Ascension laserBIRD, Installation And Operation Manual

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4: Software Operation: Tools for Successful Tracking
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STREAM
ASCII HEX DECIMAL BINARY
Command Byte @ 40 64 01000000
In the STREAM mode, The Bird starts sending continuous data records to the host computer as
soon as new data is available -240 times per second. Data records will continue to be sent until
the host sends the STREAM STOP command or the POINT command, or any format command
such as POSITION to stop the stream.
Some computers and/or high level software languages may not be able to keep up with the
constant STREAM of data in this mode. Bytes received by your RS232 port may overrun one
another or your input buffer may overflow if Bird data is not retrieved fast enough. This condition
will cause lost bytes, hence if your high level application software requests say 12 bytes from the
RS232 input buffer, it may hang because one or more bytes were lost. To eliminate this possibility,
read one byte at a time looking for the phasing bit that marks the first byte of the data record.
See REPORT RATE to change the rate at which records are transmitted during STREAM.