Universal Serial Data Monitor Copyright(c)1999,2000 Version 3.2 USDM is a Windows PC based RS232/serial data protocol analysis software application designed for technicians, engineers, programmers, and students. Designed to display and record high speed serial data using the PC serial port. USDM is a Windows based application designed to run under Windows3.1, Windows95, Windows98 and Windows NT. Requirements: 80386 or higher, RS232 Serial Port(s), Serial Cable, Windows 3.1/95/98/NT, Vbrun300.dll Shareware: USDM is Shareware. The File Saving function and Dual Port operation have been disabled in the unregistered version. However the unregistered version will function as a single port serial data viewer and will verify serial port and RS232 signal line operation. You may use it for 30 days. After 30 days you must register the program or delete it. Upon registering USDM you will be sent an unlock code by email that will enable all features and eliminate the registration reminders. As a registered user you are also entitled to three months tech support. Installation: With Windows File Manager or Explorer create a new directory and unzip the file USDM32.zip into the new directory. All files associated with USDM will be in this directory except for vbrun300.dll which should already be in your Windows system directory. USDM can now be started by double-clicking the USDM.exe file. Alternately USDM can be started from a Win3.1 program manager icon or Win95/98 desktop shortcut. From the Program Manager select "File" then "New" then "New Item" or Right click the mouse and select "Create Shortcut" and navigate to the USDM directory and select the USDM.exe file and click "OK. Installation Note: When running the program for the first time, If you get an error message stating; "This Program Requires Vbrun300.dll" Go to the USDM home page "http://www.angelfire.com/biz5/USDM" and download a copy. Or it can be easily found on the Web by typing in "Download Vbrun300.dll" in any search engine. Simply unzip and copy it to the USDM directory or the Windows system directory. Uninstallation: Simply delete the entire directory where USDM resides and it will leave no trace. Features: Customizable display colors Screen and text colors can be customized to reduce eye strain and create a customized appearance. From the Controls menu select Display. Click on the colored fields to select screen and text colors. Click the OK button to save and enable the settings. Resizable display The application display can be resized to suit the user and will retain the settings, supports 640x480, 800x600, and 1027x768 resolutions. Toolbar A graphical toolbar with clickable icons for access to the most used functions. Main Screen (Top Left) Displays incoming data. Data can be copied and pasted to the clipboard. Snap Screen (Top Right) Used as an online scratch pad. When the Snap icon is clicked the data in the main window is copied and frozen in the Snap window. This will allow the user to examine data without ending the monitoring session. Status display (Bottom Right) Bar graph style status indicators to monitor the Port Buffer/s (Kb), Data Throughput (Cps), Logfile Size (Kb), and Time Online (Hr/Mn). RS232 line signal display (Bottom) Led style indicators to monitor the RS232 signal activity of the standard Rts/Cts/Dsr/Dtr/Dcd/Ri control lines. When using the dual port option, RS232 signal detection occurs on the Com Port designated as "Port A". When analyzing a standard DTE/DCE link "Port A" should be connected to DTE. Also displayed are Online status, Scheduler running and Limiter enabled. Automated Log file handling USDM automatically opens and names a new log file at the beginning of each monitoring session. The filename is based on the start time and date. Re: A log made on 5/9/99 @ 13:00 would be named 05091300.txt. In this way log files when viewed with Windows File Manager or Explorer, the last log file always appears at the bottom of the group. If more than one log file is made within one minute, it will be appended (added) to the first file started with that filename. All log files are saved in the USDM directory. Log file size limiter The user can choose to limit the size of the log file to a preset maximum as log file sizes may become very large in some cases. From the Controls menu select Limiter. Select or enter the maximum desired size of the log file. Check the enable box to enable the limiter. Log Scheduling USDM can be programmed to Start and Stop at specific times. From the Control menu select Scheduler. Select or enter the desired Start and Stop time. Check the enable box to enable the Scheduler. The scheduler and limiter can be used together. USDM must be running and/or minimized for