-------------------------Monitor------------------------ The Newsletter for PC-Based Data Acquisition and Control Issue 83 www.windmill.co.uk June 2005 --------------------ISSN 1472-0221---------------------- Welcome to the Midsummer (or Midwinter) edition of Monitor. This month some tips on troubleshooting an RS232 connection using free software and a bent paperclip. We hope you find the newsletter useful, but should you wish to cancel your subscription you can do so at https://www.windmill.co.uk/newsletter.html CONTENTS ======== * Troubleshooting RS232 Connections * Excel Corner: Conditional Formatting ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Troubleshooting RS232 Connections: Steps to take when you cannot get data from your instrument ________________________________________________________ See also - Troubeshooting notes here You've plugged your instrument into your computer's COM port, installed your data acquisition software, but no data appears. You suspect it is a problem with your RS232 communications. What do you do? 1. Obtain RS232 Troubleshooting Software You can download ComDebug, our free RS232 troubleshooting software, from the web at https://www.windmill.co.uk/serial.html This provides many features which let you detect, and correct, communication errors. If you can't immediately obtain data with ComDebug, read on. 2. Find Communication Details: Baud Rate etc. Obtain all the information available about your instrument or device. You will need to know the baud rate, number of bits in the data byte and parity. If you have information about the stop bits then use it, otherwise set them to 2. This will at worse slow the message down slightly. 3. Send a Message If you can persuade your device to send a message, perhaps a power on message or a message that can be initiated by a button press, then do so. This will verify your signal connections. At this stage you should select the no handshake option when setting up the COM Port. If you still can't receive any data, you may have a COM port or a wiring error. Use ComDebug's COM Port Status window to check the state of the lines to and from the computer, and see points 4, 5 and 6 below. 4. Check the COM port is Working Correctly This tip works if your instrument is a DTE computer type with a 9-pin connector. (See Issue 42 of Monitor, https://www.windmill.co.uk/monitor42.html, for more on DTE type instruments). Disconnect the RS232 cable from your instrument. Check it has a socket on the free end. Unravel a paperclip, insert one end into the pin 2 hole on the cable socket and the other into the pin 3 hole. (Pin 1 is to the right of the long edge, pin 2 is next to it.) When you now send a message it should echo back to the computer and you can confirm that messages are arriving at your instrument. 5. Check the Cabling If you suspect a wiring error, you could try contacting the manufacturer of your instrument to see if they sell the correct cable. Sartorius devices, for example, won't work with a standard RS232 cable and you need to either purchase a cable from the company or re-wire the connections. If your instrument is a DTE computer type, you may need a Null Modem adaptor. (See https://www.windmill.co.uk/monitor42.html, for more on Null Modems, DTE type instruments and pin connection names.) Alternatively, you may want to try rewiring the cable connector yourself When wiring the cable yourself, the first signals to connect are the ground, RXD and TXD. Try to establish, from your device's documentation, which signal wire carries its output data - connect this to the computer's RXD. The signal which inputs data to your device should be connected to the computer's TXD. Don't rely on the signal names, remember the signals can be either inputs or outputs depending on whether your device is a computer or modem type. It's not unusual for Instrument Manuals to neglect this vital information, but you may be able to get a clue from other signals. For instance if the manual says that DTR is an output then the instrument should be a computer type. If on the other hand it says that DSR is an output then it should be a modem type. In fact if you know the direction of any one of the signals you should be able to deduce the rest. Be careful when doing this: we have encountered manufacturers who change the names of the data signals when dealing with modem types - after all it must be confusing to tell a user that Transmitted Data is an input! If the signals are correctly named then a computer to modem link connects TXD to TXD and RXD to RXD. A computer to computer link (more common when dealing with instruments) connects TXD to RXD and RXD to TXD. This crossed arrangement is sometimes called a Null Modem connection, and buying an adaptor may solve your wiring problems. If all else fails you can determine which data signal is the output by measuring the unconnected data lines with a voltmeter or using one of the plugs with built in LED indicators which show the line state. The output signal will be at a definite negative voltage, properly -12 Volts or more. The input line will be close to 0 Volts. The only time this strategy will fail is if your device is of the multidrop variety. These only drive the output line for the duration of the transmitted message. 