I am developing a Qt/C++ programme in QtCreator that reads and writes from/to the serial port using QextSerialPort. My programme sends commands to a Rhino Mark IV controller and must read the response of those commands (just in case they produce any response). My development and deployment platform is Windows XP Professional.
When the Mark IV sends a response to a command and my programme reads that response from the serial port buffer, the data are not properly encoded; my programme does not seem to get plain ASCII data. For example, when the Mark IV sends an ASCII "0" (decimal 48) followed by a carriage return (decimal 13), my buffer (char *) gets -80 and 13. Characters are not properly encoded, but carriage returns are indeed. I have tried using both read (char *data, qint64 maxSize) and readAll ().
I have been monitoring the serial port traffic using two monitors that interpret ASCII data and display the corresponding characters, and the data sent in both ways seem to be correctly encoded (they are actually displayed correctly). Given that QByteArray does not interpret any character encoding and that I have tried using both read (char *data, qint64 maxSize) and readAll (), I have discarded that the problem may be caused by Qt. However, I am not sure if the problem is caused by QextSerialPort, because my programme send (writes) data properly, but does not read the correct bytes.
I have also tried talking to the Mark IV controller by hand using HyperTerminal, and the communication takes place correctly, too. I set up the connection using HyperTerminal with the following parammeters:
Baud rate: 9600
Data bits: 8
Parity bits: 0
Stop bits: 1
Flow control: Hardware
My programme sets up the serial port using the same parammeters. HyperTerminal works, my programme does not.
I started using QextSerialPort 1.1 from qextserialport.sourceforge.net and then tried with the latest source code from QextSerialPort on Google Code, and the problem remains.
What is causing the wrong character encoding?
What do I have to do to solve this issue?
48 vs. -80 smells like a signed char vs. unsigned char mismatch to me. Try with explicit unsigned char* instead of char*.
Finally, I have realized that I was not configuring the serial port correctly, as suggested by Judge Maygarden. I did not find that information in the device's manual, but in the manual of a software product developed for that device.
The correct way to set up the serial port for connecting to the Mark IV controller is to set
Baud rate: 9600
Data bits: 7
Parity: even
Stop bits: 2 bits
Flow control: Hardware
However, I am still wondering why did HyperTerminal show the characters properly even with the wrong configuration.
Related
I am writing a Qt application for serial communication with a Qorvo MDEK-1001. All built-in serial commands I've had to use work fine except for one: aurs n k, where n and k are integers corresponding to the desired rate of data transmission (e.g. "aurs 1 1\r"). Write function is:
void MainWindow::serialWrite(const QByteArray &command)
{
if(mdek->isOpen())
{
mdek->write(command);
qDebug() << "Command: " << command;
//mdek->flush();
}
}
If I send the command "aurs 1 1\r". It doesn't actually get sent to the device until I send another command for some reason. So if I subsequently send the "quit" command to the device, the returned data from the device is: "aurs 1quit", which registers as an unknown command. Any assistance getting this command to send properly is appreciated.
I've tried a bunch of stuff (setting bytes to write as second parameter in write(), using QDataStream, appending individual hex bytes onto QByteArray and writing that), but nothing has worked. This is the first time I've had to use Qt's serial communication software so I've probably missed something obvious.
On Linux Manjaro (same thing happens on Windows 8.1)
Connection settings: 8 data bits, Baud: 115200, No Flow Control, No Parity, One Stop Bit
I have a strange behaviour of QSerialPort in QT Creator when I write down bytes, which are bigger than the ASCII number 127. Somehow It always sends the number 194 first, then comes the number I actually want to transmit. So for example for the number 150, it sends [194,150].
The serial interface is correctly initialized with 8bit data, so this should work just fine:
serialPort = new QSerialPort(this);
serialPort->setPortName(str);
serialPort->setBaudRate(QSerialPort::Baud115200);
serialPort->setDataBits(QSerialPort::Data8);
serialPort->setParity(QSerialPort::NoParity);
serialPort->setStopBits(QSerialPort::OneStop);
serialPort->setFlowControl(QSerialPort::NoFlowControl);
The data is written like this:
serialPort->write(QString(QChar(150)).toStdString().c_str());
Anyone an idea, what could cause this problem?
I'm using libusb in Qt to communicate with a PIC microcontroller, 18F2550. The thing is that it's working OK until I try to send or read more than three bytes. Why does it happen?
I've tried using bulk_read transfer and interrupt_read. When I put the size of the buffer equal or less than three, then the transmission works perfectly, using bulk or interrupt. When this size is greater than three, then I'm getting buffer1 and buffer[2] OK, but the rest are wrong.
The error that I'm getting is from timeout. As input I'm using endpoint 0x81.
More information:
The return value from the bulk or interrupt read is -116. The numbers that I'm sending from the PIC to the PC in the two first bytes ([0] and 1) in hex is 0x02D6. With this number, buffer[0] = -42 (when it should be 0xD6 = 214) and buffer[1] = 2 that is correct.
In the [2] and [3] bytes the number is 0x033D, and I get [2] = 61 = 0x3D. That is correct and [3] = -42??? (like [0]).
And the fifth byte is 1, and the SW shows 2???. Might it be a problem in the microcontroller, because I'm programming it as an HID USB?
I don't think that being a HID is the problem. I had a similar issue before; the PIC would randomly timeout when large data was being transmitted. It turned out to be some voltage fluctuation on the MCU. How are you connecting the crystal? Do you have a capacitor on VUSB to regulate it?
