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Docklight V2.1 User Manual 08/2015

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1. 77 11 6 DIE e 77 11 7 Flow Control cc es 77 11 8 HI gpe 77 Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Table of Contents 11 9 MODBUS eec 77 1110 Multidrop Bus MDB ee 78 11 11 Receive SeduenCe MO ers wee Ge De De ae see eed ge Ek 78 11 12 EE EE EE OE N EE OR P 78 11 13 L c T near 79 411 14 L 1 TTT 79 1115 Send Sequence emm 79 11 16 SeduenCe c 80 11 17 Seqgueneeindex eke ks ITI 80 1118 Serial Device Server nein ein 80 11 19 Snapshot ansehen ee ER 80 11 20 TI aec DV Ge DE EGO EG MG GE SE SS Ee Ge GOUE GE Ge vee 80 11 21 ART eko RE GE ee ee Ge KG ee ko ee de Ge Oe le oe Re Ek ik 80 1122 Virtual Null Moden unsere 81 1123 Wildeard siens Ee nannte 81 Index 0 Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Copyright 1 Copyright Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR 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 Produ
2. available for creating dynamic comment texts 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 e Checksum Perform automatic validation of a checksum including any type of CRC standard such as MODBUS CCITT CRC32 Set the Checksum Specification as well as what should be done with the result Detect Checksum OK the received data must have the same checksum than the calculated value from Docklight Checksum Wrong the opposite A mismatching checksum constitutes a sequence match Both OK Wrong the sequence is always detected The checksum area will contain all ASCII 1 HEX 31 for a matching checksum or ASCII 0 HEX 30 for a wrong checksum TIP See Calculating and Validating Checksums for a general overview and Checksum Specification for the text format used to define a checksum 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 0 9 and non printing control characters ASCII code 0 to 31 Predefined shortcuts are Ctrl Enter for carriage return
3. Docklight Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Table of Contents 1 Copyright 5 2 Introduction 6 2 1 Docklieht Overview a 7 2 2 Typical Applications une 8 2 3 System Reduireiments ii ees ss Ed Se ee De cr ie ese ee ce ee N se ee CE OR s ae ede dd ke 9 3 User Interface 10 3 1 Main VOW nie RE ie EE ae ann ehe nenne ee ee 11 3 2 Clipboard Cut Copy amp Paste 11 3 3 Note pat RE y 12 4 Features and Functions 13 4 1 How Serial Data Is Processed and Displayed eere eren 14 4 2 Editing and Managing Sequences uessasssssnnnonsnnnnnsnnnnnnnsnnnnnnnnnnnsnnunssnnnnnnssnnsnnnssnnnnnnnne 14 5 Working with Docklight 16 5 1 Testing a Serial Device or a Protocol Implementation sss ee ess 17 5 2 Simulating a Serial Device nn een RR EV QVEM ann 18 5 3 Monitoring Serial Communications Between Two Devices ee ee eee 20 5 4 Catching a Specific Sequence and Taking a Snapshot of the Communication 22 5 5 Logging and Analyzing a Test nn 22 5 6 Checking for Sequences With Random Characters Receive Sequence Ts fete Td seen TEL AERE 23 5 7 Saving and Loading Your Project Data eeeeeeeee ee eene eene ee eene enne tn enen 25 6 Working with Docklight Advanced 27 6 1 Sending Commands With Parameters Send Seque
4. 98 62 b b Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Appendix 99 63 c c 100 64 d d 101 65 e e 102 66 f f 103 67 g g 104 68 h h 105 69 i T 106 6A j j 107 6B k k 108 6C L 1 109 6D m m 110 6E n n 111 6F O O 112 70 p p 113 71 q q 114 72 r r 115 73 S S 116 74 t E 117 75 u u 118 76 v v 119 77 w w 120 78 x x 121 79 y y 122 7A Z z 123 7B 124 Te 125 7D 126 7E Tilde 127 TE 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 Hot Key Fl Ctrl X Ctrl 4C Ctrl V Del Ctrl A Context specific Hot Keys Docklight menu Menu Function Hotkey Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Appendix Open Projec C tr tr 5 6 r r 12 je Communication Window Function HotKey Clear All Communication Windows tri4 Toggle Between ASCII HEX Decimal and Binary C Tab Representation Send Sequences Receive Sequences List Function Ht Key Delete 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 F8 Notepad Window 10 3 RS232 Connectors
5. Appendix 10 6 Docklight Tap SESE SSS EE EE EE Ol Docklight Tap is a full duplex RS232 communications 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 Use Docklight Monitoring Mode and Receive Channel settings TAPO TAP1 See the Docklight Project Settings and How to Obtain Best Timing Accuracy for details Please also see our product overview pages for more information about the Docklight Tap Device 1 Device 2 Sub D9 Sub D9 female male USB Serial Converter B USB Serial Converter A Mini USB Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Appendix 10 7 Docklight Tap Pro Tap 485 EE Docklight Tap Pro and Docklight Tap 485 are advanced high resolution monitoring solutions for the USB port They are supported by Docklight in a similar way as the Docklight Tap Docklight has built in support for Tap Pro and Tap 485 Use Docklight Monitoring Mode and Receive Channel settings VTPO VTP1 See Docklight Project Settings and How to Obtain Best Timing Accuracy for details Please also see our product overview pages for more information about the Docklight Tap Pro Device 1 Device 2 Sub D9 Sub D9 female male Mini USB Doc
6. 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 8 4 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 logging message when opening closing the log files This is so that when in append mode it is still possible to see when Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR R
7. Choose the menu Tools gt 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 M M a C Defining the Send Sequences to be used You will probably 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 Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Working with Docklight If you want Docklight to react when receiving specific sequences you have to define a list of Recei
8. 22 JR Ring Indicator CH CI Signal Rate Selector i24 JACLK Auxiliary Clock 25 Unassigned RS232 D RJ45 pinout View Top View Front 1 8 8 1 ma to Pin No Signal Name Description 4 ISGND Signal Ground 5 OR O AE Data 6 X transmit Data 8 RIS Request To Send 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 serial device 1 serial device 2 flow control recommended cable handshaking no handshake simple null modem cable signals Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Appendix null modem cable with partial handshaking simple null modem cable but with SUB D9 male connectors on both ends null modem cable with partial handshaking but with SUB D9 male connectors on both ends SUB D9 Simple Straight Cable Area of Application DTE DCE Communication where no additional handshake signals are used protective shielding ground SUB DSfemae SUB D3 male SUB D9 Full Straight Cable Area of Application DTE DCE Communication with hardware flow control using additional handshake signals SUB DSfemae SUB D3 male SUB D9 Simple Null Modem Cable without Handshaking Area of Application DTE DTE Commu
9. 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 8 3 Dialog Edit Receive Sequence ESE EE EE EE EE EE EE EE EE EE EE Ee ey This dialog is used to define new Receive Seguences and edit existing ones See also Editing and Managing Seguences Index The index of the seguence displayed below The first seguence 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 TIP Special Function Characters are available for detecting inter character delays evaluating handshake signal changes or detecting a break state 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 Various comment macros are Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Reference
10. 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 gt 127 not all of these characters can be displayed in the ASCII text window Nonetheless 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 4 2 Editing and Managing Sequences EER DIM E IUE AI TEEN c I sl 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 f
11. 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 Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Appendix 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 DTEinlout 5 _ SGND Signal Ground b 6 DSR DaetaSetReady npu 8 ets ClearToSend input 9 R Ring Indicator input RS232 SUB D25 Pinout View DTE perspective looking into the male connector W 99 94 9 95 9g 9 g 99 AM On is Pas ar Pig M19 ag 994 M22 953 934 ys S 1 booo Protective Shielding Ground Transmit Data 3 RX Receive Data Request To Send Clear To Send 6 DSR Data SetReady 2 8 DCD Data Carrier Detect 9 Resened Z HO JReewd 11 Unassigned Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Appendix Receive Clock 1 EIS BES Request To Send _ EE RN Terminal Read 2 om Remote Loopback Signal Qualify Detector
12. 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 Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Reference 3 Additional Settings e Repeat 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 NOTE The Windows reference time used for this purpose has only limited precision Time intervals 0 03 seconds will usually not be accurate e Checksum Perform automatic calculation of any type of checksum including any type of CRC standard such as MODBUS CCITT CRC32 TIP See Calculating and Validating Checksums for a general overview and Checksum Specification for the text format used to define a checksum 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
