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Docklight V1.9 User Manual 05/2009

1. Examples and Tutorials This chapter describes two sample projects that demonstrate some of Docklight s basic functions The corresponding Docklight project files ptp files can be found in the Samples folder within the Docklight installation directory e g C Program Files FuH Docklight V1 9 Samples NOTE If you are logged on with a restricted user account you will not have permission to make any changes in the program files directory In this case saving a project file or any other data into the Samples folder will produce an error NOTE For additional sample projects and Application Notes see our online resources at www docklight de examples en htm Testing a Modem Sample Project ModemDiagnostics ptp The Docklight project ModemDiagnostics ptp can be used to perform a modem check A set of modem diagnostic commands are defined in the Send Sequences list This is a simple example for Testing a serial device or a protocol implementation The sample project uses the communication settings listed below This should work for most standard modems Communication Mode Send Receive COM Port Settings 9600 Baud No parity 8 Data Bits 1 Stop Bit Getting started e Connect the modem to an available COM port e g COM1 and switch it on The demo may also run on a notebook with a built in modem In many cases you will find your notebook s built in modem on COMB so you can try and run the demo without modifying the project s
2. Docklight V1 9 User Manual 05 2009 Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher Docklight V1 9 User Manual 05 2009 Table of Contents 1 2 2 1 2 2 2 3 3 3 1 3 2 3 3 4 4 1 4 2 5 5 1 5 2 5 3 5 4 5 5 5 6 5 7 6 6 1 6 2 6 3 7 7 1 7 2 8 8 1 8 2 8 3 8 4 Copyright 1 Introduction 2 Docklight Overview E 2 Typical Applications 1 nose HRS idee 2 System Requiremerits 2 cr ess eite ce Lao essen 3 User Interface 5 HIE TOM FT OW eccL LEE 5 Clipboard Cut Copy amp Paste ununnssnannnnnnnnsnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnannnnnnnnnnannnnnnannnnnnnnnannnnnannn 5 Notepad e ener 6 Features and Functions 7 How Serial Data Is Processed and Displayed eese 7 Editing and Managing Sequences uunnuuassnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnannnnnannnnnnnnnnannnnnnnnnnn 7 Working with Docklight 8 Testing a Serial Device or a Protocol Implementation seen 8 Simulating a Serial Device ico HR BR anal 9 Monitoring Serial Communications Between Two Devices eere 11 Catching a Specific Sequence and Taking a Snapshot of the Communication 12 Logging and Analyzing a Test uuneesssnssnannsunnnnnnnnnnnnannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnann
3. 6 Pen DataSetReady_______ imput 7 fas JRequest To Send joupu e jers oearToSeni nu B n ing Indicator nou RS232 SUB D25 Pinout View DTE perspective looking into the male connector Qo 2 OQ O a Oo OG amp OG 0 0 O Ou Cun uua gt Pin No Signal Name Description mo 1 5fpProtective Shielding Ground 2 px Transmit Data 3 Rx X JReceveDaa 4 RTS X JRequstToSend 5 EIS ClearToSend___________ 6 JDep DataSetReady_____ 7 SOND Signal Ground 8 DCD jDataCarierDetect Sg Fo Reseved _____ go F ____ jResved po p assgned 2 SDcD Secondary Data Carrier Detect 3 scrs Secondary Clear To Send pa Stx Secondary Transmit Dap 8 JC Transmit Clock 8 SRx Secondary Receive Data LI Ok Receive Clock 18 jLocal Loopback 9 SRTS Secondary Request To Send 20 OTR Data Terminal Ready pe Eu em Qualify Detector 22 R ing Indicator 23 cH C ons Rate Selector 24 ACLK Auxiliary Clock 25 fUnassigned RS232 D RJ45 pinout 0002 734 7 78 97g e 7g a me 14 15 16 ET 18 19 20 21 an 3 4 5 e 13 Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher Appendix 39 View Top View Front HE NE Pin No Signal Name Descripiion DSR R Data Set Ready Ring Indicator CDD DetCarirDetet 3 DTR Data Ter
4. matches zero or one character NOTE You cannot use a Send Sequence with wildcards as an automatic answer for a Receive Sequence see Action How to Increase the Processing Speed and Avoid Input Buffer Overflow Messages When monitoring serial communications between two devices Docklight cannot control the amount of incoming data Since Docklight applies a number of formatting and conversion rules on the serial data only a limited number of bytes per seconds can be processed There are numerous factors that determine the processing speed e g the PC and COM devices used the Display Settings and the Receive Sequence Actions defined It is therefore not possible to specify any typical data rates If Docklight cannot keep up with the incoming data it adds the following comment to the communication data display DOCKLIGHT reports Input buffer overflow on COMI TIP Search for this message using the Find Sequence in Communication Window Ctrl F function Docklight will also react slowly to any user input including a M Stop communication command If you are experiencing the above behavior Docklight offers you several ways to increase the data throughput 1 Simplify the display output Deactivate all unneeded Display Modes in the Options dialog Use Plain Text Mode instead of Formatted Text Output If you are using ASCII mode disable the Control Characters Description option 2 Logthe communicati
5. Close the current Docklight project and open another project Import Sequence List Import all Send Sequences and Receive Sequences from a second Docklight project El Save Project Save Project As Save the current Docklight project Print Project Print the project data i e the list of defined Send Sequences and Receive Sequences The sequences are printed in the same representation ASCII HEX Decimal or Binary that is used in the Docklight main window The representation may be chosen using the Options dialog window amp Print Communication Print the contents of the communication window The communication data is printed in the same representation that is currently visible in the communication window Exit Quit Docklight Edit Menu Edit Send Sequence List Edit the Send Sequences list i e add new sequences or delete existing ones Edit Receive Sequence List Edit the Receive Sequences list i e add new sequences or delete existing ones Swap Send and Receive Sequence Lists Convert all Send Sequences into Receive Sequences and vice versa Find Sequence in Communication Window Find a specific sequence within the data displayed in the communication window See the Find Sequence function Clear Communication Window Delete the contents of the communications window This applies to all four representations ASCII HEX Decimal Binary of the communication window Run Menu Start commun
6. Ctrl4 Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher Appendix 37 Finda Soper Clear All Communication Windows Toggle Between ASCII HEX Decimal and Binary Ctr1 Tab Representation Send Sequences Receive Sequences List Function Hotkey Delete This Sequence Edit This Sequence Send This Sequence Space Send Sequences List only Edit Send Sequence Dialog Edit Receive Sequence Dialog Wildcard matches one character Wildcard matches one or zero characters Notepad Window Function HotKey Default Fon 10 3 RS232 Connectors Pinout The most common connectors for RS232 communication are e 9 pole SUB D9 EIA TIA 574 standard Introduced by IBM and widely used See below e 25 pole SUB D25 RS232 C This is the original connector introduced for the RS232 standard It provides a secondary communication channel e 8 pole RJ45 RS232 D according to EIA TIA 561 standard RS232 SUB D9 Pinout View Looking into the male connector Pinout From a DTE perspective the DTE transmits data on the TX Transmit Data line while the DCE receives data on this line Pin No Signal Name Description DE in out 1 JDCD Data Carrier Detect Jop 2 jJRX jJReceveData Jop B JD JjransmtDaa Output Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher 38 Docklight V1 9 User Manual 05 2009 4 OTR DataTermina Ready Output 5 SOND Signal Ground E
7. Michael Barr A guide to CRC calculation http www netrino com Connecting 2000 01 Docklight Scripting s CRC functionality DL CalcChecksum was inspired by the above article and the proposed Boost CRC library Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher 44 Docklight V1 9 User Manual 05 2009 11 6 11 9 11 10 http www boost org libs cre index html Last not least if you are truly fascinated by CRC alchemy you will sooner or later run into the following article A Painless Guide to CRC Error Detection Algorithms by Ross N Williams http Awww ross net crc DCE Data Communications Equipment The terms DCE and DTE refer to the serial devices on each side of an RS232 link A modem is a typical example of a DCE device DCE are normally equipped with a female SUB D9 or SUB D25 connector See also DTE DTE Data Terminal Equipment The terms DCE and DTE refer to the serial devices on each side of an RS232 link A PC or a terminal are examples of a typical DTE device DTE are commonly equipped with a male SUB D9 or SUB D25 connector All pinout specifications are written from a DTE perspective See also DCE Flow Control Flow control provides a mechanism for suspending transmission while one device is busy or for some reason cannot further communicate The DTE and DCE must agree on the flow control mechanism used for a communication session There are two types of flow control hardware and softwar
8. Receive Sequence that triggers on HelloWWorld as well define an additional Receive Sequence using the wildcard character Hello World 2 wildcards immediately before a wildcard have no effect The search cursor will always be forwarded to the wildcard since the matches any arbitrary character The receive sequence Hello World will behave like the receive sequence Hello World 3 wildcards at the beginning or at the end of an receive sequence have no effect The receive sequence HelloWorld will behave like the receive sequence HelloWorld Saving and Loading Your Project Data All project data may be saved in a Docklight project file using the menu File gt El Save Project or File Save Project As The project data includes e Send Sequences defined e Receive Sequences defined e additional Project Settings communication mode COM ports used COM port settings baud rate parity e the Notepad contents It is recommended to save your current project before starting a test run Please note the difference between storing the project settings as described here and logging the communication during a test see section logging and analyzing a test Test run results are stored separately from Projects Loading a project is done using the File gt amp Open Project menu Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher 16 Docklight V1 9 User Manual 05 2009 Worki
9. e copy serial data to the clipboard and paste it into a standard text file or a formatted Microsoft Word document or create a Send Receive Sequence using the data e print out serial data user comments and other information Docklight s communication window shows the current communication on the selected serial port s Docklight distinguishes between two communication channels channel 1 and channel 2 which represent the incoming and outgoing data in Send Receive Mode or the two communication channels being observed in Monitoring Mode Channel 1 and channel 2 data are displayed using different colors or fonts and the communication data may be printed or stored as a log file in plain text or HTML format Besides the serial data Docklight inserts date time stamps into the communication display By default a date time stamp is inserted every time the data flow direction switches between channel 1 and channel 2 or before a new Send Sequence is transmitted There are several options available for inserting additional time stamps This is especially useful when monitoring a half duplex line with only one communication channel See Options gt Date Time Stamps Docklight is able to process serial data streams containing any ASCII code 0 255 decimal Since there are non printing control characters ASCII code 32 and different encodings for ASCII code 127 not all of these characters can be displayed in the ASCII text window Nonethele
