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I often ask technicians, “How do you know your serial communications device or serial communications link as a whole is working?” they usually say “because it does”, and that’s fine, but how well is it working? is the link experiencing so many errors that any small degradation in performance will cause the link to fail? Is the link stable over time? Usually the statistical performance of a link is hidden amongst the network layers or non-existant. The Contract I.T. Serial Communications Link Analyser (SCLA) is a simple substitute for a BERT (Bit Error Rate Tester).
What does SCLA do?
This Serial Communications Link Analyser is used for a very specific purpose, it transmits a Packet of Characters out of one Serial Communications Port (Port) and expects to receive the packet on another Serial Port. It uses Random Characters. It will report framing errors, parity errors (if parity is enabled) and character mismatch, calculate some statistics, then save a test report.
If you need to test an RS-232 to RS-485 or RS-422 protocol converter then this tool is for you. Note that this version does not support Hardware handshaking, but as this software is only communicating with itself this should never be a problem.
Screenshot of application
How to use it
After you have connected your hardware simply click on START TEST and then the program will only list ports that are free to use you need atleast two free ports.
I'm assuming that you know how to connect the hardware you want to test. If you need any help with hardware and HAVE paid for the software then email me and I might help you.
What you would use it for.
I use the software for factory acceptance testing of RS-232 to RS-485 Protocol Converters, that I designed and manufacture for Delta Automation. Others use the software for testing of any serial communications link. This software is particularily usefull when evaluating the effects of impulse noise in Wireless communications links, as it can provide a more effective measure of the link quality than a signal strength meter, which gives a better measure of the effects of gaussian noise.
Recomendations
I recommend that you connect the Serial Ports you are using together first with a 3 Wire crossover cable 2-3, 3-2, 5-5 for 9 pin D connectors. This way you can test the serial settings that you intend to use (eg baud rates stop bits etc...). I have come across some Serial Ports that do not operate reliably at lower Baud rates, I do not have a list of affected chipsets or anything.
For advanced users you can actually type in your own port setting strings, if you make a mistake then the hardware will not be able to be opened by the software until you correct the settings or select one of the other strings. You'll understand when you run the program.
Problems
You may need to download the latest VB Run Time files from Microsoft if your computer is not up to date. You can get them for free from Microsoft here.
Finally
If you need a modification made to the software then contact me at satellite_tracking@hotmail.com to discuss your requirements. There may be new features in the future depending on demand. The addition of a variable packet length is currently limited to 3000 characters this is an arbitrary value that I have chosen, if you would like a higher packet size than let me know and i’ll have a look at changing the software. Also the Inter Packet Transmission Delay is currently set to 10000ms or 10 seconds if you require longer delays than let me know.
Best of luck
Adam Anderson
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