How Serial Data Is Processed and Displayed

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How Serial Data Is Processed and Displayed

Docklight handles all serial data in an 8 bit-oriented way. Every sequence of serial data consists of one or more 8 bit characters. Docklight allows you to

display the serial data in either ASCII, HEX, Decimal or Binary format

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.

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 --> Date/Time Stamps

 

Docklight is able to process serial data streams containing any ASCII code 0 - 255 decimal. Since there are non-printing control characters (ASCII code < 32) and different encodings for ASCII code > 127, not all of these characters can be displayed in the ASCII text window. 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.