10. option enabled see Dialog Edit Receive Sequence When the Snapshot function is enabled Docklight will not produce any output until a trigger sequence has been detected in the serial communication data See Catching a specific sequence and taking a snapshot for more information UART Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter The UART is the hardware component that performs the main serial communications tasks converting characters into a serial bit stream adding start stop parity bits and checking for parity errors on the receiver side all tasks related to timing baud rates and synchronization Common UARTS are compatible with the 16550A UART They include a 16 byte buffer for incoming data RX FiFo and a 16 byte buffer for outgoing data TX FiFo Usually these buffers can be disabled enabled using the Windows Device Manager and opening the property page for the appropriate COM port e g COM1 Virtual Null Modem A virtual null modem is a PC software driver which emulates two serial COM ports that are connected by a null modem cable If one PC application sends data on one virtual COM port a second PC application can receive this data on the second virtual COM port and vice versa By using a virtual null modem driver on your PC you can easily debug and simulate serial data connections without the use of real RS232 ports and cables Virtual COM connections do not give you the same timing as real RS232 connect
11. 41 A 66 42 B 67 43 68 44 D 69 45 E 70 46 F 71 47 G 72 48 H 73 49 T 74 4A J 75 4B K 76 4C L 77 4D 78 4E N 79 4F O 80 50 P 81 51 Q 82 52 R 83 53 S 84 54 T 85 55 U 86 56 V 87 57 W 88 58 X 89 59 Y 90 5A Z 91 5B 92 5C N 93 5D 94 5E 95 5F 96 60 8 97 61 a 98 62 b 99 63 c 100 64 d 101 65 e 102 66 f 103 67 g 104 68 h 105 69 i 106 6A j 107 6B k 108 GC 1 109 6D m TLO 6E n 111 6F Oo Zero One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine D Cru oO D Om Dec NI As E NHPFXxGGuumUoUuUoZz al O B BH Hu SO mo OO co o 35 Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher 36 Docklight V1 9 User Manual 05 2009 112 70 p p 113 71 q q 114 72 E r 115 73 S S 116 74 t t 117 75 u u 118 76 V V 119 71 w w 120 78 x x 121 79 y y 122 7A Z Zz 123 7B 124 7C 125 7D 126 7E Tilde 127 TF DEL Delete 10 2 Hot Keys General Hot Keys Applies to e Communication window ASCII HEX Decimal Binary e Edit Send Sequence dialog Edit Receive Sequence dialog e Docklight Notepad Function fHotKey Context specific Hot Keys Docklight menu Menu Fie New roe Open Project ave Project ind Sequence in Comm Window Tools Start Communication Stop Communication Fe Tools eyboard Console On HS HF F5 eyboard Console Off how Hide Docklight Notepad Communication Window Function HotKey F5 F6 Cent
12. TAPO for Channel 1 and TAP1 for Channel 2 from the USB Tap section below the COM ports The TAP connections are only available if Communication Mode is set to Vonitoring the Docklight Tap is plugged in and the Docklight Tap USB device drivers are installed properly COM Port Settings Baud Rate Choose a standard baud rate from the dropdown list or use a non standard baud rate by typing any integer number between 110 and 9999999 NOTE Non standard baud rates may not work correctly on all COM ports dependant on the capabilities of your COM port s hardware UART chip You will receive no warning if any non standard rate cannot be applied NOTE Although Docklight s Project Settings allow you to specify baud rates up to 9 MBaud this Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher Reference 27 8 8 does not mean Docklight is able to handle this level of throughput continuously The average data throughput depends very much on your PC s performance and the Docklight display settings See also How to Increase the Processing Speed Data Bits and Stop Bits Specify the number of data bits and stop bits here As with the baud rate some of the available settings may not be supported by the COM port device s on your PC Parity All common parity check options are available here The settings Mark and Space will probably not be used in practical applications Mark specifies that the parity bit always is 1 Space th
13. This makes it possible to simulate the behavior of a serial communication device which is particularly useful for generating test conditions that are hard to reproduce with the original device e g problem conditions logging RS232 data All serial communication data can be logged using two different file formats Use plain text format for fast logging and storing huge amounts of data An HTML file format with styled text lets you easily distinguish between incoming and outgoing data or additional information Docklight can also log any binary data stream including ASCII 0 lt NUL gt bytes and other control characters detecting specific data sequences In many test cases you will need to check for a specific sequence within the RS232 data that indicates a problem condition Docklight manages a list of such data sequences for you and is able to perform user defined actions after detecting a sequence e g taking a snapshot of all communication data before and after the error message was received responding to incoming data Docklight lets you specify user defined answers to the different communication sequences received This allows you to build a basic simulator for your serial device within a few minutes It can also help you to trace a certain error by sending out a diagnostics command after receiving the error message Docklight will work with the COM communication ports provided by your operating system Physically these ports will be R
14. character is required Therefore the minimum number of characters required is equal to the number of wildcards within one parameter NOTE While the Send Sequence Parameter dialog is shown all serial communication is paused Docklight does not receive any data and does not send any periodical Send Sequences Dialog Project Settings Communication Menu Tools gt l Project Settings Communication Communication Mode Send Receive Docklight acts both as transmitter and receiver of serial data This mode is used when Testing the functionality or the protocol implementation of a serial device or simulating a serial device Naming conventions The received data RX will be displayed and processed as Channel 1 the transmitted data TX will be displayed as Channel 2 Monitoring Docklight receives serial data on two different communication channels This mode is used for example when Monitoring the communication between two devices Naming conventions The serial data from device 1 is Channel 1 the data from device 2 is Channel 2 Communication Channels Serial COM ports or Docklight TAP ports Choose one or in Monitoring Mode two COM ports from the dropdown list The dropdown list shows all COM ports available on your PC via the Windows operating system You can also type in any COM port from COM1 to COM256 manually For Docklight Tap monitoring applications open the dropdown list and choose the TAP port e g
15. cmd answer battery failure status cmd answer mains failure and assign different Send Sequences as an action In the example you would have three elements in the Receive Sequences list that would respond to the same command with three different answers During the test you may decide which answer should be sent by checking or unchecking the list elements using the Active column E Storing the project Before running the actual test it is recommended that the communication settings and sequences defined be stored This is done using the menu File gt Bl Save Project F Running the test Start Docklight by choosing Run gt E Start Communication Docklight will now respond to all commands received from the connected serial device The on screen data transfer display allows you to monitor the communications flow All protocol information can be logged to a text file for further analysis See section Logging and analyzing a test Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher Working with Docklight 11 5 3 TIP Using the notepad window F12 key menu Tools Show Notepad you can easily take additional notes or copy amp paste parts of the communication log for further documentation Monitoring Serial Communications Between Two Devices R5232 Link SSC y Iess es el Docklight Software Monitoring communications beiween Device 1 and Device 2 Preconditions e A Docklight Monitoring Cable
16. communication in Docklight NOTE See the section How to Obtain Best Timing Accuracy for some background information on timing accuracy Docklight Monitoring Mode When Monitoring Serial Communications Between Two Devices all received data from one COM port is re sent on the TX channel of the opposite COM port by default Data Forwarding This is intended for special applications that require routing the serial data traffic through Docklight using standard RS232 cabling Use the No Data Forwarding Expert Option for applications with two serial COM ports where you need to avoid that any TX data is sent This can be used to improve performance when using a Docklight Monitoring Cable or to work around problems caused with instable serial device drivers For Docklight Tap applications e g using Communication Channel TAPO TAP1 the Data Forwarding setting has no effect The Docklight Tap is accessed in read only mode always and no data is forwarded Keyboard Console The Keyboard Console tool allows you to send keyboard input directly to the serial port It can be activated using the menu Tools gt amp Keyboard Console On The keyboard console is only available for communication mode Send Receive After activating the keyboard console click in the communication window and type some characters Docklight will transmit the characters directly through the selected serial port The communication window will display the characters
17. is particularly important when using Docklight for tracking down timing problems This means however that there is no way to influence the serial communication between the two devices While communication mode Monitoring is selected it is not possible to use Send Sequences D Storing the project Before running the actual test it is recommended to store the communication settings and sequences defined This is done using the menu File gt El Save Project E Running the test Start Docklight by choosing Run gt Start Communication then activate the serial devices 1 and 2 and perform a test run Docklight will display all communication between serial device 1 and serial device 2 Docklight uses different colors and font types to make it easy to distinguish between data transmitted by device 1 or device 2 The colors and font types can be chosen in the Display tab of the Tools gt 42 Options dialog TIP The amp Snapshot Function allows you to locate a rare sequence or error condition in a communication protocol with a large amount of data TIP See the sections How to Increase the Processing Speed and How to Obtain Best Timing Accuracy to learn how to adjust Docklight for applications with high amounts of data or increased timing accuracy requirements Catching a Specific Sequence and Taking a Snapshot of the Communication When monitoring serial communications between two devices you might want to test for a rare error
18. naundan casonas 41 Glossary Terms Used 43 AMA A SES 43 Break ges EENS ENEE EELER EELER ESEEEE 43 AN A ies 43 Character iss e CU UT 43 lei 43 hie O M 44 D pcd ue 44 Flow Control Seeerei use teniente recte iud ee onen 44 RS 44 MODBUS epu 44 Receive UE 45 yap 45 ASA P STE 45 RAD M N 46 Un UE 46 e UE 46 Sequence INOX ui a palas 46 Serial Device Ser Veis add 47 E E e E 47 TOG e EE NUEN 47 Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher Docklight V1 9 User Manual 05 2009 11 21 VART conan a a a aa ar aan goassucetadvesaceaseasdussdeeges 47 11 22 Virtual Null Moden eege oi cca ecu a 47 11 23 WAAC ANG ie 48 Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher Copyright 1 1 Copyright Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher All rights reserved No parts of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means graphic electronic or mechanical including photocopying recording taping or information storage and retrieval systems without the written permission of the publisher Trademarks Products that are referred to in this document may be either trademarks and or registered trademarks of the respective owners The publisher and the author make no claim to these trademarks Microsoft an