13. 0A character at the end of the line The maximum sequence size in Docklight is 1024 characters 11 17 Sequence Index Sa T ei 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 11 18 Serial Device Server T 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 11 19 Snapshot a aaa Creating a snapshot in Docklight means generating a display ofthe 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 11 20 Trigger EE A Trigger is a Receive Sequence with the Trigger 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 11 21 UART M Uni
14. 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 SS Stop Logging button on the main toolbar Unless the log file s have been closed it is not possible to view their entire contents 5 6 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 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 07 30 2012 10 20 08 022 RX temperature 82F lt CR gt 07 30 2012 10 22 10 558 RX temperature 85F lt CR gt 07 30 2012 10 24 12 087 RX temperature 93F lt CR gt 07 30 2012 10 26 14 891 RX temperature 102F lt CR gt 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 tjelm plelrlaltjulrjlej Flir r is the terminating CR Carriage Return ch
15. Sequence 3 Action Comment text box to create Docklight comment texts with dynamic data e g the actual data received Macro Is Replaced By Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Working with Docklight Time stamp for the data received Docklight channel no data direction 1 or 2 for the data received RX The channel name or channel alias that corresponds to the data direction _C E g RX TX or COMBS Receive Sequence List Index see the Dialog Edit Receive Sequence Receive Sequence Name _A The actual data that triggered this Receive Sequence Use ASCII representation Same as _A but in HEX representation Same as _A but in Decimal representation Same as _A but in Binary representation _A 1 4 Extended syntax Insert only the first 4 characters of this Receive Sequence start with Character No 1 sequence length 4 _H 3 1 Extended Syntax Insert everything from the third character until the end of the sequence length 1 Use HEX representation Example For a Receive Sequence as described above t e m p le rja t u rje F r you could define the following comment text New Temp L A 13 3 F Docklight output could then look like this 10 30 2012 10 20 08 022 RX temperature 82F lt CR gt New Temp 82 F 10 30 2012 10 22 10 558 RX temperature 85F lt CR gt New Temp 85 P 10 30 2012 10 24 12 087
16. 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 RS232 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 Bluetooth serial ports GPS receivers virtual null modems Arduino MicroPython pyboard or other Embedded Development environments that add a 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 Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Introduction 2 2 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 s
17. 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 8 8 Dialog Project Settings Flow Control a E Menu Tools gt Project Settings Flow Control Used to specify additional hardware or software flow control settings for serial Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Reference 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 signals are not treated as communication data and will not be displayed in the communication window or logged to
18. at the cursor position Add two wildcards using the popup menu Wildcard matches zero or one character The sequence now looks like this tjelm plelrlaltjulrlel 4 Enter the fixed tail of our temperature string which is a letter F and the terminating lt CR gt character You can use the default control character shortcut Ctrl Enter to enter the lt CR gt ASCII code 13 The sequence is now tjelm plelrlaltlujrje Flr 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 Running 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 wildcards at the end of a Receive Sequence have no effect The Receive Sequence HelloWorld will behave like a Receive Sequence HelloWorld 2 A match inside a match is not returned If a Receive Sequence Hello HHHHWW orld is defined and the incoming data is Hello1Hello2World the Receive Sequence detected is Hello1Hello2World not HelloWorld Receive Sequence comment macros Macro keywords can be used in the Edit Receive
19. 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 cmd answer battery failure status cmd answer mains failure and assign different Send Sequences as an action In the example you Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Working with Docklight 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 ld Save Project F Running the test Start Docklight by choosing Run gt 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 TIP Using the notepad window F12 key men
20. data directions according to your specific use case E g Docklight Device instead of TX RX Or Master Slave instead of TAPO TAP 1 8 10 Dialog Options Menu Tools gt 4 Options Display Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Reference 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
21. 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 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 NOTE There are many COM ports drivers and applications that do not use actual RS232 422 or 485 transmission and do not require any of the RS232 communication parameters In some cases such COM port drivers even return an error when trying to set the RS232 parameters so Docklight would fail to open the COM channel Use the Baud Rate setting None for these applications 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 that 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
22. devices e For low latency monitoring using Docklight Tap One USB port Additional cables or software drivers may be required for connecting the equipment to be tested See the sections on Docklight Tap Docklight Monitoring Cable RS232 SUB D9 Standard RS232 Cables and virtual null modem drivers Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR User Interface User Interface 3 User Interface 3 1 Main Window EE EE ae 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 clic
23. indicator The following section describes how to use the Function Character T F11 key to change the RTS and DTR signals temporarily within a Send Sequence or detect changes for the CTS DSR DCD or RI lines using a Receive Sequence Preconditions Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Working with Docklight Advanced e Docklight is ready to run a test as described in testing a serial device or a protocol implementation e Flow Control Support is set to Manual in the project settings e The Docklight project already contains one or several Send Sequences but there is an additional requirement for changing RTS DTR signals while sending Implementing RTS DTR signal changes For our example we assume that we are using a RS485 converter which requires RS485 Transceiver Control but uses the DTR signal instead of RTS for switching between transmit and receive mode We further assume there is already a Test Send Sequence which looks like this in ASCII mode Tlelslt A Modifying the existing Send Sequence 1 Open the Edit Send Sequence dialog 2 Switch the Edit Mode to Decimal Our Test example looks like this in decimal mode 084 101 115 116 3 Insert an RTS DTR function character at the beginning Press F11 or open the context menu using the right mouse button and choose Function character T RTS and DTR signals The example sequence now reads 084 10
24. open another project Import Sequence List Import all Send Sequences and Receive Sequences from a second Docklight project ld 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 8 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 gt Start communication Open the communication port
25. text This is for example used in MODBUS ASCII Optional Little Endian the resulting checksum value is stored with the least significant byte LSB first Default is Big Endian MSB first Optional Specifies the first character position for storing the resulting checksum value By default Docklight places the checksum result at the end of the sequence data unless you have specified A for ASCII result In this case the results is stored one character before the end so there is still space for a end of line character typically a CR as in MODBUS ASCII M comment You can type in a comment about this checksum specification Remarks startPos len and targetPos support negative values too as a way to specify positions relative to the end of the sequence and not relative to the start of the sequence Examples startPos is 4 start calculating at the 4th last character len is 1 use everything until and including the last character targetPos is 1 first and only byte of the result is stored at the last sequence character position Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Reference targetPos is 2 result is stored starting at the 2nd last sequence character targetPos is 3 result is stored starting at the3rd last sequence character Examples off no checksum MOD256 simple one byte sum on all but the last character CRC MODBUS L MODBUS RTU checksum Lower B
