When you launch the application, you will see the following:
RS232 Data Logger features the most simple and intuitively understood interface. All that you have to do is to select the serial port, specify the file to redirect to, define the serial port's parameters and click "Start logging" button.
Here you may see the list of available serial ports in your system as well as the logging status (whether the communication data is redirected into a file already). RS232 Data Logger does not differentiate virtual and real serial ports.
"Log file" setting is the text field with the name of the file where the communication data will be redirected to and "Open file" button that invokes "Open file" dialog to select the destination text file. Please, note that after selecting the file you must click "Start logging" button in order to start the logging process.
This option defines whether the communication data should be appended to the end of the existing file or content of the file should be cleared to start writing from the beginning.
This group of options allows you to select the communication parameters to match serial port you want to log. Please, note that specifying incorrect values will result in a failure to log the data.
Baudrate is a rate at which bits are transmitted (bits per second). In the serial port context, "9600 baud" means that the serial port is capable of transferring a maximum of 9600 bits per second. RS232 Data Logger supports all standard baud rates (100, 300, 600, 1200, 2400, 4800, 9600, 14400, 19200, 38400, 57600, 115200, 128000, and 256000 bits per second).
Data bits option specifies the number of data bits to transmit. Usually, the transferred bits include the start bit, the data bits, the parity bit (if used), and the stop bits. However, only the data bits carry useful information. You can configure Data bits to be 5, 6, 7, or 8. Data is transmitted as a series of five, six, seven, or eight bits with the least significant bit sent first (little-endian). At least seven data bits are required to transmit ASCII characters. Eight bits are required to transmit binary data. Five and six bit data formats are used for specialized communication equipment.
Parity specifies the parity checking type. Parity can be one of the following: none, odd, even, mark, or space. If Parity is none, parity checking is not performed and the parity bit is not transmitted. If Parity is odd, the number of mark bits (1s) in the data is counted, and the parity bit is asserted or unasserted to obtain an odd number of mark bits. If Parity is even, the number of mark bits in the data is counted, and the parity bit is asserted or unasserted to obtain an even number of mark bits. If Parity is mark, the parity bit is asserted. If Parity is space, the parity bit is unasserted.
Stop bits option defines the number of bits used to indicate end of a byte. Stop bits could be 1, 1.5, or 2, however almost all contemporary devices are configured to 1 Stop bit.
Flow control defines the Flow control type. Flow control is usually used to ensure that the receiving serial port device can handle all of the incoming data sent to it. RS232 Data Logger provides the following values you can assign to Flow control: Xon/Xoff (commonly used for asynchronous communication), Hardware and None.
RS232 Data Logger offers two counters: "Bytes received from port" and "Total bytes in file" that display real-time information about data received from the selected port and total bytes in the logging file respectively. This information is useful to check whether the communication data is correctly logged. The serial port status is shown at the corresponding field below.
This button enables the logging process for the selected serial port. Once the serial port is opened, "Start logging" button's caption will be changed to "Stop logging".
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