19. of a fixed part e g temperature and a variable part which is the actual value e g 65F To detect all these responses correctly in the serial data stream you can define Receive Sequences containing wildcards Take for example the following situation A serial device measures the temperature and periodically sends the actual reading Docklight shows the following output 10 30 2008 10 20 08 022 RX temperature 82F lt CR gt 10 30 2008 10222 10 558 RX temperature 85F lt CR gt 10 30 2008 10 24 12 087 RX temperature 93F lt CR gt 10 30 2008 10 26 14 891 RX temperature 102F lt CR gt Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher 14 Docklight V1 9 User Manual 05 2009 Defining an individual Receive Sequence for every temperature value possible would not be a practical option Instead you would define one Receive Sequence using wildcards For example tje m pjelrlaltjulrje Fir r is the terminating lt CR gt Carriage Return character This ReceiveSequence would trigger on any of the temperature strings listed above It allows a 1 3 digit value for the temperature i e from 0 to 999 The following step by step example describes how to define the above sequence See also the additional remarks atthe end of this section for some extra information on wildcards Preconditions e Docklight is ready to run a test as described in the previous use cases e g testing a serial dev
20. of a hardware fault must be considered in most systems Imagine you have a device that sends an error message in the case of a hardware fault A second device should receive this error message and perform some kind of reaction Using Docklight you can easily simulate the error message to be sent and test the second device s reaction Docklight R5232 Link Software gt a vice TT Simulating Device 1 arte to test Device 2 behavior Monitor the communication between two devices Insert Docklight into the communication link between two serial devices Monitor and log the serial communication in both directions Detect faulty communication sequences or special error conditions within the monitored communication Take a snapshot of the communication when such an error condition has occurred Emi y p crc R5232 Link Docklight Software Monitoring communications beiween Device 1 and Device 2 2 3 System Requirements Operating system e Windows Vista Windows XP Windows 2000 or Windows NT Hardware requirements e Pentium processor 400 MHz or faster e Minimum 64 MB RAM e Minimum one COM port available Two COM ports for monitoring communication between two serial devices e For low latency monitoring using Docklight Tap One USB port Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher Docklight V1 9 User Manual 05 2009 Additional cables or drivers may be required for connecting the equipment
21. signals SUB D9female SUB 09 male SUB D9 Simple Null Modem Cable without Handshaking Area of Application DTE DTE Communication where no additional handshake signals are used prote ctive shielding ground SUB D9female SUB D3 female SUB D9 Null Modem Cable with Partial Handshaking Area of Application DTE DTE Communication with DTE DCE compatible hardware flow control Works also when no handshake signals are used Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher Appendix 41 10 5 10 6 prote ctive shielding ground SUB D9female SUB D3 female Docklight Monitoring Cable RS232 SUB D9 Docklight Monitoring Mode requires a full duplex monitoring cable that feeds the two data directions into two separate COM ports Area of application Monitoring serial communications between two devices We offer a custom RS232 cable that is designed for the use with Docklight Monitoring Mode according to the cable specification below Visit our product overview pages for the Docklight Monitoring Cable a professional and rugged cable solution for industrial applications prote ctive shielding ground T o e Device 2 o or null To modern Device 1 cable lt a ok without protective shield if cable length is short and not used in EMI polluted area SUB D3female SUB DS female To To monitoring monitoring COM port 1 COM port 2 Docklight Tap Docklight Tap is a full duplex RS232 communicati
22. the same way it does a Send Sequence NOTE The Keyboard Console tool supports pasting and transmitting a character sequence from the clipboard using Ctrl V This is similar to pasting clipboard data inside the Edit Send Sequence Dialog Clipboard contents that exceeds the maximum sequence size of 1024 characters gets truncated NOTE The keyboard console is not a full featured terminal and does not support specific terminal Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher 32 Docklight V1 9 User Manual 05 2009 standards such as VT 100 The Enter key is transmitted as CR ASCII 13 plus lt LF gt ASCII 10 as per the Windows standard text file format Use control character shortcuts to send other ASCII control characters Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher Support 33 9 Support 9 1 Web Support and Troubleshooting For up to date FAQs and troubleshooting information see our online support pages available at http Awww docklight de support_en htm 9 2 E Mail Support We provide individual e mail support to our registered customers Please include your Docklight license key number in your request We will contact you as soon as possible to find a solution to your problem Send your support request to docklight fuh edv de Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher 34 Docklight V1 9 User Manual 05 2009 10 10 1 Appendix ASCII Character Set Tables
23. 0 9 and non printing control characters ASCII code 0 to 31 Predefined shortcuts are Ctrl Enter for carriage return CR decimal code 13 Ctrl Shift Enter for line feed lt LF gt decimal code 10 Use Options gt Control Character Shortcuts to define other shortcuts you find useful Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher Reference 25 8 4 8 5 Dialog Create Log File s Menu Tools gt 4 Start Communication Logging Log file format The available log formats are plain text txt files or HTML files for web browsers htm Plain text files are a good choice if you expect your log files to become very large HTML log files are more comfortable to analyze because they include all the visual formatting of the communication windows colors bold characters italic characters However the file will be larger than a plain text file and some browsers may process large HTML files quite slowly If you have specific requirements on the output format you can customize the HTML output Log file directory and base name Choose the directory and base file name for the log file s here The actual file path used for the individual log file representations are displayed in the text boxes within the Log file representation frame Overwrite append mode Choose append new data if you do not want Docklight to overwrite existing log file s Docklight will then insert a start logging stop l
24. 1 8 11 9 11 10 11 11 11 12 11 13 11 14 11 15 11 16 11 17 11 18 11 19 11 20 Dialog Find Sequence vaciones 25 Dialog Send Sequence Parameter uuussusnnnnnnnnannnnnannnnnnnnnnnnnunnannnnnnnnnnannnnnnannnnnnnnnannnnnnannn 26 Dialog Project Settings Communication eese enne 26 Dialog Project Settings Flow Control uunuuusnnennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnannnnnnannn 27 Dialog Project Settings Communication Filter sees 28 Dialog Option M 8n 28 Dialog Customize HTML Output nunserssnnnnnnnnnnannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnannnnnannnnnnnnnnannnnnnannnnnnnnnannnnnnannn 29 Dialog Expert Options nunnusassnsnnnnnnnannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnannnnnannnnnnnnnnannnnnannnnnnnnnnannnnnnannnnnnnnnannnnnann 30 Keyboard Console 1 iii 31 Support 33 Web Support and Troubleshooting ususrrsausnnannnnnannnnnnnnnnannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnannnnnn 33 EZMaIRSUPPOHL 22 222 E 33 Appendix 34 ASCII Character Set Tables uuunussusnsnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnannunnnnnnnnnnnnnnannnnnn 34 FIOU KEYS lm S 36 RS232 Connectors Pinout se aa raa rer aeaa etas earen E Eaa AE aaaeeeaa aieia dekaanina 37 Standard Ee 39 Docklight Monitoring Cable RS232 SUB D9 essen nacer 41 Docklight Tap nn
25. 22 An RS422 communication link is a four wire link with balanced line drivers In a balanced differential system one signal is transmitted using two wires A and B The signal state is represented by the voltage across the two wires Although a common signal ground connection is necessary it is not used to determine the signal state at the receiver This results in a high immunity against EMI electromagnetic interference and allows cable lengths of over 1000m depending on the cable type and baud rate The ElA Standard RS422 A Electrical characteristics of balanced voltage digital interface circuits defines the characteristics of an RS422 interface Transmitter and receiver characteristics according to RS422 A are Signal State Transmitter Differential Receiver Differential Voltage Voltage Vs Vas Mark or logical 1 or logical 1 6V to 2V LeVto 200mV Space or logical 0 2V to 6V 200mV to 6V Undefined 2V to 2V 200mV to 200mV Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher 46 Docklight V1 9 User Manual 05 2009 11 14 11 15 11 16 11 17 Permitted Common Mode Voltage Vem mean voltage of A and B terminals with reference to signal ground 7V to 7V RS485 The RS485 standard defines a balanced two wire transmission line which may be shared as a bus line by up to 32 driver receiver pairs Many characteristics of the transmitters and receivers are the same as RS422 The mai
26. 44 233 RX o Pong Pong received 3 8 2009 16 25 44 236 TX 0 Ping 3 8 2009 16 25 44 251 RX o Ping Ping received 3 8 2009 16 25 44 254 TX n Pong 3 8 2009 16 25 44 268 RX o Pong Pong received 3 8 2009 16 25 44 271 TX 9 Ping 3 8 2009 16 25 44 286 RX o Ping Ping received 3 8 2009 16 25 44 289 TX p Pong 3 8 2009 16 25 44 303 RX o Pong Pong received 3 8 2009 16 25 44 307 TX o Ping Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher Examples and Tutorials 21 3 8 2009 16 25 44 322 RX o Ping Ping received 3 8 2009 16 25 44 324 TX o Pong See also the corresponding log files in the Samples folder PingPong_Logfile_asc htm and PingPong_Logfile_hex htm Further Information This demo project can also be run in three alternative configurations 1 Run two Docklight applications on the same PC using different COM ports The two COM ports are connected using a simple null modem cable 2 Instead of two RS232 COM ports and a null modem cable you can use a virtual null modem 3 Usetwo PCs and run Docklight on each PC Connect the two PCs using a simple null modem cable Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher 22 Docklight V1 9 User Manual 05 2009 Reference Menu and Toolbar File Menu New Project Close the current Docklight project and create a new one gt Open Project
27. Control Characters Dec Hex ASCII Char Meaning 0 00 NUL Null 1 01 SOH Start of heading 2 02 STX Start of text 3 03 ETX Break end of text 4 04 EOT End of transmission 5 05 ENO Enquiry 6 06 ACK Positive acknowledgment 7 07 BEL Bell 8 08 BS Backspace 9 09 HT Horizontal tab 10 0A LF Line feed 11 OB VT Vertical tab 12 0C FF Form feed 13 OD CR Carriage return 14 OE so Shift out 15 OF SI Shift in XON resume output 16 10 DLE Data link escape 17 11 DC1 XON Device control character 1 18 12 DC2 Device control character 2 19 ES DC3 XOFF Device control character 3 20 14 DC4 Device control character 4 21 15 NAK Negative Acknowledgment 22 16 SYN Synchronous idle 23 17 ETB End of transmission block 24 18 CAN Cancel 25 19 EM End of medium 26 1A SUB substitute end of file 27 1B ESC Escape 28 1C FS File separator 29 1D GS Group separator 30 1E RS Record separator 31 TE US Unit separator Printing Characters Dec Hex ASCII Char Meaning 32 20 Space 33 21 34 22 35 23 36 24 37 25 38 26 amp amp 39 27 i 40 28 41 29 42 2A 43 2B t 44 2C i 45 2D 46 2E 47 2F Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher Appendix 48 30 0 49 31 1 50 32 2 51 33 3 52 34 4 53 35 5 54 36 6 55 371 7 56 38 8 57 39 9 58 3A 59 3B 60 3C lt 61 3D 62 3E gt 63 3F 64 40 65
