What kind of cable do I need for a serial port connection between two computers

faq, realtime

What kind of cable do I need for a serial port connection

between two computers

For the type of connection we are talking about here, you need a so called 'null modem cable'. A null
modem cable is an RS-232 serial cable where the transmit and receive lines are crosslinked.

How can I test the serial port connection between two

computers?

To check that the serial connection between a linux computer and a windows computer is functional,
you can do the following:

● On the linux PC, open up a putty session by typing putty. Choose serial and type the path for the
serial port (e.g. /dev/ttyS0/). The main thing to consider is the Baudrate(e.g. 115200), which has to
be the same on sending and receiving end.
● On the windows PC, open up a putty session and setup a serial port connection (click on serial),
and specify the name of the port where the serial device is connected to (e.g. 'COM3)', make sure
baudrate is the same as on the linux machine(i.e. 115200).
● Then once the connection is established you can type in the windows putty display and can then
read it from the linux putty display and vice versa. If this doesn't work just check the hardware
connections.

Measure delays of sending and receiving a control command using a serial

port connection

Here we need a computer with two serial ports(or two computers). We can send commands on one
serial port and receive them on the other and then estimate the delay.

This is what I did on my office PC using fieldtrip commands ft_read_event and ft_write_event.

delete(instrfind);
fclose('all');
clear all;
close all;

addpath(genpath('H:\common\matlab\fieldtrip\'));
% addpath(genpath('H:\common\matlab\fieldtrip\private\'));
%% filetype_check_uri and ft_filter_event need to be in the path
%% Note the syntax: serial:<port>?key1=value1&key2=value2&...
%% here key1 is BaudRate and value1 is 115200

%% write something to serial port 4

cfg.istream ='serial:COM4?BaudRate=115200';

http://fieldtrip.fcdonders.nl/ Printed on 2011/03/10 10:39

What kind of cable do I need for a serial port connection between two computers

%% and receive it on serial port 1 (serila ports are physically connected)

cfg.ostream ='serial:COM1?BaudRate=115200';
event.value=5; %% This can be a string or an integer, e.g. 1 or
'Rock_n_Roll_will_never_dye', however longer strings will take longer to be
communicated
count=0;
tlop=[];
while true
count=count+1;
%% write
ft_write_event(cfg.istream,event,'eventformat','fcdc_serial');
tic
%% read
ww=ft_read_event(cfg.ostream,'eventformat','fcdc_serial');
%% measure time
t1=toc;
tlop=[tlop,t1];
%% disp received event
disp(ww);
pause(0.15); %% give serial port a break
if count>1000
break
end
end;

figure
plot(tlop*1000,'.');
xlabel('function calls');
ylabel('delay read write event [ms]');

modal_val=mode(tlop(2:end)*1000)
median_val=median(tlop(2:end)*1000)
range_val=range(tlop(2:end)*1000)

gtext({'mode :';'median :';'range:'});

gtext(num2str(modal_val));
gtext(num2str(median_val));
gtext(num2str(range_val));
%% close what we have opened
fclose('all');

What I got looks like this:

Printed on 2011/03/10 10:39 http://fieldtrip.fcdonders.nl/

 What kind of cable do I need for a serial port connection between two computers

Alternatively, one can simply use matlab serial objects and low level reading function fread or fscanf:

%% objects are cleared

clear all;
delete(instrfind);
fclose('all');

%% define 1st serial port on COM1

serobjw = serial('COM1'); % Creating serial port object now its
connected to COM7
serobjw.Baudrate = 115200; % Set the baud rate at the specific
value
set(serobjw, 'Parity', 'none'); % Set parity as none
set(serobjw, 'Databits', 8); % set the number of data bits
set(serobjw, 'StopBits', 1); % set number of stop bits as 1
set(serobjw, 'Terminator', 10); % set the terminator value to newline
set(serobjw, 'OutputBufferSize', 512); % Buffer for write operation, default
it is 512
get(serobjw) ;
%% open it
fopen(serobjw);

%% define 2nd serial port on COM4

serobjw2 = serial('COM4'); % Creating serial port object now its
connected to COM7
serobjw2.Baudrate = 115200; % Set the baud rate at the specific
value

http://fieldtrip.fcdonders.nl/ Printed on 2011/03/10 10:39

What kind of cable do I need for a serial port connection between two computers

set(serobjw2, 'Parity', 'none'); % Set parity as none

set(serobjw, 'Databits', 8); % set the number of data bits
set(serobjw, 'StopBits', 1); % set number of stop bits as 1
set(serobjw, 'Terminator', 10); % set the terminator value to newline
set(serobjw, 'OutputBufferSize', 512); % Buffer for write operation, default
it is 512
get(serobjw) ;

%% open it
fopen(serobjw2);

count=0
tlop=[];
while 1
count=count+1;
%% write to COM1
fwrite(serobjw,5); %% can be numeric or a string
tic
if ~isempty(serobjw2.BytesAvailable)
if serobjw2.BytesAvailable~=0
%% read from COM4 (physically connected to COM1)
a=fread(serobjw2,serobjw2.BytesAvailable);disp(a);
clear a;
%% to convet numeric ascii code to char string use a=char(a')
%% the line below will also work for char input
% a=fscanf(serobjw2,'%s\n',serobjw2.BytesAvailable),clear a;
t1=toc;
tlop=[tlop,t1];
if count>1000
break
end
end
end
pause(0.15);%% give serial a break
end
figure
plot(tlop*1000,'.');
xlabel('function calls');
ylabel('delay read write, matlab serial [ms]');

modal_val=mode(tlop(2:end)*1000)
median_val=median(tlop(2:end)*1000)
range_val=range(tlop(2:end)*1000)

gtext({'mode :';'median :';'range:'});

gtext(num2str(modal_val));
gtext(num2str(median_val));
gtext(num2str(range_val));
%% close what we have opened
fclose('all');
delete(instrfind);

Printed on 2011/03/10 10:39 http://fieldtrip.fcdonders.nl/

 What kind of cable do I need for a serial port connection between two computers

The picture looks similar, only slightly faster.

From:
http://fieldtrip.fcdonders.nl/ - FieldTrip

Permanent link:
http://fieldtrip.fcdonders.nl/faq/how_can_i_test_the_serial_port_connection_between_two_computers

Last update: 2010/08/30 22:41

http://fieldtrip.fcdonders.nl/ Printed on 2011/03/10 10:39