26. the Pause detection display option to insert additional time stamps or line breaks after communication pauses If you require not only visual formatting but need to define actions after a minimum pause or simply make sure the Receive Sequence detection algorithm starts anew after a pause you can add the delay function character to your Receive Sequence definition In most applications the best place for the delay function character will be at the beginning of the Receive Sequence before the actual receive data characters You can also create a Receive Sequence that contains a delay pause definition only and no actual serial data This can be very useful for implementing timing constraints e g resetting the telegram detection after a pause occurred 6 7 Setting and Detecting a Break State SSS Some serial application protocols e g LIN make use of the so called Break state for synchronization purposes Docklight Scripting supports sending a break within a Send Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Working with Docklight Advanced Sequence and detecting a break state using a Receive Sequence definition break signals are added to your sequence definition by inserting a Function Character Jo F10 key A Docklight break signal has a minimum length of 15 nominal bit length Preconditions e Docklight is ready to run a test as described in testing a serial devi
27. 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 EIA 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 Vas Voltage Vas Mark or logical 1 6V to 2V 6V to 200mV Space or logical 0 2V to 6V 200mV to 6V Undefined 2V to 2V 200mV to 200mV Permitted Common Mode Voltage Vcm mean voltage of A and B terminals with reference to signal ground 7V to 7V 11 14 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 main 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 termin
28. time to 25 milliseconds you need to send the following sequence elx p 0 2 5 r r is aterminating 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 elxlpl 12121 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 seguence 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 Enter the fixed part of your command in the Seguence section For our example you would enter the following sequence in ASCII mode elxlpl 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 this until there are three wildcards for our three digit exposure time The sequence now looks like this e x p 121212 4 Now add the terminating lt CR gt character using the default control character shortcut Ctrl Enter The example sequence now is elxlpl 1 1 Ir 5 Click OK to add the new sequence t
29. we choose a single byte checksum at the end of the sequence 01 02 03 04 05 00 4 Goto the Additional Settings Checksum tab and define the checksum Choose MOD256 from the dropdown list for a simple example NOTE Everything behind a character is just a comment You can add your own comments to describe what this checksum is about 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 B Performing the test 6 Use the Send button to send one of the predefined commands Before sending the data Docklight calculates the actual checksum and overwrites the 00 placeholder with the checksum value For our simple example command defined above and a MOD256 checksum one byte sum of all character values the transmitted data looks like this 18 06 2013 11307 25 251 TX 12 03 04 05 QF The placeholder has been replaced by the sum over the message bytes 1 2 3 4 5 15 or Hex OF Using Receive Sequences with automatic checksum validation Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Working with Docklight Advanced A Defining Receive Sequences with checksums 1 Create a new Receive Sequence Enter a Name for the sequence 2 Enter the Sequence data including one or several additional HEX 00 value s as a placeholder for the checksum We use the same single byte placeholder as in the above Se
30. 04 04 This Receive Sequence triggers when the new handshake signal state says DCD High All other handshake signals can have any state NOTE This Receive Sequence will trigger for any change of any handshake signal in case DCD still remains High TIP This extension is also demonstrated in the Docklight Scripting example project Docklight_TapPro_Demo ptp see the folder Extras TapPro in your Samples directory 6 6 Creating and Detecting Inter Character Delays Some applications especially microcontroller applications without a dedicated serial data buffer require an extra delay between individual characters to avoid buffer overflows and allow the microcontroller to execute other code In Docklight you can implement inter character delays by inserting one or several Function Characters amp F9 key in your Send Sequence data followed by a character specifying the desired delay time from 0 01 seconds to 2 55 seconds You can also use the amp delay character inside a Receive Sequence to specify a minimum silent time where no further characters should be received This is useful for detecting pauses in the data stream that indicate the beginning end of a telegram especially for protocols where there is no dedicated start or end character Preconditions e Docklight is ready to run a test as described in testing a serial device or a protocol implementation e The Docklight project already contains one or several Send Se
31. 1 115 116 4 Add the new RTS DTR state as a decimal parameter value see below In our example we need the DTR signal set to high We choose 002 as the parameter value so the sequence is now 002 084 101 115 116 5 Add a RTS DTR function character at the end of the sequence and use 000 as parameter value to reset the DTR signal low The sequence data is now 1002 084 101 115 116 000 6 Click OK to confirm the changes NOTE To distinguish a RTS DTR function character from a exclamation mark ASCII character decimal code 33 the RTS DTR function character is shown on a different background color by the sequence editor NOTE The character after a RTS DTR function character is used to set the RTS DTR signals and is not sent to the serial device see parameter values below B Sending the data with additional DTR control 1 Send the test sequence using the Send button Docklight will now set the DTR signal to high send the ASCII sequence Test and then reset DTR NOTE The RTS DTR indicators will indicate any changes of the RTS or DTR state However in the above example the DTR is set and reset very quickly so the DTR indicator will probably not give any visual feedback If you want to actually see the DTR behavior try introducing a small inter character delay Function character F11 setting RTS and DTR Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbac
32. 1 6 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 11 7 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 software Hardware Flow Control Uses voltage signals on the RS232 status lines RTS DIR 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 11 8 L 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 11 9 MODBUS MODBUS is an application layer messaging protocol that provides client server communications between devices connected on different types of buses
33. 2 116 amp 002 013 Or back in ASCII Mode gl amp Ole amp Olt amp Olr 6 Click OK to confirm the changes e NOTE To distinguish a amp delay character from a regular ampersand ASCII character decimal code 38 the delay function character is shown on a different background color by the sequence editor NOTE The character after a delay function character is interpreted as the delay time and is not sent to the serial device B Sending the command to the microcontroller application 1 Send the modified Send Sequences using the ES Send button Docklight will send out the same data as before but leave additional timing gaps as specified by the delay characters The communication display will show the same communication data as without the delays NOTE Docklight s accuracy for delay timing is limited because it has no control over the UART s internal TX FiFo buffer The specified delay times for the amp delay function character are minimum values Measured delay values are significantly higher because Docklight always waits a minimum time to ensure the UART TX FiFo buffer is empty Also the display format and the additional performance settings affects the timing If you have more specific requirements on Send Sequence timing and need to control the Docklight wait time as well as your UART FiFo settings please contact our e mail support Pause detection using a Receive Sequence Docklight already offers