28. Docklight within the incoming serial data A Receive Sequence is specified by 1 an unique name e g Modem Answer OK 2 a character sequence e g 6F 6B 13 10 in HEX format 3 an action that is triggered when Docklight receives the defined sequence RS232 The RS232 standard is defined by the EIA TIA Electronic Industries Alliance Telecommunications Industry Associations The standard defines an asynchronous serial data transfer mechanism as well as the physical and electrical characteristics of the interface RS232 uses serial bit streams transmitted at a predefined baud rate The information is separated into characters of 5 to 8 bits lengths Additional start and stop bits are used for synchronization and a parity bit may be included to provide a simple error detection mechanism The electrical interface includes unbalanced line drivers i e all signals are represented by a voltage with reference to a common signal ground RS232 defines two states for the data signals mark state or logical 1 and space state or logical 0 The range of voltages for representing these states is specified as follows Signal State Transmitter Voltage Receiver Voltage Range Range Mark logical 1 logical 1 15V to 5V 25V to 3V Space logical 0 5V to 15V 43V to 25V Undefined 5V to 45V 3V to 3V The physical characteristics of the RS232 standard are described in the section RS232 Connectors Pinout RS4
29. Link AAA E u f E cou L ep Simulating Device 1 to test Device 2 behavior IHE P Lee Preconditions e You need the specification of the behavior of the serial device you want to simulate e g what kind of information is sent back after receiving a certain command e A second device is connected to a PC COM port which will communicate with your simulator This second device and its behavior is the actual object of interest An example could be a device that periodically checks the status of an UPS Uninterruptible Power Supply using a serial communication protocol You could use Docklight to simulate basic UPS behavior and certain UPS problem cases This is very useful when testing the other device because it can be quite difficult to reproduce an alarm condition like a bad battery at the real UPS Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher 10 Docklight V1 9 User Manual 05 2009 NOTE The second device may also be a second software application It is possible to run both Docklight and the software application on the same PC Simply use a different COM port for each of the two applications and connect the two COM ports using a RS232 null modem cable You can also use a virtual null modem for this purpose Performing the test A Creating a new project Create a new Docklight project by selecting the menu File gt New Project B Setting the Communication Options Choose the menu Tools g
30. S232 SUB D9 interfaces in many cases However it is also possible to use Docklight for other communication standards such as RS485 and RS422 which have a different electrical design to RS232 but follow the RS232 communication mechanism Docklight has also been successfully tested with many popular USB to Serial converters virtual null modem software drivers or Embedded Development tools that appear as a virtual COM port in Windows For RS232 full duplex monitoring applications we recommend our Docklight Tap USB accessory or our Docklight Monitoring Cable This manual only refers to RS232 serial connections in detail since this is the basis for other serial connections mentioned above TIP For getting started have a look at the Docklight sample projects which demonstrate some of the basic Docklight functions Typical Applications Docklight is the ideal tool to support your development and testing process for serial communication devices Docklight may be used to e Test the functionality or the protocol implementation of a serial device You may define control sequences recognized by your device send them log and analyze the responses and test the device reaction Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher Introduction 3 Docklight Software RS232 Link Serial Device p cc Testing protocol or device functions e Simulate a serial device Although rare the possibility
31. and the interesting parts would be just the serial communication before and after this event You could look for this situation by logging the test and searching the log files for the characteristic error sequence This could mean storing and analyzing several MB of data when you are actually just looking for a few bytes though if they appeared at all As an alternative you can use the Snapshot feature as described below Preconditions e Docklight is ready to run a test as described in the previous use cases e g monitoring serial communications between two devices Taking a snapshot A Defining a trigger for the snapshot Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher Working with Docklight 13 5 5 5 6 1 Define the sequence that appears in your error situation as a Receive Sequence 2 Check the Trigger tab in the action part of the Receive Sequence dialog The trigger option must be enabled if this is the sequence that you want to track down NOTE Do not forget to disable the trigger option for all other Receive Sequences that should be ignored in your test so that they do not trigger the snapshot B Creating a snapshot Click on the B Snapshot button of the toolbar Docklight will start communications but will not display anything in the communication window If the trigger sequence is detected Docklight will display communication data before and after the trigger event Further data is processed until
32. annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnannnnnennnnnnnnnnnn 13 Checking for Sequences With Random Characters Receive Sequence Wildcards 13 Saving and Loading Your Project Data urrns24nnHnnnnannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn nn nnnen 15 Working with Docklight Advanced Features 16 Sending Commands With Parameters Send Sequence Wildcards 16 How to Increase the Processing Speed and Avoid Input Buffer Overflow Messages 17 How to Obtain Best Timing Accuracy eeeeesesseeeseeeneeen enne enne nnn nnn SEENEN nennt nnns 18 Examples and Tutorials 19 Testing a Modem Sample Project ModemDiagnostics ptp o 19 Reacting to a Receive Sequence Sample Project PingPong ptp 20 Reference 22 Menu and Toolbar ic nico rien NEESS EE 22 Dialog Edit Send Sequence uunnunnsnannnnnnannnnnnnnnnannnnnannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnannnnnnnnnnannnnnnannnnnnnnnannnnnannn 23 Dialog Edit Receive Sequence unnnunannnunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnannnnnannnnnnnnnnannnnnnannnnnnnnnannnnnnnnn 24 Dialog Create Log File S aaa aaar aaaea aerae naaraana aed eoni anasan iaaa seai aae aaan aa ae arana rda nainii 25 Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher Contents II 8 5 8 6 8 7 8 8 8 9 8 10 8 11 8 12 8 13 9 9 1 9 2 10 10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4 10 5 10 6 11 11 1 11 2 11 3 11 4 11 5 11 6 11 7 1
33. at the parity bit is always 0 regardless of the character transmitted Parity Error Character This is the character that replaces an invalid character in the data stream whenever a parity error occurs You should specify an ASCII character printing or non printing that does not usually appear within your serial data stream Characters may be defined by entering the character itself or entering its decimal ASCII code please enter at least two digits NOTE Choose ignore for the Parity Error Character if you need to transmit receive the parity bit but Docklight should preserve all incoming characters even when the parity bit is wrong This is useful for applications where a 9th bit is used for addressing purposes and not for error checking Dialog Project Settings Flow Control Menu Tools gt Project Settings Flow Control Used to specify additional hardware or software flow control settings for serial communications in Docklight Send Receive Mode Flow Control Support Off No hardware or software flow control mechanism is used RTS and DTR are enabled when the COM port is opened Manual Use this mode to control the RTS and DTR signals manually and display the current state of the CTS DSR DCD and RI lines If flow control is set to Manual an additional status element is displayed in the Docklight main window You may toggle the RTS and DTR lines by double clicking on the corresponding indicator NOTE Flow control s
34. between 0 and 255 decimal Example ATL2 ASCII format 41 54 4C 0D 0A HEX format This sequence is a modem command to set the speaker volume on AT compatible modems It includes a Carriage Return 0D and a Line Feed 0A character at the end of the line The maximum sequence size in Docklight is 1024 characters Sequence Index The Sequence Index is the element number of a Send Sequence within the Send Sequence List or of a Receive Sequence within the Receive Sequence List The Sequence Index is displayed in the upper left corner of the Edit Send Sequence or Edit Receive Sequence dialog Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher Glossary Terms Used 47 11 18 11 19 11 20 11 21 11 22 Serial Device Server A Serial Device Server is a network device that offers one or more serial COM ports RS232 RS422 485 and transmits receives the serial data over an Ethernet network Serial Device Servers are a common way for upgrading existing devices that are controlled via serial port and make them network enabled Snapshot Creating a snapshot in Docklight means generating a display of the serial communication shortly before and after a Trigger sequence has been detected This is useful when testing for a rare error which is characterized by a specific sequence See Catching a specific sequence and taking a snapshot for more information Trigger A Trigger is a Receive Sequence with the Trigger
35. bly test your serial device by sending specific sequences according to the protocol used by the device and observe the device s reaction Perform the following steps to create your list of sequences 1 Double click on the last line of the Send Sequences table The Edit Send Sequence dialog is displayed see also Editing and Managing Sequences 2 Enter a Name for the sequence The sequence name should be unique for every Send Sequence defined 3 Enter the Sequence itself You may enter the sequence either in ASCII HEX Decimal or Binary format Switching between the different formats is possible at any time using the Edit Mode radio buttons 4 After clicking the OK button the new sequence will be added to the Send Sequence lists Repeat steps 1 4 to define the other Send Sequences needed to perform your test D Defining the Receive Sequences used If you want Docklight to react when receiving specific sequences you have to define a list of Receive Sequences Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher Working with Docklight 9 5 2 1 Double click on the last line of the Receive Sequences table The dialog Edit Receive Sequence is displayed The dialog consist of three parts Name field Sequence field and Action field 2 Editthe Name and Sequence fields 3 Specify an Action to perform after the sequence has been received by Docklight There are four types of actions available Answer After receiving the
36. d Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and or other countries Disclaimer While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this document the publisher and the author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions or for damages resulting from the use of information contained in this document or from the use of programs and source code that may accompany it In no event shall the publisher and the author be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by this document Contact E Mail Support docklight fuh edv de Flachmann und Heggelbacher Waldkirchbogen 29 D 82061 Neuried Germany http www fuh edv de Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher Docklight V1 9 User Manual 05 2009 2 2 Introduction Docklight Overview Docklight is a testing analysis and simulation tool for serial communication protocols RS232 RS485 422 and others It allows you to monitor communications between two serial devices or to test the serial communication of a single device Docklight is easy to use and works on almost any standard PC running Windows Vista Windows XP Windows 2000 or Windows NT Docklight s key functions include e simulating serial protocols Docklight can send out user defined sequences according to the protocol used and it can react to incoming sequences
