OT: Serial Port Monitoring Software

I've got a little program called "See It" that will monitor data on a serial port. It does a great job of letting you see exactly what is going on. This in conjunction with a data tap has gotten me out of some jams.

I find myself wishing for something more. I would really like to be able to plug one device into one serial port on my computer, plug the other device into another one, monitor both devices, and pass the data through to the other port. I've been on Google for a while trying to find anything like this to no avail. Anybody have any suggestions.

I'm working on a machine with 2 barcode scanners, a barcode printer, a smart switch and an HMI. Debugging is proving to be a challange.

Thanks,
Don

Maybe the commercial serial port monitor programs can monitor two ports simultaneously, I don't know.

Multiple port serial cards were not uncommon back in the day.

Have you googled serial port monitors and asked about minoring multiple ports?

check out RealTerm (http://realterm.sourceforge.net/). it has the ability to "echo" the contents of a serial port to another port. You could even do it across a network with another instance of Realterm on a remote machine. Very handy tool, I used it extensively to debug a custom protocol for a device we were trying to interface with.

Do you have a link to the program called "See It"?

donl517 said:

I've got a little program called "See It" that will monitor data on a serial port. It does a great job of letting you see exactly what is going on. This in conjunction with a data tap has gotten me out of some jams.

I find myself wishing for something more. I would really like to be able to plug one device into one serial port on my computer, plug the other device into another one, monitor both devices, and pass the data through to the other port. I've been on Google for a while trying to find anything like this to no avail. Anybody have any suggestions.

I'm working on a machine with 2 barcode scanners, a barcode printer, a smart switch and an HMI. Debugging is proving to be a challange.

Thanks,
Don

Click to expand...

just get 232analyser from commfront

Google: rs232 sniffer cable

Sorry guys, I guess I missed the email about there being a reply to this thread. I'll check out the suggestions. I'll post back when I find something I like.

Thanks,
Don

I've used a bunch of software and hardware for serial analysis.

My three favorites in the low-price software arena are:

HHD Software Device Monitoring Studio. Best for PC-> Device comms.

Docklight RS-232 Monitor. Good for device <-> device monitoring, especially with a Stratus Engineering EZ-Tap.

TalTech Serial Breakout. Probably the easiest to use of any of these programs. 32-bit only, and apparently now free.

I cannot say enough good things about the Stratus Engineering EZ-Tap. Because it does not use the Windows serial stack, the included utility has allowed me to find timing issues that were hidden by every other utility I tried (including all three above).

If you are doing serial work for a living, get the Frontline Test Equipment serial suite. For serious debugging, troubleshooting, and decoding of industrial protocols there is no better professional toolset.