34. IA 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 15V to 5V 25V to 3V Space logical 0 5V to 15V 3V to 25V Undefined 5V to 5V 3V to 3V The physical characteristics of the RS232 standard are described in the section RS232 Connectors Pinout Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Glossary Terms Used 11 13 RS422 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
35. In Docklight Monitoring Mode all received data from one COM port is re sent on the TX channel ofthe 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 behavior where no TX data appears you can disable the Data Forwarding using the menu Tools gt Expert Options Alternative 2 Using Docklight Tap 3 At Receive 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 4 Set the 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 mo
36. LE Data link escape 17 11 DC 1 XON Device control character 1 18 12 DC2 Device control character 2 19 13 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 pe FS File separator 29 lD GS Group separator 30 1E RS Record separator 31 1F 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 y 40 28 41 29 Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Appendix 42 2A 43 2B 44 2C P 45 2D 46 2E 3 47 2F 48 30 0 Zero 49 31 1 One 50 32 2 Two 51 33 3 Three 52 34 4 Four 53 35 5 Five 54 36 6 six 55 37 7 Seven 56 38 8 Bight 57 39 9 Nine 58 3A 59 3B 7 60 3C lt lt 61 3D 62 3E gt gt 63 3F 64 40 65 41 A A 66 42 B B 67 43 C C 68 44 D D 69 45 E E 70 46 F F 71 47 G G 72 48 H H 73 49 T T 74a AA J J 75 4B K K 76 4C L L 77 4D M M 78 4E N N 79 AF O O 80 50 P P 81 51 Q Q 82 52 R R 83 53 S S 84 54 T T 85 55 U U 86 56 V V 87 94 W W 88 58 X X 89 59 Y ae 90 5A Z Z 91 5B 92 5G N N 93 5D 94 5E A A 95 5F m B 96 60 97 61 a a
37. RX temperature 93F CR New Temp 93 F 5 7 Saving and Loading Your Project Data EE N EE EE EN EE ee ee All project data may be saved in a Docklight project file using the menu File gt ld Save Project or File gt Save Project As The project data includes Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Working with Docklight 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 Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Working with Docklight Advanced Working with Docklight Advanced 6 Working with Docklight Advanced 6 1 Sending Commands With Parameters Send Sequence Wildcards si 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
38. TX 03 04 00 00 00 01 30 28 5 29 2015 18 45 43 392 RX 03 04 02 00 00 CO FO 5 29 2015 18 45 58 724 TX 04 04 00 00 00 Ol 31 9F 5 29 2015 18 45 58 870 RX 04 04 02 04 00 77 FO The RX channel shows the responses from the MODBUS slaves slave 1 responded value 1 slave 2 responded 10000 slave 3 responded 0 and slave 4 responded 1024 NOTE If you are using the Docklight MODBUS example on a RS485 bus you need to check if your RS485 hardware correctly switches between transmit and receive state You might need to use Docklight s RS485 Transceiver Control feature Further Information The CRC calculation is made according to the specifications for MODBUS serial line transmission RTU mode Docklight s checksum function supports a CRC MODBUS model for this purpose See Calculating and Validating Checksums for more general information on implementing checksum calculations If you do not have any MODBUS slave devices available you can use a software simulator See http www modbus org Modbus Technical Resources MODBUS Serial RTU Simulator This simulator was used to produce the sample data shown above Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Reference Reference 8 Reference 8 1 Menu and Toolbar Seay File Menu D New Project Close the current Docklight project and create a new one amp Open Project Close the current Docklight project and
39. 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 8 9 Dialog Project Settings Communication Filter eee Menu Tools gt Project Settings Communication Filter Contents Filter Use this 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 irrelevant for testing and you only need to watch for very specific events These events and related display output can be defined using Receive Sequences Channel Alias This allows you to re label the two Docklight
40. ad Error Correction Equals to CRC 8 07 00 00 No No CRC DOW Calculates an 8 bit width CRC known as DOW CRC or CCITT 8 CRC Can be found in Dallas iButton TM applications Equals to CRC 8 31 00 00 Yes Yes present ec a 16 bit width CRC as designated by CCITT Equals to CRC 16 1021 FFFF 0000 No No CRC 16 Calculates a 16 bit width CRC as used in IBM Bisynch ARC Equal to CRC 16 8005 0000 0000 Yes Yes CRC MODBUS Calculates a 16 bit width CRC as used in MODBUS It is actually a CRC 16 but with an init value of FFFF CRC 16 8005 FFFF 0000 Yes Yes CRC 32 Calculates a 32 bit CRC as used in PKZip AUTODIN II Ethernet FDDI Equal to CRC 32 04C11DB7 FFFFFFFF FFFFFFFF Yes Yes CRC width polynomial Generic CRC computer where all CRC parameters can be init set individually finalXOR reflectedInput width The CRC width from 1 32 reflectedOutput polynomial HEX value The truncated CRC polynomial init HEX value The initial remainder to start off the calculation finalXor HEX value Apply an XOR operation on the resulting remainder before returning it to the user reflectedInput Yes Reflect the data bytes MSB becomes LSB before feeding them into the algorithm reflectedOutput Yes Reflect the result after completing Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Reference GE algorithm This takes places before the final XOR operation Remarks Each
41. al mark logical 1 space logical 0 or disconnected 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 11 15 Send Sequence eee eM M l p 1 p n SESS 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 0A 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 Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Glossary Terms Used Receive Sequence within the incoming data see Action 11 16 Sequence A sequence consists of one or more 8 bit characters A sequence can be any part ofthe serial communications you are analyzing It can consist of printable ASCII characters but may also include every non printable character between 0 and 255 decimal Example ATL2 ASCII format 41 54 4C OD 0A HEX format This sequence is a modem command to set the speaker volume on AT compatible modems It includes a Carriage Return OD and a Line Feed
42. 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 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 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 5 5 Logging and Analyzing a Test EE EE ES EL ALL aS E Preconditions e Docklight is ready to run a test as described in the previous use cases e g Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Working with Docklight 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 Test1 as the base log file name the plain text ASCII file will be named Test1_asc txt whereas an HTML
43. aracter 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 at the end of this section for some extra information on wildcards NOTE See Calculating and Validating Checksums on how to receive and validate checksum data e g CRCs There are no wildcards required for checksum areas instead use some default character values e g 00 00 in HEX representation Preconditions e Docklight is ready to run a test as described in the previous use cases e g testing a Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Working with Docklight serial device 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 Enter the fixed part of your expected answer in the Sequence section For our example you would enter the following sequence in ASCII mode tjelm plelrlaltlujrje 3 Open the popup context menu using the right mouse button and choose Wildcard matches one character to insert the first wildcard
44. ce or a protocol implementation e The Docklight project already contains one or several Send Seguences but signalling or detecting a break state is also required Sending a Break state We assume there is already a Test Send Sequence which looks like this in ASCII mode Tlelslt 1 Open the Edit Send Sequence dialog Insert a Break function character at the beginning Press F10 or open the context menu using the right mouse button and choose Function character break signal The example sequence now reads Tjelslit 3 Click OK to confirm the changes 4 Send the test sequence using the Send button The TX line will go to Space logical 0 for at least 15 bit durations then the Test ASCII sequence will be transmitted The break character does not appear in the communication window display Detecting a Break state Received break signals are not displayed in the communication window because they are not part of the actual data sequence Nonetheless it is possible to define a Receive Sequence including a break function character 1 Create a new Receive Sequence Enter a Name for the sequence Adda Function character break signal for the Sequence data 3 Enter a Receive Sequence Action for example printing the comment BREAK detected 4 Click OK to confirm the changes 5 Start communications Docklight will now add BREAK detected to the communication window display each time a break sig