37. e Hardware Flow Control Uses voltage signals on the RS232 status lines RTS DTR set by DTE and CTS DSR set by DCE to control the transmission and reception of data See also RS232 pinout Software Flow Control Uses dedicated ASCII control characters XON XOFF to control data transmission Software flow control requires text based communication data or other data that does not contain any XON or XOFF characters LIN Local Interconnect Network A low cost serial communication bus targeted at distributed electronic systems in vehicles especially simple components like door motors steering wheel controls climate sensors etc See also http www lin subbus org MODBUS MODBUS is an application layer messaging protocol that provides client server communications between devices connected on different types of buses or networks It is commonly used as MODBUS over Serial Line in RS422 485 networks but can be implemented using TCP over Ethernet as well MODBUS TCP Two different serial transmission modes for MODBUS are defined RTU mode for 8 bit binary transmissions and ASCII mode RTU mode is the default mode that must be implemented by all devices Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher Glossary Terms Used 45 11 11 11 12 11 13 See hitp www modbus org for a complete specification of the MODBUS protocol Receive Sequence A Receive Sequence is a sequence that can be detected by
38. e modem supports the Rockwell voice command set Displays manufacturer s information for n 1 through 7 This provides information such as the port speed the result of a checksum test and the model information Check the manufacturer s documentation for the expected results The Samples folder also contains a log file ModemDiagnostics Logfile asc txt It shows a test run where the above Send Sequences were sent to a real modem Reacting to a Receive Sequence Sample Project PingPong ptp The Docklight project PingPong ptp is a simple example for how to define and use Receive Sequences Getting started e Go to the ET Project Settings dialog and choose a COM port e Apply a simple loopback to this COM port Connect Pin 2 RX with Pin 3 TX See RS232 SUB D9 Pinout started and the Send Sequence is transmitted It will of course be instantly received on the COM port s RX line Docklight will detect the incoming data as being one of the defined Receive Sequences It will then perform the action predefined for this event which is sending out another sequence As a result Docklight will send out alternating Send Sequences Ping and Pong e Use the M Stop communication button to end the demo The Docklight communication display should look similar to this 3 8 2009 16 25 244 201 TX Bing 3 8 2009 16 25 44 216 RX o Ping Ping received 3 8 2009 16 25 44 218 TX n Pong 3 8 2009 16 25
39. equence to the clipboard and paste it into the Receive Sequence list See Editing and Managing Sequences and Dialog Edit Receive Sequence for more information 4 Communication Window Displays the outgoing and incoming communication on the serial port Various display options are available for communication data including ASCII HEX Decimal Binary display time stamps and highlighting see Options If serial communication is stopped all data from the communications window may be copied to the clipboard or printed You may also search for specific sequences using the Find Sequence function See How Serial Data is Processed and Displayed for more information Clipboard Cut Copy amp Paste Docklight supports the Windows clipboard and its Cut Copy and Paste operations Clipboard operations are available in the e Main Window Send Sequences e Main Window Receive Sequences e Main Window Communication e Main Window Script Editor Docklight Scripting only e Dialog Edit Send Sequence Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher Docklight V1 9 User Manual 05 2009 3 3 e Dialog Edit Receive Sequence e Dialog Find Sequence e Dialog Send Sequence Parameter e Notepad e Keyboard Console You can cut a serial data sequence from the communication window and create a new Send or Receive Sequence by simply pasting it into the appropriate list Or edit a Send Sequence copy a part of this sequence t
40. ettings Go to the Ef Project Settings dialog and make sure you have selected the same COM Port for Send Receive on comm channel Press the Start Communication button in the toolbar gt Send button Try sending any of the predefined modem commands by pressing the You should now receive a response from your modem e g OK if your command was accepted a model identification number etc The response will vary with the modem model After sending several sequences the Docklight communication window could look like this 3 8 2009 15 00 44 034 TX ATOOVIEO lt CR gt lt LF gt 3 8 2009 15 00 44 040 RX lt CR gt lt LF gt OK lt CR gt lt LF gt 3 8 2009 15 00 44 608 TX AT GMM lt CR gt lt LF gt 3 8 2009 15 00 44 610 RX lt CR gt lt LF gt H 324 video ready rev 1 0 lt CR gt lt LF gt lt CR gt lt LF gt OK lt CR gt lt LF gt 3 8 2009 15 00 45 049 TX AT FCLASS lt CR gt lt LF gt 3 8 2009 15 00 45 060 RX lt CR gt lt LF gt 0 1 B lt CR gt lt LF gt Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher 20 Docklight V1 9 User Manual 05 2009 7 2 Further Information The Send Sequences list includes the following standard AT modem commands Send Sequence Description Modem Response ATQOV1EO Initializes the query Model identification ITU V 250 recommendation is not supported by all modems Fax classes supported by the modem if any Shows whether th
41. evant for testing and you only need to watch for very specific events These events and related display output can be defined using Receive Sequences Dialog Options Menu Tools gt P Options Display Formatted Text Output Rich Text Format used for setting the appearance of the Docklight communication window The two different serial data streams Channel 1 and Channel 2 may be displayed using different colors and styles The standard setting uses different colors for the two channels but using different font styles e g Italics for Channel 2 is also possible You may also choose the overall font size here NOTE If you change the font size the communication window contents will be deleted For all other changes Docklight will try to preserve the display contents Plain Text Output faster display but no colors amp fonts The formatted text output is similar to a word processor and consumes a considerable amount of CPU time It also requires frequent memory allocation and deallocation which might decrease your PC performance So if you are monitoring a high speed communication link but still want to keep an eye on the serial data transferred try using the Plain Text Output format Control Characters ASCII 0 31 For communication data containing both printing ASCII text as well as non printing control characters it is sometimes helpful to see the names of the occurring control characters in the ASCII mode displa
42. ication Open the communication ports and enable serial data transfer E Stop communication Stop serial data transfer and close the communication ports Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher Reference 23 8 2 Tools Menu A Start Communication Logging Create new log file s and start logging the incoming outgoing serial data See logging and analyzing a test Gd Stop Communication Logging Stop logging and close the currently open log file s Start Snapshot Mode Wait for a trigger sequence and take a snapshot See Catching a specific sequence Stop Snapshot Mode Abort a snapshot and reenable the communication window display aad Keyboard Console On Enable the keyboard console to send keyboard input directly zx Keyboard Console Off Disable the keyboard console Show Notepad Show the notepad window Project Settings Select the current project settings communication settings flow control settings communication filter Options Select general settings e g display Expert Options Select expert program options intended for advanced users and specific applications e g high monitoring accuracy Dialog Edit Send Sequence This dialog is used to define new Send Sequences and edit existing ones See also Editing and Managing Sequences Index The index of the sequence displayed below The first sequence has index 0 zero 1 Name Unique name for this
43. ice or a protocol implementation e The serial device the temperature device in our example is operating Using Receive Sequences with wildcards A Preparing the project Create a new Docklight project and set up all communication parameters B Defining the Receive Sequences used 1 Create a new Receive Sequence Enter a Name for the sequence 2 Enter the fixed part of your expected answer in the Sequence section For our example you would enter the following sequence in ASCII mode t e m plelrjajtjujr ej 3 Open the popup context menu using the right mouse button and choose Wildcard matches one character to insert the first wildcard at the cursor position Add two wildcards using the popup menu Wildcard matches zero or one character The sequence now looks like this tjelm plelrlaltjulrjel 4 Enter the fixed tail of our temperature string which is a letter F and the terminating CR character You can use the default control character shortcut Ctrl Enter to enter the CR ASCII code 13 The sequence is now tjelm plelrlaltjulrjel Fir 5 Specify an Action to perform after a temperature reading has been detected 6 Click OK to add the new sequence to the Receive Sequence list NOTE To distinguish the wildcards and from the regular question mark or number sign characters decimal code 63 35 the wildcards are shown on a different background color within the sequence editor C Ru
44. ignals are not treated as communication data and will not be displayed in the communication window or logged to a file Hardware Handshaking Software Handshaking Support for RTS CTS hardware flow control and XON XOFF software flow control These are expert settings rarely required for recent communication applications RS485 Transceiver Control Some RS232 to RS485 converters require manual RTS control i e the RS232 device PC tells the converter when it should enable its RS485 driver for transmission If you choose RS485 Transceiver Control the COM port sets RTS to High before transmitting the first character of a Send Sequence and resets it to Low after the last character has been transmitted NOTE Many USB to Serial converters or virtual COM port drivers do not implement the Windows RTS CONTROL TOGGLE mode properly If you experience problems with RS485 Transceiver Control try using a PC with an on board COM interface or a standard PCI COM card Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher 28 Docklight V1 9 User Manual 05 2009 8 9 8 10 Dialog Project Settings Communication Filter Menu Tools gt Project Settings Communication Filter Use the Contents Filter option if you do not need to see the original communication data on the serial line and only require the additional comments inserted by a Receive Sequence This is useful for applications with high data throughput where most of the data is irrel
45. ions and usually do not emulate the actual bit by bit transmission using a predefined baud rate Any data packet sent on the first COM port will appear in the second COM port s receive buffer almost immediately For most debugging and simulation purposes this limitation can be easily tolerated Some virtual null modem drivers offer an additional baud rate emulation mode where the data transfer is delayed to emulate a real RS232 connection and its limited transmission rate For an Open Source Windows software that has been successfully tested with Docklight see http comOcom sourceforge net Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher 48 Docklight V1 9 User Manual 05 2009 11 23 Wildcard A wildcard is a special character that serves as a placeholder within a sequence It may be used for Receive Sequences when parts of the received data are unspecified e g measurement readings reported by a serial device Wildcards can also be used to support parameters in a Send Sequence Two types of wildcards are available in Docklight Wildcard Matches exactly one arbitrary character any ASCII code between 0 and 255 Wildcard Matches zero or one character This is useful for supporting variable length command arguments e g a status word in Send Receive Sequences See Checking for sequences with random characters or Sending commands with parameters for examples and additional information Copyright 2009 Flachmann