the scheduler to work. USDM can run in the background allowing other applications to execute. Control Data Options: Custom Control Codes This option allows the user some control over the formatting of data as it is being written to the screen and the log file. This is useful in packet type communications where recurring character/s indicate the start or stop of a packet or line. This option is not enabled for ASCII data since normal ASCII control codes: (carriage return),(linefeed), and (backspace) etc. are executed normally when encountered. (+CR+LF or Start Chr) Characters entered in this field, when encountered will trigger a carriage return and line feed before it is displayed causing the character to always appear in the first column of a new line. Characters that indicate the start of a packet or line should be entered here. This character will also trigger a timestamp event if timestamping is enabled. (CR+LF+ or Stop Chr) Characters entered in this field, when encountered will trigger a carriage return and line feed after it is displayed causing the character to always appear in the last column of the line. Characters that indicate the end of a packet or line should be entered here. Note Valid Control Code entries are: (0-255) Decimal or (00-FF) Hex. Any other entries will not trigger the event and will be ignored. If Inverse data is selected, detection occurs after the inversion process. Time stamping Timestamping if enabled is executed each time the screen cache is filled or when a +CR+LF (Start Chr) is recieved. This conserves CPU time and since the Screen Cache is adjustable the user controls time stamp activity. Screen Cache This setting controls the amount of data that is cached before writing to the screen and log file. As with any Windows application that displays large amounts of data, much of the CPU time is used to write to the screen. This option allows a predetermined amount data to be stored(cached) before it is saved to disk and displayed. This will allow more time to service the Port Buffer and process characters, resulting in higher overall throughput. Polling intervals This setting controls the frequency at which the Port Buffer is checked for incoming data. If data is found in the buffer it is retrieved and and stored in the screen cache to be logged and displayed once the screen cache is filled. Note The Screen Cache size and Polling Interval can have a pronounced effect on the performance of USDM. High sustained data rates may require a large cache while intermitant data will allow a smaller cache. Under ideal conditions the Port Buffer should stay below 1k and even go down to 0 kb. The default settings button should provide good overall performance. Data Types USDM captures and displays ASCII, DEC, HEX, BINARY, Inverse BINARY and Inverse HEX data. ASCII: Displays normal ASCII text. All ANSI control codes are executed. DEC: Displays raw decimal data. (000-255) HEX: Displays raw hexidecimal data. (00-FF) BINARY: Displays raw binary data. (00000000=11111111) Inverse BINARY: Displays raw inverse binary data. (00000000-11111111) Inverse HEX: Displays raw inverse hexidecimal data. (00-FF) Note Inverse data is data that is reversed: (LSB first and MSB last) and inverted (1=0, 0=1). This type of data is used by many microcontrollers and non-PC type devices. Although the data is processed in the same way at the serial port, it is displayed and logged as inverse data. Port Settings USDM supports all standard port settings plus all standard and non-standard baud rates from 110 to 115200 baud allowing the user maximum flexibility. Valid selections Porta: Com1-Com4 IRQA: IRQ3-IRQ10 Portb: Com1-Com4 IRQB: IRQ3-IRQ10 Baud: 150-115200 baud Databits: 5-6-7-8 Parity: None-Even-Odd-Mark-Space Stopbits: 1 or 2 From the Pulldown Menu or Toolbar select Port Settings. Then use the Scroll buttons to select the Comport settings. Then click the Ok button to save the settings and exit, or select Cancel to exit without changing settings. Notes: USDM was designed for experienced communications developers. The user must ensure the port or ports opened by USDM are not already in use. When using two ports together it may be necessary to assign non standard IRQ lines to one or both ports. Example: On a standard IBM PC or compatible Com1 & Com3 use IRQ4 and Com2 & Com4 use IRQ3. In order to use Com1 and Com3 or Com2 and Com4 together the user must assign a different IRQ to one of the ports. The user must ensure that the IRQ assigned to the port is not being used by another device. Also USDM expects the port hardware to generate the correct IRQ. Consult your serial card manual for instructions on how to change IRQ's. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.