| |
|
|
|
Overview
HHD Software Serial Monitor is a mixed kernel/user mode application, aimed at Win32 developers, whose work is connected with serial ports. The Serial Monitor allows users to change the default behavior of the serial ports in Win32-based operating systems, where only one application is allowed to use the port at the present moment.
The Serial Monitor achieves it by providing the monitoring device driver, which lies upon the serial device driver of the Windows NT and Windows 2000 operating systems. This driver collects all information including data read and written, control codes received and sent to the underlying hardware by the user mode client, etc.
The filter device driver used by the Serial Monitor is the newest generation of the driver, which sources and logic are described and presented in our article in Windows Developers Journal.
Main program window screenshot:
Features
The Serial Monitor does:
work with any software that opens a serial port and initiate communication through it.
intercept all data read from and written to the serial port.
intercept and process all serial input/output control codes (IOCTLs), providing the full dump of their parameters.
support data logging. An entire monitoring session can be logged (recorded) and then played back later.
format data into different kinds of output, thus providing user with a full set of information.
support copying to clipboard and export capabilities.
fully compatible with ACPI features, allowing you to bring the computer to standby/hibernate mode while running Serial Monitor.
emulate data sending on behalf of monitored application.
allow you to monitor the serial protocol between two different serial devices, connected by null-modem cables to your computer.
fully support Windows XP themes.
allow you to customize the keyboard shortcuts for any command in the program shell.
allow you to customize toolbars.
work in Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000/XP workstation/server operating systems.
Usage
Developing or Implementing Serial Protocol
When a company develops or implements the serial port protocol, it often faces the lack of software or hardware tools such as protocol analyzers and often comes to implementing its own tool, making it (probably temporary) the part of the software project.
This kind of protocol analyzers always breaks down the clear design of the software, increases the project development time and often becomes not so useful as it is supposed to be because of timing changing.
With Serial Monitor you do not need to do the job anymore. All you have to do is to start your application, start the Serial Monitor, attach it to the application and receive the complete view of what`s going on between the device and the software.
All monitored data can be logged into the log file thus making the post-analyzing real. If you need to collect information during the whole night - there`s no problem! Just start the Serial Monitor and go to bed. In the morning, you will get a small compressed log file that contains everything you need to find your bugs!
Reverse-engineering the Serial Protocol
There is another area where the Serial Monitor is very useful. It is an area of serial protocols reverse-engineering. We won`t talk about copyright here, because there are many lawful areas of reverse-engineering applications. Here are at least two examples:
The company has the protocol documentation and the working software (maybe as an example of protocol implementation) and needs to write its own software based on this protocol. There seems to be some error in the code, which can`t be found using only the documentation, but, unfortunately, there are no sources for the working software. Then the company uses the Serial Monitor to reverse-engineer the protocol based on the working software. There is no breaking the law, because you do not modify or reverse-engineer the code of the working software!
The company has a device and the working software (e.g. device driver) but doesn`t know the protocol. Moreover, the author of the software does not exist anymore, does not support the product anymore or has no rights for the product anymore. So the company is free to use the Serial Monitor to recreate the protocol from the working software and the device.
With Serial Monitor`s ability of working with any kind of third-party user mode software, which uses serial ports to communicate with hardware devices, it becomes very easy to reconstruct the protocol with or without the protocol documentation.
Testing Software
The Serial Monitor, with its complete serial control codes support, very precise request timing and very fast work, can be used to test the correct functionality of any third-party software.
After running the software (with Serial Monitor attached to it) for a period of time and recording the log, the log can later be used to test the correctness of the protocol implementation.