46. ior where no TX data appears you can disable the Data Forwarding using the menu Tools Expert Options Alternative 2 Using Docklight Tap 3 AtReceive Channel 1 open the dropdown list scroll down to the USB Taps section and choose the first Tap port e g TAPO At Receive Channel 2 the second tap port e g TAP1 is selected automatically Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher 12 Docklight V1 9 User Manual 05 2009 5 4 4 Setthe baud rate and all other communication parameters for the protocol being used NOTE Make sure your PC s serial interfaces port works properly at the baud rate and for the communication settings used by Device 1 and Device 2 If Device 1 and 2 use a high speed data transfer protocol the PC s serial interfaces and the Docklight software itself might be too slow to receive all data properly 5 Confirm the settings and close the dialog by clicking the OK button C Defining the Receive Sequences used Define Receive Sequences which should be marked in the test protocol or trigger an action within Docklight Docklight checks for Receive Sequence on both monitoring channels i e it does not matter whether the sequences come from serial device 1 or serial device 2 NOTE Since a special monitoring cable is used for this test all communication between serial device 1 and serial device 2 will remain unbiased and no additional delays will be introduced by Docklight itself This
47. l settings for specialized applications with additional requirements e g high time tagging accuracy Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher Reference 31 8 13 Performance Communication Driver Mode Use External High Priority Process mode to work around a common problem for any Windows user mode application unspecified delays and timing inaccuracies can be introduced by the Windows task process scheduling especially if you are running other applications besides Docklight External High Priority Process mode is recommended for high accuracy low latency monitoring using the Docklight Tap In External High Priority Process mode the data collection in Docklight becomes a separate Windows process with realtime priority class It willbe executed with higher priority than any other user application or additional application software like Antivirus For best results you need to be logged in as an Administrator Otherwise the data collection process will run with the maximum permitted priority but not realtime class NOTE External High Priority Process mode must be used with care especially when you intend to monitor a high speed data connection with large amounts of data The PC might become irresponsive to user input To resolve such a situation simply pull the plug First disconnect the data connections or the monitoring cable to bring down the CPU load and restore the responsiveness Then choose M Stop
48. minal Ready 4 SGND Sgna Grund 5 Rx Receive Data 6 X Transit Data 7 jers JolearToSend s ars Request To Sea 10 4 Standard RS232 Cables RS232 Connections When connecting two serial devices different cable types must be used depending on the characteristics of the serial device and the type of communication used Overview of RS232 SUB D9 interconnections handshaking IDTE Data Data DTE no handshake simple null modem cable null modem cable Equipment DTE DE A prEDCE nullmodem cable with partial partial compatible handshaking hardware flow control DTE DCE Data no handshake simple straight cable Communications signals Equipment E alll a control DCE DCE no handshake Isimple null modem cable but signals with SUB D9 male connectors on both ends DCE DCE hardware flow null modem cable with partial control handshaking but with SUB D9 male connectors on both ends SUB D9 Simple Straight Cable Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher 40 Docklight V1 9 User Manual 05 2009 Area of Application DTE DCE Communication where no additional handshake signals are used prote ctive shielding ground SUB D9female SUB D3 male SUB D9 Full Straight Cable Area of Application DTE DCE Communication with hardware flow control using additional handshake
49. n differences between RS422 and RS485 are e Two wire half duplex transmission instead of four wire transmission e Balanced line drivers with tristate capability The RS485 line driver has an additional enable signal which is used to connect and disconnect the driver to its output terminal The term tristate refers to the three different states possible at the output terminal mark logical 1 space logical 0 or disconnected e Extended Common Mode Voltage Vem range from 7V to 12V The EIA Standard RS485 Standard for electrical characteristics of generators and receivers for use in balanced digital multipoint systems defines the characteristics of an RS485 system Send Sequence A Send Sequence is a sequence that can be sent by Docklight A Send Sequence is specified by 1 an unique name e g Set modem speaker volume 2 a character sequence e g 41 54 4C 0D OA in HEX format There are two ways to make Docklight send a sequence e Sending a sequence can be triggered manually by pressing the send button in the Send Sequences list see Main Window e Sending a sequence may be one possible reaction when Docklight detects a specific Receive Sequence within the incoming data see Action Sequence A sequence consists of one or more 8 bit characters A sequence can be any part of the serial communications you are analyzing It can consist of printable ASCII characters but may also include every non printable character
50. new sequence into the sequence list Docklight supports the use of wildcards e g wildcard as a placeholder for one arbitrary character within Receive Sequences and Send Sequences See the sections sending commands with parameters and checking for sequences with random characters for details and examples Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher Docklight V1 9 User Manual 05 2009 Working with Docklight Testing a Serial Device or a Protocol Implementation Docklight Software RS232 Link Serial Device Lp ccc Testing protocol or device functions Preconditions e You need the specification of the protocol to test e g in written form e The serial device to test should be connected to one of the PC s COM ports See section Standard RS232 Cables for details on how to connect two serial devices e The serial device must be ready to operate Performing the test A Creating a new project Create a new Docklight project by selecting the menu File gt New Project B Setting the Communication Options 1 Choose the menu Tools gt I Project Settings 2 Choose communication mode Send Receive 3 At Send Receive on comm channel set the COM Port where your serial device is connected Set the baud rate and all other COM Port Settings required Confirm the settings and close the dialog by clicking the OK button ore C Defining the Send Sequences to be used You will proba
51. ng inaccuracies can be introduced by e The COM device s chipset e g the internal FIFO First In First Out data buffer e The USB bus transfer for USB to Serial converters e The serial device driver for Windows e The task process scheduling in a multitasking operating system like Windows e The accuracy of the date time provider Docklight comes with a very accurate date time provider with milliseconds granularity but it still needs to accept the restrictions from the hardware and software environment around it Here is what you can do to minimize additional delays and inaccuracies and achieve a typical time tagging accuracy of 5 milliseconds or better 1 Get our Docklight Tap for lowest USB related latency times Or use on board RS232 ports if still available on your PC 2 Choose External High Priority Process Mode in the Tools Expert Options dialog 3 When monitoring high amounts of data use the recommendations from the previous section How to Increase the Processing Speed to avoid input buffer overflows and that the computer become irresponsive because of high CPU usage NOTE The Expert Options recommended above will change the overall system balance and must be used with care Best results can be achieved only when logged in as an Administrator Please make sure you understood the remarks and warning in the documentation Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher Examples and Tutorials 19 7 1
52. ng with Docklight Advanced Features Sending Commands With Parameters Send Sequence Wildcards When testing a serial device the device will most likely support a number of commands that include a parameter Example A digital camera supports a command to set the exposure time For setting the exposure time to 25 milliseconds you need to send the following sequence e x p O 2 5 r r isaterminating CR Carriage Return character To avoid defining a new Send Sequence for every exposure time you want to try you can use a Send Sequence with wildcards instead elxIpl 1 1 1 Ir The following step by step example describes how to define an exposure time command with a parameter and use a different exposure value each time the sequence is sent Preconditions e Docklight is ready to run a test as described in testing a serial device or a protocol implementation Performing the test using commands with parameters A Preparing the project Create a new Docklight project and set up all communication parameters B Defining the commands used 1 Create a new Send Sequence Enter a Name for the sequence 2 Enter the fixed part of your command in the Sequence section For our example you would enter the following sequence in ASCII mode e xIpi 3 Now open the context menu using the right mouse button and choose Wildcard matches one character to insert one wildcard at the cursor position In our example we would have to repeat
53. nning the test Start Docklight by choosing Run gt Start Communication Docklight will now detect any temperature reading and perform the specified action Additional notes on wildcards 1 The wildcard enables the user to check for variable length sequences However an algorithm checking for any possible matching character combination would need to perform an increasing number of sequence comparisons with every additional wildcard This becomes obvious if you replace the based sequence by an equivalent set of sequences that only contain wildcards matches exactly one character A check for Hello World could be replaced by a check for HelloWorld plus Hello World plus HelloWorld plus Hello World Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher Working with Docklight 15 5 7 As can be seen every wildcard doubles the number of comparison operations required Therefore Docklight performs a simplified check The Receive Sequence Hello World will work for HelloWorld or HelloXWorld but will not trigger on HelloW World The reason for this is that since the first W is considered a part of World Docklight forwards its internal search cursor by one The next character expected is an o but the data stream says W again so the comparison algorithm stops here Keep this limitation in mind when defining Receive Sequences with wildcards If you need a
54. o the clipboard and create a new Receive Sequence out of it by pasting it into the Receive Sequence window TIP Try the right mouse button to display a context menu for Cut Copy and Paste operations Notepad The Docklight Notepad is a separate window for writing down additional notes concerning your Docklight project how to use the Send Receive Sequences notes on additional test equipment etc The notepad window can be shown using the F12 key or the menu Tools gt Show Notepad The notepad is a simple text box that does not offer formatting menus or toolbars but you can paste formatted text from the Windowsclipboard The notepad contents are stored along with all other Docklight project settings see saving and loading your project data When opening a Docklight project file the notepad is displayed automatically if project notes are available NOTE Closing the notepad window does not delete your notes They will be still available when you press F12 again To remove all notes empty the text box using Ctrl A Select All and the DEL key Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher Features and Functions 7 4 2 Features and Functions How Serial Data Is Processed and Displayed Docklight handles all serial data in an 8 bit oriented way Every sequence of serial data consists of one or more 8 bit characters Docklight allows you to e display the serial data in either ASCII HEX Decimal or Binary format
