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3M™ MicroTouch™ Controller RX142 Reference Guide
3M Touch Systems, Inc. Proprietary Information
Operating Mode
The
operating mode
specifies the conditions under which the controller sends the X/Y
touch coordinates (input data packet) to the host system.
Mode Stream is the operating mode for the RX142 controller. In Mode Stream, the
controller sends a continuous stream of data packets when the sensor is touched. The
controller sends the data as long as a touch continues on the sensor.
Mode Stream provides the best response time and overall feel.
3M Touch Systems recommends that the touch driver generate an interrupt as each packet
in the data stream arrives. Because touchdown and liftoff events are specially coded,
provided that the interrupts are sent as recommended, your software always knows
exactly what the user is doing. This enables instant feedback and prevents data loss.
Communicating with the Controller
This section provides information on sending firmware commands to the controller and
interpreting responses.
The commands listed in the following table are those that 3M Touch Systems currently
uses for development and recommends that you use only these commands.
Commands to the controller are sent on the signal
Receive Data
(RXD) line as a serial
data stream. For each command it receives, the controller sends a response to the host on
the signal
Transmit Data
(TXD) line also as a serial data stream.
Sending Commands to the Controller
When you send a command to the controller, you must use the correct command format.
The general format of a command is as follows:
<Header>Command<Terminator>
Note:
The following descriptions of header, command, and terminator, use 3M Touch
Systems terminal emulator key sequences. You may need to enter the sequence in a
different format, depending on your emulator.
The
header
is the first character in the command string and is the ASCII start-of-header
control character SOH. The hexadecimal code for the ASCII SOH control character is 01.
To start the command sequence, use the key combination: Ctrl A (^A). If you are
working with an IBM PC compatible system, the Ctrl A key combination immediately
returns an ASCII
☺
character.
The
command
, which always follows the header, consists of ASCII uppercase letters and
numbers only (printable characters).
