46 Appendix
HINIKER SERIAL
COMMUNICATIONS SPECIFICATIONS
Serial Specifications
The Hiniker console transmits and receives
standard RS232C serial data at a baud rate of
9600 BPS. The transmitted characters consist of
1 start bit, 8 data bits, no parity bit, and 1 stop bit
for the “Hiniker” protocol and 2 stop bits for the
“Generic” protocol.
Serial Connection Specifications
The Hiniker console transmits and receives
standard RS232C serial data through a 9 pin,
female, sub D connector. The use of XON/XOFF
software handshaking allows the number of con-
nections to be kept to the minimum required for
a serial communications channel. They are list-
ed below.
Pin 2 - Received Data (RXD)
The Hiniker console uses the RXD line to receive
in external rate messages and data request dur-
ing automatic operation.
Pin 3 - Transmitted Data (TXD)
The Hiniker console uses the TXD line to send
requested data to another device.
Pin 5 - Ground
This provides a common signal reference be-
tween the Hiniker console and other devices.
Serial Printer Specifications
The 8605 can be connected to serial printers that
support the above protocol and support XON/
XOFF software handshaking. The reports gener-
ated by the 8605 are in standard ASCII and for-
matted for a line length of 40 characters. Printers
with shorter line lengths will wrap the report lines
causing a distortion of the report format. Printers
with a longer line length will reproduce the report
format correctly with some wasted space.
SERIAL PROTOCOLS
There are two serial protocols available with the
8605. The “HINIKER” protocol is our original se-
rial communication standard. The “GENERIC”
protocol was developed to easily allow the 8605
to communicate to most mapping systems.
APPENDIX
“HINIKER” PROTOCOL
“HINIKER” External Rate Message Format
NOTE:
Messages should not be sent faster than
approximately 1 per second. If messages are
sent too quickly, the second message may over
write the first before it has been processed.
The following is an example of a valid external
rate message. It would instruct the Hiniker con-
sole to apply 34.5 units per acre. The Hiniker
console would view this as gallons per acre if it
is in spray mode or as pounds per acre of actual
nitrogen if it is in NH3 mode.
Character
Hex Code
ASCII
1
24
“$”
2
F1
N/A
3
07
N/A
4
01
N/A
5
30
“0”
6
33
“3”
7
34
“4”
8
2E
“.”
9
35
“5”
10
00
N/A
11
3E
N/A
Character 1 -
This is always an ASCII dollar sign
(24 Hex) which acts as SOM (Start Of Message)
character. The Hiniker console recognizes this
as the start of a new message packet.
Character 2 -
This will be a hex value in the
range of F1 through FA denoting the Hiniker
hardware device being impacted by the data
message. In the case of the Hiniker console, this
will always be F1 Hex to indicate servo valve 1.
Character 3 -
This will be a hex value that indi-
cates the number of bytes in the data message.
This will always be 07 Hex.
Character 4 -
This will be a hex value that indi-
cates which target application rate will be over-
laid with the data. For the Hiniker console this
will always be 01 Hex.
Character 5 -
This will be a hex value in the range
of 30 through 39 (ASCII characters “0” through “9”)