45. characters it is sometimes helpful to see the names of the occurring control characters in the ASCII mode display 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 ASCIl 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 For applications where the data flow direction does not change very often you may want to 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 difficu
46. 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 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 Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Reference sequence size of 1024 characters gets truncated NOTE The keyboard console is not a full featured terminal and does not support specific terminal 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 8 14 Checksum Specification Checksum specifications are used in Edit Send Sequence and Edit Receive Sequence dialogs See Calculating and Validating Checksums for a general overview checksumSpec Format MOD256 Calculates an 8 bit checksum Sum on all bytes modulo 256 CRC 7 Calculates an 7 bit with CRC used for example in MMC SD card applications This is equal to using the following See the CRC syntax described in the last row for details pe Ern an 8 bit width CRC e g for ATM He
47. cts 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 and 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 amp Heggelbacher Waldkirchbogen 27 D 82061 Neuried Germany http www fuh edv de Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Introduction Introduction 2 Introduction 2 1 Docklight Overview EE EE OE EE N EE EE ee 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 r
48. e comparisons for details and an example Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR
49. ed and Displayed BESEER EE EE EE EE RE EE EE EE EE ee Docklight handles all serial data in an 8 bit oriented way Every seguence 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 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
50. eference 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 Test1_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 8 5 Dialog Find Sequence EE EE EE EE EE EE EE EE rey Menu Edit gt 4 Find Sequence in Communication Window The Find Sequence function searches the contents ofthe 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 windows is only possible ifthe communication is stopped You can search fo
51. ention the modem related COM Ports Go to the 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 Try sending any of the predefined modem commands by pressing the Ed Send button 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 07 02 2013 18 17 54 083 TX ATQOUVIEOSCR2SLE Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Examples and Tutorials 07 02 2013 18 17 54 107 RX ATOOVIEO lt CR gt lt LF gt lt CR gt lt LF gt OK lt CR gt lt LF gt 07 02 2013 18 18200 511 TX ATIZ lt CR gt lt LF gt 07 02 2013 18 18 00 747 RX lt CR gt lt LF gt V 11 10 lt CR gt lt LE gt 13 05 11 lt CR gt lt LF gt RM 721 lt CR gt lt LF gt c Nokia lt CR gt lt LF gt lt CR gt lt LF gt OK lt CR gt lt LF gt 97 02 2013 18 18501 393 TX ATIS lt CR gt lt LE gt 0702 2013 18 18201 421 RX lt CR gt lt LF gt Nokia C2 01 lt CR gt lt LF gt lt CR gt lt LE gt OK lt CR gt lt LF gt Further Information The Send Sequences list includes the following standard AT modem commands Send Sequence Description Modem Response ATQOV1E0 Initializes
52. erial device You may define control sequences recognized by your device send them log and analyze the responses and test the device reaction Docklight PC Simulate a serial device Although rare the possibility 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 r Device 2 d mm mm m m m m Docklight PC Monitor the communication between two devices Insert Docklight into tne 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 Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Introduction Device 2 Docklight PC 2 3 System Requirements Operating system e Windows 10 Windows 8 Windows 8 x64 Windows 7 Windows 7 x64 Windows Vista Windows Vista x64 or Windows XP Additional requirements e For RS232 testing or simulation Minimum one COM port available Two COM ports for monitoring communication between two serial
53. esolve 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 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 unstable 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 8 13 Keyboard Console Ju XM 9e 0 The Keyboard Console tool allows you to send keyboard input directly to the serial port It can be activated using the menu Tools gt d Keyboard Console On The keyboard console is only available for communication mode Send Receive After activating the keyboard
54. etter which is used to display this control character when editing a sequence in ASCII mode Editor Double click to change the value 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 8 11 Dialog Customize HTML Output E 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 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 Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 C
55. he wildcard parameter area has been filled with the actual data then the resulting sequence data is handed over to the send queue 6 2 How to Increase the Processing Speed and Avoid Input Buffer Overflow Messages B M M H sipe 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 f Find Sequence in Communication Window Ctrl F function Docklight will also react slowly to any user input including a 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 P Options dialog Use Plain Text Mode instead of Formatted Text Output If you are using ASCII mode di
56. her GbR Working with Docklight Advanced Decimal Mode OO ftw flow O bo righ tow po ftw Mn o hin Hen Temporary parity changes 9 bit applications Some protocols and applications require a 9th data bit e g for device addressing on a bus The only way to talk to such devices using a standard UART with maximum 8 data bits is to use serial settings that include a parity bit and change this parity bit temporarily within a Send Sequence The function character T supports additional parameter values for this purpose Character Value Parity Pru Mode 016 o Noparity sd a Odd parity 064 Mark Set parity bit to logic 1 Space Set parity bit to logic O The new parity settings are applied starting with the next regular character both on the TX and the RX side The parity is switched back to the original Communication Settings after the Send Sequence has been completely transmitted NOTE The most useful parameters for this function character are the Mark and Space settings because they allow you to set the parity bit to a defined value that effectively serves as a 9th data bit NOTE It is recommended to set the Parity Error Character to ignore so you can evaluate incoming data in both cases 9th bit high and 9th bit low TIP See also the SwitchParityDemo ptp sample project folder Extras ParitySwitch_9BitProtocols in your Samples directory Funct
57. ialog Project Settings Communication eeeeeee ee EE GE Ge AE Ge Ge 51 8 8 Dialog Project Settings Flow Control EE Ge Ee EE GE Ge AE Ge ee 52 8 9 Dialog Project Settings Communication Filter esse sesse ee ee Ge Ge ee ee 00 53 8 10 Dialog Options aan 53 8 11 Dialog Customize HTML Output ees esse sees see EE ee eee Ge AE Ge EE Ge EE Ge AE Ge 55 8 12 Dialog Expert OPEIS a nee 56 8 13 Keyboard Console nee 57 8 14 Checksum Specification ac sn GE ee Se Ge Ge ee EN ee EIE 58 9 Support 61 9 1 Web Support and Troubleshooting uessusssennnnonsenunnsnnnnunnsnnnnnnnsnnnnnnnnnsnnnnnnnsnnn 62 9 2 E Mail SUpport eise PE en 62 10 Appendix 63 10 1 ASCII Character Set Tables i e ss rrr ennenen anana Ge oe ed AR nenen nanas 64 10 2 Hot Keys ea sea aan Ee Osen ana ee ee Ge de ie 66 10 3 RS232 Connectors Pinout scccssccesssccesssecessecesseccessecessneccssneecssceecssseeessseeesseeeeses 67 10 4 Standard RS232 Cables unse 69 10 5 Docklight Monitoring Cable RS232 SUB D9 cesse seen eene eere nennen nnn 72 10 6 Docklieht Tap ana 73 10 7 Docklizht Tap Pro Tap 485 nee 7a 11 Glossary Terms Used 75 11 1 die RE EE EE ER EE EE EE ER EE EE EE ER Ce Pd UP 76 11 2 id OE OK EE EL EE NE EO EN 76 11 3 Character etr dd EE N dd GE NG Ee Pe Ee 76 11 4 jw oT t 76 11 5 DEE e
58. ifferent COM port for each ofthe 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 D New Project B Setting the Communication Options Choose the menu Tools gt 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 a 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
59. ill 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 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 The following types of wildcards are available in Docklight Wildcard F7 Matches exactly one arbitrary character any ASCII code between 0 and 255 Wildcard F8 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 Other placeholders that allow random data Function Character F12 Bitwise comparison This is useful if there are one or several bits within a character which should be tested for a certain value See Function character N F 12 bitwis