|
|
|
|
NEWS
An XML error occurred on line 1: XML_ERR_NAME_REQUIRED
RECOMMENDED DOWNLOADS IN THIS CATEGORY
|
|
|
|
| » Affiliate Creator 1.0
|
| Affiliate Creator is a shareware tool that enables shareware authors to batch build customized installers for their affiliates.You can also use it to build stand-alone applications named Self-Creator and publish them on your website so that your affiliate ... |
|
| Affiliate Creator | 1850KB | Win 98/ME/NT/2000/XP | $39.75 | Downloads: 1374 |
| Date added: Sep 22, 2005 |
» Details |
|
|
| » Hotspot Builder 1.21
|
| Hotspot Builder is a tool intended for creating hotspots on graphic images used in Win- and HTML- help systems. Hotspots are special regions which can work as links to help topics, popup links and help macros when clicking on them. Hotspot Builder provide ... |
|
| Divcom Software | 885KB | Win 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP | $46.95 | Downloads: 1282 |
| Date added: Sep 22, 2005 |
» Details |
|
|
| » DiffnMerge 1.3
|
| Quick and Easy File and Folder Comparing. With Drasbek DiffnMerge you can compare and merge files and folders. Compare two text files and see the differences in the two files side by side, then merge the text files manually or automatically by inserting t ... |
|
| Drasbek Data | 2400KB | Win 98/ME/NT/2000/XP | $29 | Downloads: 1354 |
| Date added: Sep 22, 2005 |
» Details |
|
|
| » TextWiz 2.1
|
| Powerful, multi purpose utility which performs several handy functions on text,html or any type files or blocks of text from the clipboard. Includes a powerful search and replace feature which, unlike many word processors, allows you to search for and rep ... |
|
| Harmony Hollow Software | 1327KB | Windows 95/98/NT/2000 | | Downloads: 1341 |
| Date added: Sep 22, 2005 |
» Details |
|
|
| » Advanced Bughound 1.1
|
| Advanced Bughound is a new bug/feature/client tracking tool. We designed Advanced Bughound to be user friendly and very easy to use. People using Advanced Bughound will feel right at home after minutes of use. While it is easy to use, it was designed to b ... |
|
| Sault Custom Programming | 3787KB | Windows 95/98/NT/2000 | $79.00 | Downloads: 1329 |
| Date added: Sep 22, 2005 |
» Details |
|
|
| » MU-Trace 1.01
|
| Mu-Trace can help programmers who are working on a bigger project and are working in a group. In comparison with a standard output debugging window MU-Trace has many additional features. You can add up to 255 users and define an individual color per user. ... |
|
| Image Integration | 514k | Windows NT only | $0 | Downloads: 1227 |
| Date added: Sep 22, 2005 |
» Details |
|
|
| » II_AddIn1 1.0
|
| II_AddIn1 is the No. One Add-In for Microsoft Developer Studio, Visual C++ and Java edition. It displays function definitions or selected lines containing keywords in a separate window and jumps to the selected line. You can define individual colors per k ... |
|
| Image Integration | 433k | Windows 98/NT | $25 | Downloads: 1322 |
| Date added: Sep 22, 2005 |
» Details |
|
|
| » RTF Report Generator 1.02
|
| RTF Report Generator is a native Delphi VCL component that implements a flexible and powerful report generation engine. The result of the RTFReport is a ready-to-print editable Rich Text Format (RTF) document. In order to produce reports this engine util ... |
|
| Alexander Eltsyn | 381 Kb | Windows 95/98/NT/2000 | | Downloads: 1296 |
| Date added: Sep 22, 2005 |
» Details |
|
|
| » Extended Calendar 1.0
|
| Extended Calendar is a Delphi component that allows you to implement a customizable flat calendar. ... |
|
| Tomas Koutny | 13 Kb | Windows 95/98/NT/2000 | | Downloads: 1272 |
| Date added: Sep 22, 2005 |
» Details |
|
|
| » TDotMatrix5x7 1.01
|
| TDotMatrix5x7 is a Delphi component used to draw a five by seven size dot matrix on your Delphi`s form. TDotMatrix5x7 lets you display all seven-bit ASCII characters, including alphanumeric characters (A..Z, a..z, 1..9), some Greek characters (alpha, bet ... |
|
| ADC-Soft | 125 Kb | Windows 95/98/NT/2000 | | Downloads: 1331 |
| Date added: Sep 22, 2005 |
» Details |