Building a PIC18F USB device is a great tutorial on building a PIC HID, and even though it's not based on 18F2550 but on 18F4550, it should be quite similar, and I'm sure you can get a lot out of the schematics and hardware setup. It was the starting point for my PIC-USB projects.
I'm using an Arduino (duemilanove) with the official Ethernet shield to send data to the controller for controlling an LED matrix. I am trying to send some raw 32-bit unsigned int values (unix timestamps) to the controller by taking the 4 bytes in the 32-bit value on the desktop and sending it to the arduino as 4 consecutive bytes. However, whenever a byte value is larger than 127, the returned value by the ethernet client library is 63.
The following is a basic example of what I'm doing on the arduino side of things. Some things have been removed for neatness.
byte buffer[32];
memset(buffer, 0, 32);
int data;
int i=0;
data = client.read();
while(data != -1 && i < 32)
{
buffer[i++] = (byte)data;
data = client.read();
}
So, whenever the input byte is bigger than 127 the variable "data" will end up getting set to 63! At first I thought the problem was further down the line (buffer used to be char instead of byte) but when I print out "data" right after the read, it's still 63.
Any ideas what could be causing this? I know client.read() is supposed to output int and internally reads data from the socket as uint8_t which is a full byte and unsigned, so I should be able to at least go to 255...
EDIT: Right you are, Hans. Didn't realize that Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes only supported the first 7 bits and not all 8.
I'm more inclined to suspect the transmit side. Are you positive the transmit side is working correctly? Have you verified with a wireshark capture or some such?
63 is the ASCII code for ?. There's some relevance to the values, ASCII doesn't have character codes for values over 127. An ASCII encoder commonly replaces invalid codes like this with a question mark. Default behavior for the .NET Encoding.ASCII encoder for example.
It isn't exactly clear where that might happen. Definitely not in your snippet. Probably on the other end of the wire. Write bytes, not characters.
+1 for Hans Passant and Karl Bielefeldt.
Can you just send the data without encoding? How is the data being sent? TCP/UDP/IP/Ethernet definitely support sending binary data without restriction. If this isn't possible, perhaps converting the data to hex will solve the problem. Base64 will also work (better) but is considerably more work. For small amounts of data, hex is probably the easiest and fastest solution.
+1 again to Karl and Ben for mentioning wireshark. Invaluable for debugging network problems like this.
What's the problem in given code? Why it is not showing the output for rs232 when we connect it by the d-9 connector with the short of pin number 2 & 3 in that?
#include <bios.h>
#include <conio.h>
#define COM1 0
#define DATA_READY 0x100
#define SETTINGS ( 0x80 | 0x02 | 0x00 | 0x00)
int main(void)
{
int in, out, status;
bioscom(0, SETTINGS, COM1); /*initialize the port*/
cprintf("Data sent to you: ");
while (1)
{
status = bioscom(3, 0, COM1); /*wait until get a data*/
if (status & DATA_READY)
if ((out = bioscom(2, 0, COM1) & 0x7F) != 0) /*input a data*/
putch(out);
if (kbhit())
{
if ((in = getch()) == 27) /* ASCII of Esc*/
break;
bioscom(1, in, COM1); /*output a data*/
}
}
return 0;
}
Well, the code looks alright. Have you really connected the remaining pins correctly in the plug, see serial and pin connections.
Nothing obvious stands out from your code as the cause. Check all your bases as you are dealing with hardware/software. The following Microsoft article has a different implementation using _bios_serialcom (from bios.h) which might be a good reference point for you.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/39501
Suggestions for where to go from here:
I would also suggest replacing the literals (eg 0x08) using the constants predefined for Baud rate, Parity (eg _COM_NOPARITY) to make the code more readable in your question.
Check that the Com port is actually open, as its a assumption which is unchecked in your code example above.
Also check up on the pin connections for the DB9. To connect two computers/devices you will need to null modem it, eg pin 2 to pin 3 at the other end, plus the Signal Ground. Make sure you are disabling/not looking for DTR.
If the other computer/device is setup then I would suggest first running HyperTerminal (Programs->Accessories->Communication) and connect to your COM 1 and check you can see characters from the other device. If not its most likely related to your cable.
Hope that helps.
Before checking with your code always check your serial communication with a terminal program. I don't have much experience with Windows environment but in Linux you have programs like cutecom or gtkterm where you can send/receive data from serial port. We extensively used these programs for serial communication in Linux, they are great for debugging potential problems with serial port interface (both h/w & s/w as well). So, before suspecting your code check with a terminal emulator program.
Hey, I am not an expert on Win32, but it seems to be easier to use another article as a source (the one mentioned here before looks outdated):
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms810467
This is old too, dated around 1995, but it looks still effective. The NT architecture is very restrictive when it comes to grant access to hardware, for example, to send bytes to a PC paralell port one needs to rely on workarounds dll written by open source developers.
I'm assuming from your comment about "pin 2 & 3" that you've connected a loopback cable, so you're expecting to see anything you type come up on the screen (and stop doing so when you disconnect the cable).
I think there's a bug in the code: the if (kbhit()) is inside the if (status & DATA_READY).
That means you only check the keyboard if there is some input ready to receive from the serial port - which there won't be, because you haven't sent it anything yet! Try moving the test and see if it improves matters.
(Here is some similar serial port code that puts the if (kbhit()) test outside the DATA_READY check. It doesn't claim to work, but provides some evidence that this might be the source of the problem...)