60. ing a simple null modem cable 7 3 MODBUS RTU With CRC checksum Sample Project ModbusRtuCrc ptp E The Docklight project file ModbusRtuCrc ptp demonstrates how to automatically calculate the CRC value required to send a valid MODBUS RTU frame The project file uses the communication settings listed below according to the MODBUS implementation class Basic Communication Mode Send Receive Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Examples and Tutorials Send Receive on comm channel COM1 COM Port Settings 9600 Baud Even parity 8 Data Bits 1 Stop Bit Getting started Open the project file ModbusRtuCrc ptp menu amp Open Project The file is located in the Samples folder Connect the PC s COM port to your MODBUS network Open the Project Settings dialog and make sure you have selected the correct COM Port for Send Receive on comm channel e Use the E Send button to read input register no 1 from a slave Enter a slave number in the Send Sequence Parameter dialog e g 01 for addressing slave no 1 After sending Read Input Register commands to slaves 1 4 the communication window could look like this 5 29 2015 18 45 23 193 TX 01 04 00 00 OO 01 31 CA 5 29 2015 18 45 23 342 RX 01 04 02 FF FF B8 80 5 29 2015 18 45 33 145 TX 02 04 00 00 00 Ol 31 F9 5 29 2015 18 45 33 292 RX 02 04 02 27 10 E7 DE 5 29 2015 18 45 43 237
61. ion character F11 detecting handshake signal changes CTS DSR DCD or RI Docklight Scripting detects changes of the handshake signals CTS DSR DCD or RI but in normal operation these changes are not visible in the Docklight Communication Window similar to a Break State Using the function character T you can make these changes visible and or define an action after detecting such changes The function character T supports the following parameter values for this purpose Character Value Handshake Signal Decimal Mode 01 CTS High Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Working with Docklight Advanced DSR High o CD High RI Ring Indicator High Example Receive Sequence definitions in Decimal Edit Mode Receive Sequence Description Decimal Mode 001 triggers when CTS high all other signals low triggers when CTS low DSR high DCD high Ri low triggers on any change of the status lines For the following example we assume that Docklight is ready to run a test as described in testing a serial device or a protocol implementation and Flow Control Support is set to Manual in the project settings A Create a new Receive Sequence for detecting handshake signal changes 1 Open the Edit Receive Sequence dialog Switch the Edit Mode to Decimal 3 Insert a signals function character at the beginning Press F11 or open the context
62. ired 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 8 7 Dialog Project Settings Communication p c w Menu Tools gt 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 VTP A communication channel can be configured as e Serial COM port RS232 RS422 or RS485 e TAP port for Docklight Tap monitoring e VTP port for Docklight Tap Pro or Tap 485 monitoring For serial COM port applications 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 Window
63. k 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 Sequence 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 3 2 Clipboard Cut Copy amp Paste E Docklight supports the Windows clipboard and its Cut Copy and Paste operations Clipboard operations are available in the Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR User Interface Main Window Send Sequences Main Window Receive Sequences Main Window Communication Main Window Script Editor Docklight Scripting only Dialog Edit Send Sequence Dialog Edit Receive Sequence Dialog Find Sequence Dialog Send Sequence Parameter Notepad Keyboard Console You can cut a serial data
64. klight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Glossary Terms Used Glossary Terms Used 11 Glossary Terms Used 11 1 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 11 2 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 synchronization purposes 11 3 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 11 4 J e 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 a
65. les 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 7 1 Testing a Modem Sample Project ModemDiagnostics ptp ETE EE ES a 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 Use the Windows Device Manager to find out which COM Port is a modem device This demo project may be used with any AT compatible modem available on your PC e g a built in notebook modem or a GSM or Bluetooth modem driver than can be accessed through a virtual COM port TIP For a simple test without specialized hardware add your mobile phone as Bluetooth Device on your Windows PC Then find your phone in the Windows Devices and Printers list Right click on it choose Properties and go to the Hardware tab In the Device Functions list it should m
66. lt to detect Still in most 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 Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Reference 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 lt 32 or for any character code gt 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 l
67. menu using the right mouse button and choose Function character V CTS DSR DCD RI changes 4 Add the handshake state as a decimal parameter value see above In our example we want to detect when CTS is high while all other signals are low This means we need to enter 001 as the parameter value so the sequence is now 001 Specifiy a Comment for this sequence e g CTS high DSR DCD RI low 6 Click OK to confirm the new sequence e B Start the test and confirm that Docklight now detects when the CTS line changes from low to high Function character F12 bitwise comparisons The Function Character can be added by pressing F12 in the Edit Receive Sequence dialog After the N character two additional character values specify which bits to check mask and which values to expect for these bits value Receive Sequence Description HEX Mode mask value Is a match for the next character received when the following is true nextCharacterReceived XOR value AND mask 0 In other words the N character picks only the bits marked in mask and compares them with the corresponding bits in value See below for examples OF 05 Is a match when for the next character the following is true Bit 0 lt 1 Bit 1 0 Bit 2 1 Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Working with Docklight Advanced Bit3 0 Bit 4 7 don t care
68. nal is detected NOTE After detecting a break signal an additional lt NUL gt character decimal code 0 may appear in the received data stream This behavior cannot be controlled by Docklight it depends on how the serial UART of your PC s COM port interpretes the break state NOTE If you need to implement a Receive Sequence that checks for a break signal followed by additional data keep in mind that Docklight cannot tell the exact position of the break signal within the data stream The break signal will sometimes show up earlier in the data stream but never later than the actual position To define a Receive Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Working with Docklight Advanced Sequence that safely triggers on break specific data you can use the following workaround Insert some zero or one character wildcards between the break character and the additional data The resulting Receive Sequence could look like this 90 HF FF FT Tle st Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Examples and Tutorials Examples and Tutorials 7 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 V2 1 Samp
69. nce Wildcards 28 6 2 How to Increase the Processing Speed and Avoid Input Buffer Overflow MGCSSABES ee 29 6 3 How to Obtain Best Timing Accuracy sesse ee esse ee ER Ge AE Ge EG AE Ge AE Ge ee 30 6 4 Calculating and Validating Checksums Ee AE Ee EE Ge ee EE Ge GE ee 30 6 5 Controlling and Monitoring RS232 Handshake Signals 32 6 6 Creating and Detecting Inter Character Delays sss sss sss ss ss sss sss ee ee eene ee eene 36 6 7 Setting and Detecting a Break State uuursnsnsnnssnsnnnonsennnnsnnnnnnnsnnnnnnnnnnnsnnnnnsnnnnnnnsnnn 37 7 Examples and Tutorials 40 71 Testing a Modem Sample Project ModembDiagnostics ptp ee 41 7 2 Reacting to a Receive Sequence Sample Project PingPong ptp 42 7 3 MODBUS RTU With CRC checksum Sample Project ModbusRtuCrc ptp 43 Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Table of Contents 8 Reference 45 81 MENU and Toolbar an 46 8 2 Dialog Edit Send Sequenede 1 47 8 3 Dialog Edit Receive Sequence siese KAN Sk Ge Ge ARK dd Ke DPF KA Ke ede de 48 8 4 Dialog Create Lag Files aan ee 49 8 5 Dialog Find Segue sed be enne ennenen ennenen 50 8 6 Dialog Send Sequence Parameter eee sees eese ee esee eene enne nenne neenon nnn 50 8 7 D
