now look like this:

Click OK to save the macro.

When the macro is run, the following dialog will be displayed:

Using the escape sequence protocol makes it much easier for the hardware reading incoming messages to determine the start and end of each message.

An example of the escape sequence protocol is as follows:

I want to send the following message through the serial port to a hardware peripheral.

    ABCDE    (0x41 0x42 0x43 0x44 0x45)

I will pick a start and end BYTE, to identify the start and end of the message.

    Start BYTE:    'S'    (0x53)

    End BYTE:    'E'    (0x45)

After adding the start and end BYTEs, the message now looks like this:

    SABCDEE    (0x53 0x41 0x42 0x43 0x44 0x45 0x45)

Unfortunately, the BYTE 'E' now appears twice in the message.  So I pick another BYTE, the escape BYTE, 'X' (0x58).  If the start, end or escape BYTE appears anywhere in the message (apart from at the start or end), it will be replaced with the escape BYTE, followed by the XOR of the BYTE with the escape BYTE.  The message now looks like this:

    SABCDX(0x1D)E    (0x53 0x41 0x42 0x43 0x44 0x58 0x1D 0x45)

Select the start, end and escape marker using the drop-down boxes.  The Escape range section can be used to set up ranges of BYTE values that require escaping other than the start, end and escape BYTEs.

	Hardware	File	Author
	Hayes Modem - AT commands for Hayes compatible modem.	atcommands.mxp	Broccoli Software
	Datamax M-Class Barcode Printer - Commands for controlling M-Class printer, printing barcode and text.	DatamaxMClass.mxp	Broccoli Software
	MicroScan MS-3 Barcode  - Scanner protocol for miniature laser barcode scanner unit.	ms3.mxp	Broccoli Software
	ZPL2 Barcode Printer - ZPL II protocol for compatible barcode printers.	zpl2.mxp	Broccoli Software

	CommPort 1.01.00.0023
	Setting up enumerations made easier.  Users can copy an existing enumeration from another macro, or generate an enumeration automatically using the Enumeration Wizard.
	Numeric values can now be padded.  For example the integer value "1" can be sent as "0001".
	CommPort 1.01.00.0020
	Macro forms - dynamic command composition based on user selections.
	Macros can now be imported and exported from macro group files.
	Send data automatically when a incoming data matches a pre-defined string.
	Facility for searching output data for strings.
	Option to automatically connect using a pre-saved configuration when CommPort application starts.