BioMax2 / KBio2-Online
Installation and Programming Manual
Page
46 of 91
9. Communications Protocol
The communications protocol with the
BioMax2 / KBio2-Online
electronics consists of
two aspects:
• Frame format
• Instructions ( Arguments) and events.
Communications between the
BioMax2 / KBio2-Online
electronics and the Host can be
via several communication channels and, in fact, the communications protocol will differ
in each case. ActiveX
PrKBIOMAXctl
) controls can be used, which
encapsulate all the details of the protocol and instructions.
If, however, KSP (see
) is used or your own serial frames are generated,
bear in mind the frame format and instructions detailed in the following sections.
9.1. Bio-OCX RS-232 or TCP/IP frame format
If the serial port, the TCP/IP socket or an external converter (e.g. RS232-WiFi) is used,
the frames should be in the following format:
<STX><OPC><NA><ARG><CRC><ETX>
Where:
<STX>:
[ 1 byte ] Indicates the start of the frame. It is the ASCII char-
acter 0x02.
<OPC>:
[ 2 char ] This parameter indicates the meaning of the frame
and enables you to interpret the data it contains. It is a byte
value expressed by two hexadecimal ASCII characters (rang-
ing from '0' to '9' or from 'A' to 'F'), representing a hexadeci-
mal two-digit value.
<NA>:
[ 4 char: ] This parameter indicates the number of bytes
encoded in the data field. It is a 16 bit value expressed by four
hexadecimal characters representing a hexadecimal four-digit
value.
<ARG>:
[ 2 x NA char ] This contains the frame information. This
field will be made up of <NA> pairs of hexadecimal ASCII
characters representing each of the <NA> information bytes.
<CRC>:
[ 2 char ] This field contains a byte value resulting from add-
ing all the ASCII values from the frame in module 255 except
for <STX>, <CRC> and <ETX>. Expressed by two hexadec-
imal ASCII characters.
<ETX>:
[ 1 byte] This indicates the end of the frame. It is the ASCII