|
|
|
|
| » TSevenSegment 2.01
|
| TSevenSegment is a Delphi component used to draw seven segment displays on your form. TSevenSegment can display: numeric values, such as `123`, `123.45`, and `1E100`; time values, such as `10:00:00`, and `12:30:45 PM`; and alphanumeric values, such as `E ... |
|
| ADC-Soft | 155 Kb | Windows 95/98/NT/2000 | | Downloads: 1195 |
| Date added: Sep 22, 2005 |
» Details |
|
|
| » XDB Engine 1.0
|
| XDB Engine is a database engine that can be also used as an universal data container. XDB Engine implements an object oriented database kernel that allows you to implement your own database look to any data in your applications. The interface hides any d ... |
|
| Tomas Koutny | 242 Kb | Windows 95/98/NT/2000 | | Downloads: 1303 |
| Date added: Sep 22, 2005 |
» Details |
|
|
| » SimpleRegistry Control 2.11
|
| SimpleRegistry Control provides a simple way to access the Windows Registry from Visual Basic. This control allows you to access the Windows Registry in much more intuitive and simple way then the Win32 Registry APIs. It exposes the building blocks of th ... |
|
| Realtime Performance, Inc. | 208 Kb | Windows 95/98/NT/2000 | | Downloads: 1307 |
| Date added: Sep 22, 2005 |
» Details |
|
|
| » VB 2 Html 1.4.2
|
| VB 2 Html converts Visual Basic source code to color-coded HTML, which can be placed directly into your documentation. With VB 2 Html, your source code looks the same in a web page as it does in the Visual Basic editor, and is therefore easier to read. V ... |
|
| Planatech Solutions Ltd | 820 Kb | Windows 95/98/NT/2000 | | Downloads: 1255 |
| Date added: Sep 22, 2005 |
» Details |
|
|
| » Document! VB 1.2
|
| Document! VB speeds up the process of developing HTML Help documentation for your Visual Basic project. The advanced code parser within Document! VB analyzes your source code to provide a structured set of HTML Help pages, compiled into an HTML Help file ... |
|
| Innovasys Ltd. | 4.46 MB | Windows 95/98/NT/2000 | | Downloads: 1329 |
| Date added: Sep 22, 2005 |
» Details |
|
|
| » VB DocuMentor 1.4.03
|
| VB DocuMentor is a Visual Basic add-in that lets you easily document your application as you code it. It produces formatted descriptive procedure and module headers and word wrapped comment blocks. It also inserts error trapping code and tracks your prog ... |
|
| Gridlinx Software | 526 Kb | Windows 95/98/NT/2000 | | Downloads: 1217 |
| Date added: Sep 22, 2005 |
» Details |
|
|
| » VB Builder (for Visual Basic 5) 1.3.01
|
| VB Builder (for Visual Basic 5) is a Visual Basic 5 add-in that lets you add numbers to your VB projects which aid in error trapping. By adding line numbers to your project you can add error handlers that use the VB Error Line Function. This lets you pin ... |
|
| Gridlinx Software | 487 Kb | Windows 95/98/NT/2000 | | Downloads: 1249 |
| Date added: Sep 22, 2005 |
» Details |
|
|
| » Sharit 3.00.009
|
| Sharit is a tool for shareware authors to submit program listings to popular Internet shareware sites. Simply enter all your product information once and Sharit submits your new and updated listing to over 80 popular sites. ... |
|
| Trellian Australia Pty. Ltd. | 982 Kb | Windows 95/98/NT/2000 | | Downloads: 1301 |
| Date added: Sep 22, 2005 |
» Details |
|
|
| » ErrorHandler 1.02
|
| ErrorHandler is a COM component for handling exceptions in Visual Basic applications. It displays meaningful messages, including the name of the module, subroutine and application (or automation object) causing the error. It also displays the error numbe ... |
|
| SamSoft Ltd. | 10 Kb | Windows 95/98/NT/2000 | | Downloads: 1296 |
| Date added: Sep 22, 2005 |
» Details |
|
|
| » UserBank 1.0
|
| UserBank is a shareware registration system for Visual C++ programmers. UserBank consists of a database of registered users and a software library (including the source) that can be used to build your application. It can allow your users to customize the ... |
|
| Cruquius Soft | 874 Kb | Windows 95/98/NT/2000 | | Downloads: 1288 |
| Date added: Sep 22, 2005 |
» Details |
|
|
|
|
| |
