JB's blog

Serial Ports

I'm used to work with serial ports and RS232 cables. Often I need to check the cable is not broken or the port is functioning correctly. So I need a freeware for double checking everthing.

I suggest you this freeware: portmon, from Sysinternals. It's really helpful in all the cases descripted above.

I've never tried it, but it could helpful as well this one: Advanced Serial Port Monitor. As usual, if anyone out there has already tried it, please, leave here a comment about it, and share his/her experience in the use of it.

Another freeware by which you can record all serial communication data into a text file is RS232 COM Port Logger, available at http://www.com-port-monitoring.com/datalogger.html

Here you can find an intro/guide about the use of RS232 COM Port Logger http://wiki.eltima.com/user-guides/data-logger/intro.html

Some more freeware I found on the web looking for an RS232 data viewer.

1. SAL232, is simple free utility from HW server, which logs data from the RS-232 serial port. Received data are stored together with time marks that can be used to read time context. Recorded data can be stored in .RTF file. http://www.hw-group.com/support/SAL232/index_en.html
2. COM Port Stress Test, COM Port Stress Test is a tool for testing a COM or RS232 port (device), that generates a serial stream of data with random communication settings. Stress test put a greater emphasis on robustness and error handling under a heavy load, than on what would be considered correct behavior under normal circumstances in your application. The goals of such tests may be to ensure the application doesn't crash in conditions of random data flow. http://www.soft411.com/company/AGG-Software/COM-Port-Stress-Test.htm