NEW FOREST ELECTRONICS

This PC application is a tool to monitor and display asynchronous serial data. It can also transmit messages and monitor and set control lines. It has comprehensive triggering facilities, and runs on Windows 95 or later.

Displays asynchronous bidirectional (2 COM ports needed) data on any combination of COM ports (COM1-COM16) Supports all standard speeds (110 to 115200 bps) and port settings Three display modes - Hex/ASCII, TTY, Protocol Displays CTS, DCD, DSR and RI inputs RTS and DTR can be set as required Comprehensive programmable triggering Time stamping (on a per line basis) A library of up to 100 strings can be created, for transmit and triggering purposes Data can be transmitted as key press or string Received data can be logged to file or printer Configurations can be saved to disk Monitors RS232 data if a standard PC COM port is used Can monitor RS485/422 and other forms of data if an appropriate COM port card is fitted to the PC Free demonstration version available for download (This has all the features of the full version, except that continuous scrolling text appears in the main window). Click here to download

FSA32 application program on disk, user licence, 64 page printed User Guide, lifetime technical support by phone or email

The FSA32 application has the following system requirements:

• A PC with Windows 95 or later operating system
• At least one free serial COM port (or a USB port with COM port adapter)
• 900Kbytes of free hard disk space for program installation
• A mouse

Monitoring data

To non-intrusively monitor data on an RS232 interface, a "passive" connection method is used. By means of adapters (see above), either one or two serial COM ports on the PC are connected to the cable carrying the serial data of interest. This is done by unplugging the cable at a suitable point, and inserting the body of the adapter into the cable run. The adapter body maintains the continuity of the cable, and also provides one or more connector leads which plug into the PC serial COM port(s). By this means the PC application (in this case the FSA32) has access to the serial data, without affecting the flow of that data.

If a suitable adapter is used (such as the FLLBOB above), then the FSA32 program can also monitor the state of some of the control lines. However this connection method is not usually used when it is wished to transmit data to an equipment, because there would be contention on the transmit line.

Using our USB-RS232 adapter (see above), a PC with USB ports but no RS232 interface can still monitor RS232 data.

Transmitting data from the PC

To avoid contention, and because usually only one item of equipment is being transmitted to, transmission is usually carried out in "Active" mode. In this case one COM port of the PC is sufficient, and is directly connected to the equipment.

Using the FLLBOB adapter rather than a direct connection is useful for this connection method, because the switches on the FLLBOB can be used to provide a "crossover" connection, where the transmit line from the PC is connected to the receive line on the equipment, and vice-versa. This adapter also allows the FSA32 to control the state of the RTS and DTR control lines, as output from the PC to the interface cable.

                       © New Forest Electronics Tel. +44 (0) 1425 650089                 Issue 3.108    12 March 2024