70. nd Sequence example 01 02 03 04 05 00 3 Go to the Action Comment tab and enter the following text Correct checksum _H NOTE The _H is a comment macro to re print the actual data received as a Hex string 4 Goto the Checksum tab and pick MOD256 in the left dropdown list Leave the default Detect Checksum OK in the right box 5 Click OK to confirm the changes 6 Right click on the newly created sequence choose Copy and then Paste this immediately so you have two identical Receive Sequences now 7 Double click to edit one of the two Receive Sequences and make the following edits Name change to something like Checksum Error Action Comment change to Checksum error _H Checksum in the right combobox change to Checksum Wrong B Running the test 8 Start communications and send some data telegrams to your Docklight application COM port Example communication output could look like this 18 06 2015 12 43 07 388 RX 01 02 03 04 02 0C Correct checksum 01 02 03 04 02 OC 18 06 2015 12 43 09 876 RX 01 02 03 04 05 OF Correct checksum 01 02 03 04 05 OF 18 06 2015 12 43 11 061 RX O01 02 03 04 05 81 Checksum error DL 02 03 04 05 8L 6 5 Controlling and Monitoring RS232 Handshake Signals The Docklight project settings for Flow Control support offer a Manual Mode that allows you to set or reset the RTS and DTR signals manually by clicking on the corresponding
71. nd 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 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 http www boost org libs crc index html Last not least if you are truly fascinated by CRC alchemy you will sooner or later run Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Glossary Terms Used into the following article A Painless Guide to CRC Error Detection Algorithms by Ross N Williams http www ross net crc 11 5 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 1
72. nication where no additional handshake signals are used Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Appendix prote ctive shielding ground SUB DS3femae SUB DS 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 prote ctive shielding ground SUB DSfemae SUB DS female Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Appendix 10 5 Docklight Monitoring Cable RS232 SUB D9 E 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 To e Dexice2 o or null To modem Device 1 cable Co C SUB D9 male ok without protective shield if cable length is short and not used in EMI polluted area SUB D3femae SUB D9 female To To monitoring monitoring COM port 1 COM port 2 Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR
73. nitoring 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 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 Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Working with Docklight 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 ofthe Tools gt Options dialog TIP The amp Snapshot Function allows you to locate a rare sequence or error condition in a communication
74. o 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 Ed Send button to open the serial communication port and send one command to the serial device Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Working with Docklight Advanced 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 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 matches zero or one character NOTE You cannot use a Send Sequence with wildcards as an automatic answer for a Receive Sequence see Action NOTE If your Send Sequence requires a checksum you can define it as described in Calculating and Validating Checksums The checksum is calculated after t
75. of the predefined CRC algorithms CRC 8 CRC CCITT can be replaced by a specification string for the generic CRC computation CRC 16 as described above We have carefully tested and cross checked our implementations against the common literature and resources as listed in the CRC Glossary Unfortunately there are a lot of CRC variations and algorithms around and choosing not to mention understanding the right CRC flavor can be a rather difficult job A good way to make sure your CRC calculation makes sense is to run it over an ASCII test string of 123456789 This is the most commonly used testing string and many specifications will refer to this string and provide you the correct checksum your CRC should retum when applied on this string Edit Send Sequence Edit Receive Sequence In the Checksum tab choose one of the predefined definition strings from the drop down list or type in your own definition in the following format startPos len checksumSpec A or L targetPos optional user comment with anything inside being an optional part Pat Deo Es Required String that specifies the checksum algorithm and its parameters according to the checksumSpec Format table above Optional Start and length of the character area that is used to calculate the checksum By default everything before the checksum result is used Optional If used the resulting checksum value is converted into a readable ASCII
76. opyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Reference possible Examples for absolute font sizes Font size 12pt font size xx small Font size x small Font size small Font size medium Font size large Font size x large Font size xx large 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 Wildcard BACKCOLOR HEADERMSG FOOTERMSG DATA a chunk of the log file data channel 1 data channel 2 data or a comment text TEXTCOLOR The text color to apply for DATA as selected in the Display Settings When generating a log file Docklight replaces the wildca
77. 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 Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Glossary Terms Used See http www modbus org for a complete specification of the MODBUS protocol 11 10 Multidrop Bus MDB Multidrop Bus MDB is a more exotic RS232 RS485 application used for example in vending machine controllers which requires a 9 bit compliant UART The 9th data bit is used for selecting between an ADDRESS and a DATA mode A way to monitor and simulate such communication links using standard 8 bit UARTs i e standard RS232 to USB converters is to use temporary parity changes See also Wikipedia on MDB and the original MDB 3 0 specification for more information and details 11 11 Receive Sequence a a mT A Receive Sequence is a sequence that can be detected by 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 11 12 RS232 The RS232 standard is defined by the E
78. 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 5 4 Catching a Specific Sequence and Taking a Snapshot of the Communication ETE NIA EC A H 4 t When monitoring serial communications between two devices you might want to test for a rare error 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 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
79. quences but an additional delay at certain character positions is required Sending Data With Inter Character Delays As an example we use a microcontroller application which understands a get command In ASCII Mode the Send Sequence would be glelt r r is a terminating CR Carriage Return character The following steps describe how to add an additional delay of 20 milliseconds between each character and avoid buffer overflows on the microcontroller side A Modifying the existing Send Sequence 1 Open the Edit Send Sequence dialog 2 Switch Edit Mode to Decimal Our get example looks like this in decimal mode 103 101 116 013 3 Insert a delay function character between the first and the second character Press F9 or open the context menu using the right mouse button and choose Function character amp delay The example sequence now reads 103 amp 101 116 013 4 Add the delay time In this example a decimal value of 002 20 milliseconds after the amp function character is added The sequence is now Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Working with Docklight Advanced 103 amp 002 101 116 013 Insert a delay between all other inter character positions the delay character and delay time can be copied using Ctrl C and pasted in the desired positions using Ctrl V Our example sequence finally reads 103 amp 002 101 amp 00
80. r 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 lt 32 or other special characters decimal code gt 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 additional information is ignored as long as it does not look like a character byte value 8 6 Dialog Send Sequence Parameter TE SS n 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 character is required Therefore the minimum number Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Reference of characters requ
81. rds with the current display settings and the actual communication data 8 12 Dialog Expert Options Menu Tools gt Expert Options Expert Options are additional settings for specialized applications with additional requirements e g high time tagging accuracy Performance Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Reference 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 will be 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 unresponsive to user input To r
82. rom 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 new sequence into the sequence list Docklight supports the use of wildcards e g wildcard as a placeholder for one Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Features and Functions 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 Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Working with Docklight Working with Docklight 5 Working with Docklight 5 1 Testing a Serial Device or a Protocol Implementation Docklight PC 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 D New Project B Setting the Communication Options