55. ogging message when opening closing the log files This is so that when in append mode it is still possible to see when an individual log file session started or ended Representation A separate log file may be created for each data representation ASCII HEX Choose at least one representation The log files will have a txt or htm file extension Docklight additionally adds the representation type to the file name to distinguish the different log files E g if the user specifies Test1 as the base log file name the plain text ASCII log file will be named Test asc txt whereas the plain text HEX log file will be named Test1_hex txt High speed logging If you are monitoring a high speed communication link or if you are running Docklight on a slow computer Docklight may not be able to catch all the transmitted data or may even freeze no response to any user input In this case try disabling the communication window output while logging the data to a file Docklight will run much faster since the display formatting uses considerable CPU time Dialog Find Sequence Menu Edit gt 4 Find Sequence in Communication Window The Find Sequence function searches the contents of the communication window The search is performed in the communication window tab that is currently selected ASCII HEX Decimal or Binary You may however define your search string in any other representation Searching the communication window
56. on data to a plain text file instead of using the communication window s Use the plain text Log File Format Create only a log file for the Representation ASCII HEX Decimal Binary you actually need Disable the communication windows while logging using the High Speed Logging option 3 Use the Communication Filter from the zT Project Settings dialog and disable the original serial data for one or both communication directions This is especially useful if you actually know what you are looking for and can define one or several Receive Sequences for this pieces of data These Receive Sequences can print a comment each time the sequence appears in the data stream so you still know what has happened even if the original serial data is not displayed by Docklight Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher 18 Docklight V1 9 User Manual 05 2009 6 3 How to Obtain Best Timing Accuracy Many RS232 monitoring applications including Docklight can only provide limited accuracy when it comes to time tagging the serial data As a result data from the two different communication directions can be displayed in chronologically incorrect order or several telegrams from one communication direction can appear as one chunk of data This behavior is not caused by poor programming but is rather characteristic for a PC Windows System and the various hardware and software layers involved Unspecified delays and timi
57. onization purposes CAN Controller Area Network A serial bus communication standard originally developed for automotive applications but now widely used in many kinds of distributed embedded systems See also http www can cia org Character A character is the basic unit of information processed by Docklight Docklight always uses 8 bit characters Nevertheless the communication settings also allow data transmission with 7 bits or less In this case only a subset of the 256 possible 8 bit characters will be used but the characters will still be stored and processed using an 8 bit format CRC Cyclic Redundancy Code A CRC is a method to detect whether a received sequence message has been corrupted e g by transmission errors This is done by constructing an additional checksum value that is a function of the message data and then appending this value to the original message The receiver calculates the checksum from the received data and compares it to the transmitted CRC value to see if the message is unmodified CRCs are commonly used because they allow the detection of typical transmission errors bit errors burst errors with a very high accuracy CRC algorithms are based on polynomial arithmetic and come in many different versions Common algorithms are CRC CCITT CRC 16 and CRC 32 An example of an application protocol that uses a CRC is MODBUS over Serial Line A very popular article about CRCs is Easier said than done
58. ons monitoring solution for the USB port Area of Application Monitoring serial communications between two devices Docklight has built in support for the Docklight Tap It recognizes the dual port USB serial converter and offers high speed low latency access to the monitoring data using the Receive Channel syntax TAPO TAP1 see the Docklight Project Settings and How to Obtain Best Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher 42 Docklight V1 9 User Manual 05 2009 Timing Accuracy for details Please see our product overview pages for more information about the Docklight Tap Device 1 Device 2 Sub D9 female Mini USB Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher Glossary Terms Used 43 11 11 1 11 3 11 4 11 5 Glossary Terms Used Action For a Receive Sequence the user may define an action that is performed after receiving the specified sequence Possible actions are e Sending a Send Sequence Only Send Sequences without any wildcards can be used e Inserting a comment A user defined text or an additional date time stamp is added to the communication data window and log file e Triggering a Snapshot e Stopping communication Break A break state on an RS232 connection is characterized by the TX line going to Space logical 0 for a longer period than the maximum character frame length including start and stop bits Some application protocols e g LIN use this for synchr
59. or a Docklight Tap is required to tap the RS232 TX signals of both serial devices and feed them into Docklight while not interfering with the communications between the devices For a Docklight Monitoring Cable setup two COM ports must be available on your PC for monitoring Each port will receive the data from one of the serial devices being monitored For a Docklight Tap setup please make sure you have installed up to date USB drivers FTDI drivers as available on our Docklight Download page e Device 1 and Device 2 must be ready to operate Performing the test A Creating a new project Create a new Docklight project by selecting the menu File gt New Project B Setting the Communication Options 1 Choose the menu Tools gt t Project Settings 2 Choose communication mode Monitoring Alternative 1 Using Docklight Monitoring Cable 3 AtReceive Channel 1 set the COM Port where the monitoring signal from serial device 1 is received At Receive Channel 2 set the COM port for the second device NOTE In Docklight Monitoring Mode all received data from one COM port is re sent on the TX channel of the opposite COM port Data Forwarding This does not have any effect for Docklight Monitoring Cable setups since the TX signal is not connected But it can be useful for special applications where you need to route the serial data traffic through Docklight using standard RS232 cabling If you require a pure passive monitoring behav
60. quences and edit existing ones See also Editing and Managing Sequences Index The index of the sequence displayed below The first sequence has index 0 zero 1 Name Unique name for this sequence e g Ping received This name is for referencing the sequence It is not the sequence received through the serial port See 2 Sequence below 2 Sequence The character sequence which should be detected by Docklight within the incoming serial data 3 Action The action s performed when Docklight detects the sequence defined above You may choose from the following actions e Answer After receiving the sequence transmit one of the Send Sequences Only Send Sequences that do not contain wildcards can be used as an automatic answer e Comment After receiving the sequence insert a user defined comment into the communication window and log file if available e Trigger Trigger a snapshot when the sequence is detected This is an advanced feature described in the section Catching a specific sequence e Stop Stop communications and end the test run Wildcards Wildcards can be used to test for sequences that have a variable part with changing values e g measurement or status values See section Checking for sequences with random characters for details and examples Control Character Shortcuts Using keyboard shortcuts is a great help when editing a sequence that contains both printing characters letters A z digits
61. s is only possible if the communication is stopped You can search for anything that is already defined as a Send Sequence or a Receive Sequence or you may define a custom search sequence NOTE If you are looking for a sequence within the ASCII communication window please remember the following limitations e The Find Sequence function is not able to locate sequences containing non printing control characters ASCII decimal code 32 or other special characters decimal code 127 This is due to the nature of the ASCII display Search using the HEX or Decimal communication window tab instead e In ASCII mode the Find Sequence function will treat date time stamps and any other comments in the same way as regular communication data In HEX Decimal Binary mode all Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher 26 Docklight V1 9 User Manual 05 2009 8 6 8 7 additional information is ignored as long as it does not look like a character byte value Dialog Send Sequence Parameter Type in one or several value s for a Send Sequence with wildcards here As with the Edit Send Receive Sequence dialog you may use control character shortcuts or clipboard functions Parameter No A Send Sequence can contain any number of wildcards Each set of consecutive wildcards is considered a separate parameter The value for each parameter is entered separately Minimum Characters Required For each wildcard exactly one
62. sequence e g Set modem speaker volume This name is for referencing the sequence It is not the data that will be sent out through the serial port See 2 Sequence below 2 Sequence The character sequence that will be transmitted through the serial port 3 Additional Settings Check the Send periodically option to define a sequence that is sent periodically A time interval between 0 01 seconds and 9999 seconds can be specified Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher 24 Docklight V1 9 User Manual 05 2009 8 3 NOTE The Windows reference time used for this purpose has only limited precision Time intervals lt 0 03 seconds will usually not be accurate Wildcards Wildcards can be used to introduce parameters into a Send Sequence that you wish to insert manually each time the sequence is sent See section Sending commands with parameters for details and examples Control Character Shortcuts Using keyboard shortcuts is a great help when editing a sequence that contains both printing characters letters A z digits 0 9 and non printing control characters ASCII code 0 to 31 Predefined shortcuts are Ctrl Enter for carriage return CR decimal code 13 Ctrl Shift Enter for line feed lt LF gt decimal code 10 Use Options gt Control Character Shortcuts to define other shortcuts you find useful Dialog Edit Receive Sequence This dialog is used to define new Receive Se
63. sequence transmit one of the Send Sequences Comment After receiving the sequence insert a user defined comment into the communication window and log file if available Trigger This is an advanced feature described in Catching a specific sequence Stop After receiving the sequence Docklight stops communications 4 Click the OK button to add the new sequence to the list Repeat steps 1 4 to define the other Receive Sequences you need to perform your test E Storing the project Before running the actual test it is recommended that the communication settings and sequences defined be stored This is done using the menu File gt Bl Save Project F Running the test Start Docklight by choosing Run gt EF Start Communication Docklight will open a serial connection according to the parameters specified It will then display all incoming and outgoing communication in the communication window Use the Send button to send one of the defined sequences to the serial device The on screen display of all data transfer allows you to check the device s behavior All protocol information can be logged in a text file for further analysis Please see section Logging and analyzing a test TIP Using the notepad window F12 key menu Tools Show Notepad you can easily take additional notes or copy amp paste parts of the communication log for further documentation Simulating a Serial Device Docklight Software RS232