6. Set Hardware Handshaking or Flow Control If you are confident that the signal wires are properly connected, but you still can't retrieve a message from your instrument, you may need to tie the handshake lines. Handshake arrangements can be used for two purposes. Firstly the computer can prevent the device from sending data when it is not able to receive it. Secondly the device can prevent the computer from sending data when it is not ready for it. The fact that your device comes equipped with inputs and outputs that can be used for handshaking is no guarantee that handshaking is needed. The signals are often provided simply because the processor used in the device provides them, so the manufacturer feels he may as well put them on the plug. It is usually best to start with the intention of tying any potential handshake lines to fixed voltages so that they do not affect operation. In fact many manufacturers add tying resistors to handshake lines so that if you do not want to use them you simply make no connection. If you start with no handshaking what symptoms might indicate that it really is needed? Well one possibility is that the computer misses part of a message because its input buffer overflows. In COMIML the buffers are 3000 bytes long so you are unlikely to be bothered by this problem. The other possibility is that the device misses part of a message sent by the computer. This will presumably cause the device not to operate as desired. If you do decide that handshaking must be used then the ComDebug software uses DTR / CTS handshaking. This means that the computer uses its DTR output to indicate when it is able to receive data and its CTS input can be controlled by the device to prevent transmission of data from the computer. Once you select the hardware handshake option the state of the CTS input to the computer becomes important. When hardware handshake is not selected the CTS line state is ignored, the DTR output however is maintained permanently high so you can use it to tie unused inputs on your device. 7. Set Software Handshaking or Flow Control Xon \ Xoff Handshaking is a software protocol that is often used to control data flow. Supposing that the computer were sending data to a device which could accept no more data for the time being - the device would send the single Xoff character to the computer which would stop sending data until it received an Xon character to restart transmission. The same arrangements would apply for the reverse direction of data flow. If your device requires this type of handshaking then simply select it in ComDebug. 8. Other Ideas If you've assured yourself that the cabling is fine the problem may be with the way the software is set up. For Windmill LabIML or COMIML check that you have set the parsing correctly. See the Windmill Help files for more details. You can download the latest versions of the Help files from https://www.windmill.co.uk/help.html Further Reading =============== Monitor 42: The Ins and Outs of COM Ports https://www.windmill.co.uk/monitor42.html Windmill COMIML Serial Device Driver https://www.windmillsoft.com/daqshop/rs232-modbus.html Technical Support FAQ https://www.windmill.co.uk/techsupp.html Interfacing your Device to the PC https://www.windmill.co.uk/software.html#technicalsupport Windmill Setup File Library https://www.windmill.co.uk/serial_driver.html ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Excel Corner: Conditional Formatting ________________________________________________________ You can tell Excel 97 (and later versions) to automatically format a cell - applying a font colour or cell shading for example - when a specified condition is true. To do this 1. Select the cells to monitor. 2. From the Format menu select Conditional Formatting. 3. Choose your conditions. For example, values greater than 30. 4. Choose your formatting options. For example, colour the cell red. In this way you can set up to 3 format conditions for each cell. For example, if a value is between 20 and 30 you could show the text in blue and if it is over 30 you could show the text in red. When you set several conditions, only the first condition which is true is used. So, if you set values over 20 to be blue and values over 30 to be red, a value of 31 will be shown in blue. Because the first condition has been met the others are not evaluated. To cope with this either... 1. Put your conditions in the right order. That is to say, put the values over 30 in red condition first. 2. Define your conditions precisely. Use "between" rather than "greater than". Customise the Conditions ======================== You are not restricted to the built-in conditions that Excel offers. You can instead use your own formula. In the Conditional Formatting dialogue, instead of using "Cell Value Is" select "Formula Is". Your formula should return a value of either True (non-zero) or False (zero). If your formula returns True, that format condition is applied. If the formula returns False, the format condition is not applied, and the next (if any) format condition is tested. Using custom formulas means that you can change the format of one cell based on the value of another. For example, if you want A3 to appear in red if cell B3 is greater than 20, you can use =B3>20 as the custom formula. Cell references in a custom formula are relative. So if you applied =B3>20 to cells A3 to A10, cell A4 would have =B4>20 and so on. If, instead, you wanted to compare all the A cells to cell B3 - you would use =$B$3>20 You cannot access other worksheets directly with your custom formula. However, you can access named range of cells on another worksheet. Don't Get Carried Away ====================== Applying a conditional format is the same as adding one or more formulas to the cell. Be careful when applying to large numbers of cells as it may degrade performance. Further Reading =============== For tips on automatically logging data with Excel see https://www.windmill.co.uk/excel/ For tips on charting with Excel see https://www.windmill.co.uk/excel/excel-charting.html For how to use a macro to highlight out-of-range data see https://www.windmill.co.uk/monitor78.html ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ * Copyright Windmill Software Ltd * Reprinting permitted with this notice included * For more articles see https://www.windmill.co.uk We are happy for you to copy and distribute this newsletter, and use extracts from it on your own web site or publication, providing the above notice is included and a link back to our website is in place. An archive of previous issues is at https://www.windmill.co.uk/newsletter.html and an index of articles at https://www.windmill.co.uk/newsletter.html Windmill Software Ltd, PO Box 58, North District Office, Manchester, M8 8QR, UK Telephone: +44 (0)161 834 6688 Facsimile: +44 (0)161 833 2190 E-mail: monitor@windmillsoft.com https://www.windmill.co.uk/ https://www.windmillsoft.com/
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