83. s and enable serial data transfer Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Reference E Stop communication Stop serial data transfer and close the communication ports 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 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 amp Stop Snapshot Mode Abort a snapshot and reenable the communication window display d Keyboard Console On Enable the keyboard console to send keyboard input directly 53 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 8 2 Dialog Edit Send Sequence pM 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 sequence e g
84. s 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 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 Monitoring the Docklight Tap is plugged in and the Docklight Tap USB device drivers are installed properly For Docklight Tap Pro or Tap 485 monitoring choose VTP ports e g VTPO VTP1 Setting Examples The channel is connected to a serial COM port Use the dropdown list to see all COM ports available on your PC from the Windows operating system The channel is connected to one of the Docklight Tap monitoring data directions The TAP connections are only available if Communication Mode is set to Monitoring the Docklight Tap is plugged in and the Docklight Tap USB device drivers are installed properly Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Reference The VTPx channel is connected to one ofthe Tap Pro Tap 485 monitoring data directions similar to the Docklight Tap application using TAPx settings 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
85. s system and the various hardware and software layers involved Unspecified delays and timing 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 gt 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 doc
86. sable the Control Characters Description option 2 Log the communication 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 Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Working with Docklight Advanced actually need Disable the communication windows while logging using the High Speed Logging option 3 Use the Communication Filter from the 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 6 3 How to Obtain Best Timing Accuracy A 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 Window
87. 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 to 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 3 3 Notepad E SS Sy The Docklight Notepad is a separate window for writing down additional notes conceming 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 Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Features and Functions Features and Functions Features and Functions 4 1 How Serial Data Is Process
88. the query AT GMM Model identification ITU V 250 recommendation is not supported by all modems AT FCLASS Fax classes supported by the modem if any AT CLS Shows whether the 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 7 2 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 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 e Now press the Eed Send button for either of the two Send Sequences Communication is started and the Send Sequence is transmitted It will of course be Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Examples and Tutorials 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 o
89. 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 gt Show Notepad you can easily take additional notes or copy amp paste parts of the communication log for further documentation 5 2 Simulating a Serial Device L Device 2 mm mm m m m m m Docklight PC Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Working with Docklight 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 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 d
90. u Tools gt Show Notepad you can easily take additional notes or copy amp paste parts of the communication log for further documentation 5 3 Monitoring Serial Communications Between Two Devices Docklight Tap Device 2 Docklight PC Preconditions e A Docklight Monitoring Cable 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 Device 1 and Device 2 must be ready to operate Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Working with Docklight Performing the test A Creating a new project Create a new Docklight project by selecting the menu File gt D New Project B Setting the Communication Options 1 Choose the menu Tools gt Project Settings 2 Choose communication mode Monitoring Alternative 1 Using Docklight Monitoring Cable 3 At Receive 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
91. umentation 6 4 Calculating and Validating Checksums I Many communication protocols include additional checksum fields to ensure data integrity and detect transmission errors A common algorithm is the CRC Cyclic Redundancy Code which is used in different variations for different protocols The Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Working with Docklight Advanced following step by step example describes how to set up on the fly checksum calculation for a Send Sequence and how to enable automatic validation of a checksum area within a Receive Sequence TIP For a working example to address a MODBUS slave device see the tutorial MODBUS RTU With CRC checksum Preconditions You know the checksum specification for the protocol messages e Which area of the sequence data is guarded by a checksum e Where is the checksum located Usually at the end of the sequence e What checksum algorithm should be used Most likely one of the standard CRC types or a simple MOD256 sum Using Send Sequences with automatic checksum calculation A Defining Send Sequences that include a checksum 1 Create a new Send Sequence Enter a Name for the sequence 2 Enter the Sequence part of your message in the Sequence section We use a very simple message as an example here 01 02 03 04 05 3 Now add one or several additional HEX 00 value s as a placeholder for the checksum In our example
92. unning Windows 10 Windows 8 Windows 7 Windows Vista or Windows XP 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 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
93. ut another sequence As a result Docklight will send out alternating Send Sequences Ping and Pong e Use the B Stop communication button to end the demo The Docklight communication display should look similar to this 37 872009 16 25244 201 TX ase Ping 3 8 2009 16 25 44 216 RX o Ping Ping received 3 8 2009 16 25 44 218 TX Base Fong 3 8 2009 16 25 44 233 RX o Pong Pong received 37872009 162252442236 TX rag Bing 3 8 2009 16 25 44 251 RX o Ping Ping received 3 8 2009 16s 25244254 TX see Fong 3 8 2009 16 25 44 268 RX o Pong Pong received 3 87 2009 16 25 42 271 TX Eseg Ping 3 8 2009 16 25 44 286 RX o Ping Ping received 3 8 2009 16 25 44 289 TX Base Pong 3 8 2009 16 25 44 303 RX o Pong Pong received 23 8 2009 16 25 44 307 TX 6 Ping 3 8 2009 16 25 44 322 RX o Ping Ping received 378720093 16 25 442 324 TX 83 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 Use two PCs and run Docklight on each PC Connect the two PCs us
94. ve Sequences 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 Edit the 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 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 N 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 El Save Project F Running the test Start Docklight by choosing Run gt 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 Ed Send button to send one of the defined seguences to the serial device The on screen display of all data transfer allows you
95. versal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter The UART is the hardware component that performs the main serial communications tasks Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Glossary Terms Used 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 11 22 Virtual Null Modem Wes ss EE EE EE EE EE EE EE mann jf 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 connections 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 w
96. yte first Little Endian CRC MODBUS A 5 MODBUS ASCII checksum returned as text 1 3 CRC 16 10 CRC 16 checksum over the first 3 bytes 2 5 CRC 8 07 00 00 No Yes CRC with custom non standard spec Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Support 9 Support 9 1 Web Support and Troubleshooting e For up to date FAQs and troubleshooting information see our online support pages available at http www docklight de support 9 2 E Mail Support a m7f 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 Docklight V2 1 User Manual 08 2015 Copyright 2015 Flachmann und Heggelbacher GbR Appendix Appendix 10 Appendix 10 1 ASCII Character Set Tables 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 OA LF Line feed 11 OB VT Vertical tab 12 OC FF Form feed 13 OD CR Carriage return 14 OE so Shift out 15 OF SI Shift in XON resume output 16 10 D

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