64. ss all characters will be processed properly by Docklight and can be displayed in HEX Decimal or Binary format Docklight will process the serial data on any language version of the Windows operating system in the same way although the ASCII display might be different For control characters ASCII code 32 an additional display option is available to display their text equivalent in the communication window See Options dialog and Appendix ASCII Character Set Tables Docklight allows you to suppress all original serial data if you are running a test where you do not need to see the actual data but only the additional evaluations generated using Receive Sequences See the Project Settings for Communication Filter Editing and Managing Sequences A Docklight project mainly consists of user defined sequences These may be either Send Sequences which may be transmitted by Docklight itself or Receive Sequences which are used to detect a special message within the incoming serial data Sequences are defined using the Edit Send Sequence or Edit Receive Sequence dialog window This dialog window is opened 1 by choosing Edit from the context menu available using the right mouse button 2 by double clicking on an existing sequence or pressing Ctrl E with the Send Sequence or Receive Sequence list selected 3 when creating a new sequence by double clicking on the blank field at the end of a list or pressing Ctrl E 4 when pasting a
65. t zT Project Settings Choose communication mode Send Receive At Send Receive on comm channel set the COM Port where your serial device is connected Set the baud rate and all other COM Port Settings required Confirm the settings and close the dialog by clicking the OK button on gt gre C Defining the Send Sequences used Define all the responses of your simulator Think of responses when the simulated device is in normal conditions as well as responses when in fault condition In the UPS example mentioned above a battery failure would be such a problem case that is hard to reproduce with the original equipment To test how other equipment reacts to a battery failure define the appropriate response sequence your UPS would send in this case NOTE See Testing a serial device to learn how to define Send Sequences D Defining the Receive Sequences used In most cases your simulated device will not send unrequested data but will be polled from the other device The other device will use a set of predefined command sequences to request different types of information Define the command sequences that must be interpreted by your simulator here For every command sequence defined specify Answer as an action Choose one of the sequences defined in C If you want to use two or more alternative response sequences make several copies of the same Receive Sequence give them a different name e g status cmd answer ok status
66. t applications there will be a pause on the communication bus before a new device starts sending Use the Pause detection option to introduce additional time stamps and make the pauses visible in your communication log Date Time Format Docklight offers time stamps with a resolution of up to 1 1000 seconds 1 millisecond For compatibility to earlier Docklight versions V1 8 and smaller 1 100 seconds is available too NOTE The resulting time tagging accuracy can be considerably different e g 10 20 milliseconds only The actual accuracy depends on your serial communications equipment your PC configuration the Docklight Display Settings see above and the Docklight Expert Options See the section How to Obtain Best Timing Accuracy for details Control Characters Shortcuts Here you can define your own keyboard shortcuts for ASCII Control Characters ASCII code 32 or for any character code 126 Keyboard shortcuts can be used within the following Docklight dialogs and functions e Dialog Edit Send Sequence e Dialog Edit Receive Sequence e Dialog Find Sequence e Dialog Send Sequence Parameter e Keyboard Console For each character from decimal code 0 to 31 and from 127 to 255 you can define a keyboard combination to insert this character into a sequence Shortcut You may also define a letter which is used to display this control character when editing a sequence in ASCII mode Editor Double click to change the val
67. the trigger sequence is located roughly in the middle of the communication window Docklight will then stop communication and position the cursor at the trigger sequence Logging and Analyzing a Test Preconditions e Docklight is ready to run a test as described in the previous use cases e g Testing a serial device or a protocol implementation Logging the test Click on the A Start Logging button on the main toolbar A dialog window will open for choosing log file settings For each representation ASCII HEX a separate log file may be created Choose at least one representation Log files will have a txt or htm file extension Docklight additionally adds the representation type to the file name to distinguish the different log files E g if the user specifies Test as the base log file name the plain text ASCII file will be named Test1_asc txt whereas an HTML HEX log file will be named Test1 hex htm Confirm your log file settings and start logging by clicking the OK button To stop logging and close the log file s click the Stop Logging button on the main toolbar Unless the log file s have been closed it is not possible to view their entire contents Checking for Sequences With Random Characters Receive Sequence Wildcards Many serial devices support a set of commands to transmit measurement data and other related information In common text based protocols the response from the serial device consists
68. this until there are three wildcards for our three digit exposure time The sequence now looks like this elxlel 121217 4 Now add the terminating CR character using the default control character shortcut Ctrl Enter The example sequence now is e xIp 1 1 Ir 5 Click OK to add the new sequence to the Send Sequence list Repeat steps 1 5 to define other commands needed to perform your test NOTE To distinguish a wildcard from a question mark ASCII character decimal code 63 the wildcard is shown on a different background color within the sequence editor C Sending a command to the serial device 1 Use the gt Send button to open the serial communication port and send one command to the serial device 2 The communication pauses and the Send Sequence Parameter dialog pops up allowing you to enter the parameter value In our example an exposure time e g 025 3 Confirm by pressing Enter The sequence is now sent to the serial device Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher Working with Docklight Advanced Features 17 6 2 It is possible to define commands with several parameters using several wildcard areas within one sequence The Send Sequence Parameter dialog will then appear several times before sending out a sequence NOTE If you are using Wildcard you must provide exactly one character for each when sending the sequence For variable length parameters use Wildcard
69. to be tested See the sections on Docklight Tap Docklight Monitoring Cable RS232 SUB D9 Standard RS232 Cables and virtual null modem drivers Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher User Interface 5 3 3 1 3 2 User Interface Main Window The main window of Docklight is divided into four sections 1 Toolbar and Status 2 Send 4 Communication Sequences Window 3 Receive Sequences 1 Toolbar and Status All main Docklight functions may be selected from the Toolbar Additional information about the communication status and the current settings is shown in the status line below it 2 Send Sequences Define edit and manage your Send Sequences here Using the arrow symbol the selected sequence can be sent out immediately Double click on the blank field at the end of a list to create a new sequence The sequence list can be reordered by dragging a sequence to a new position with the left mouse button pressed A context menu right mouse button is available to cut copy or paste entire Send Sequences to from the Clipboard See Editing and Managing Sequences and Dialog Edit Send Sequence for more information 3 Receive Sequences Define edit and manage your Receive Sequences here Double click on the blank field at the end of a list to create a new sequence The Receive Sequence list supports the same reordering and clipboard operations as the Send Sequence list You can also copy a Send S
70. ue of a Shortcut or Editor field Predefined shortcuts are Ctrl Enter for carriage return CR decimal code 13 Ctrl Shift Enter for line feed lt LF gt decimal code 10 Dialog Customize HTML Output This dialog allows you to change the appearance of the HTML log files by modifying the HTML template code that Docklight uses when generating the HTML log file data You need some basic understanding of HTML documents and CSS style attributes We recommend http www htmldog com English or http www selfhtml org German and French for a quick overview on these topics HTML Header Template The HTML document header Here you can change the font applied to the log file data using the following CSS style attributes CSS Style Attribute Description and Example font family Defines one or several fonts or font categories that the HTML browser should use to print a text If the browser does not support Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher 30 Docklight V1 9 User Manual 05 2009 8 12 the first font it will try the second one a s o The last font usually defines a generic font category that every browser supports Examples Font family Courier New Courier monospace Font family Times New Roman Times serif Font family arial helvetica sans serif Specifies the font size Both absolute and relative sizes are possible Examples for absolute font sizes Font size 12pt Font size x
71. und Heggelbacher
72. x small Font size x small Font size small Font size medium Font size large font size x larg font size xx larg Examples for relative font sizes relative to the parent HTML element font size smaller Font size larger Font size 90 NOTE Use the semicolon as a separator between two different CSS style attributes e g font family sans serif font size small NOTE Docklight will insert additional u underline i italic and b bold HTML tags if such formatting options are activated in the Display Settings You do not have to use the font style or font weight attribute to create these effects HTML Footer Template Adds additional footer text and closes the HTML document Data Element Template For every new piece of log file information channel 1 data channel 2 data or a comment text a new span tag with different text color is added to the HTML log file The template code for the header footer and data parts contains Docklight specific wildcards which must not be deleted BACKCOLOR HEADERMSG FOOTERMSG DATA a chunk of the log file data channel 1 data channel 2 data or a comment text 96 The text color to apply for DATA as selected in the Display Settings When generating a log file Docklight replaces the wildcards with the current display settings and the actual communication data Dialog Expert Options Menu Tools Expert Options Expert Options are additiona
73. y window Docklight provides an optional display settings to allow this You can also suppress the control characters except CR and LF for cases when this would clutter your display Display Modes Communication Window Modes By default Docklight will display four representations of the serial data streams ASCII HEX Decimal and Binary You may deactivate some of these modes to increase Docklight s overall performance For example the Binary representation of the data is rarely required Disabling Binary mode for the communication window will considerably increase processing speed Even when turned off for the communication window logging in all formats is still possible See also the Plain Text Output option above Date Time Stamps Adding a Date Time Stamp Docklight adds a date time stamp to all data that is transmitted or received You may choose to insert this date time stamp into the communication window and the log file whenever the data flow direction changes between Channel 1 and Channel 2 Copyright 2009 Flachmann und Heggelbacher Reference 29 8 11 For applications where the data flow direction does not change very often you may wantto have additional date time stamps at regular time intervals For this activate the Clock additional date time stamp option then and choose a time interval On a half duplex line e g 2 wire RS485 changes in data direction are difficult to detect Still in mos

Docklight V1.9 User Manual 05/2009

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