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National Instruments Corporation
B-1
B
Interfacing to a Serial Device
This appendix describes the RS-232 serial port on the GPIB-232CV-A and
explains how to interface a DCE or DTE serial device to the RS-232 serial
port.
The GPIB-232CV-A transfers serial data using the electrical signals,
mechanical connections, data format, and control protocols defined in
the RS-232C standard. The RS-232 port on the GPIB-232CV-A is an
asynchronous serial communication link to a serial peripheral device.
RS-232C Standard
The RS-232C standard (international standard CCITT V.24) was
formulated in 1969 largely from the efforts of the Electronic Industries
Association (EIA) and Bell Laboratories. The standard describes the
electrical specifications and arrangement of control and data signals on
both sides of a serial communications interface. Its original intent was to
interface terminals to modems. Many manufacturers of computers and
instruments have adopted the standard for their serial communications
needs. For more information on the RS-232C standard, contact
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