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Request to Send (RTS) is an output from the RPC-80 that must control the
transmitter in the external computer. The signal usually goes to the CTS input of the
external computer. When RTS is
on
the RPC-80 is ready and able to receive data
and the external computer can transmit, when RTS is
off
the external computer must
wait and not transmit.
During Hard Handshake the characters used for Soft Handshake control should not
be used. If they are received by the RPC-80 they will be treated as normal data
characters which may produce errors.
Soft Handshake
In the Soft Handshake system the handshaking is managed without extra signal
connections by sending handshake characters mixed in with the data characters.
These handshake characters are known as "XOn" and "XOff".
When either party is unable to receive it sends the XOff character to the other party.
When either party receives the XOff character that party must stop transmitting and
wait.
When either party is again ready to receive it sends the XOn character to the other
party. When either party receives the XOn character that party can re-start
transmitting.
At the start of communications it is assumed that both parties are ready to receive
until they signal otherwise. In practice the RPC-80 sends XOn after you switch it on
to indicate it is ready.
The XOn character is fixed as ASCII DC1 / Hex 11 / Decimal 17
The XOff character is fixed as ASCII DC3 / Hex 13 / Decimal 19
During Soft Handshake the signals used for Hard Handshake should not be used.
On the RPC-80 the RTS output is always
on
and the CTS input is ignored. No
connection need be made to either signal.
Serial input buffer
The serial data received by the RPC-80 first enters a buffer. In both handshaking
systems the "Not Ready" signal or character is sent by the RPC-80 when the buffer
becomes 75% full. When the RPC-80 has used enough data from the buffer so that it
is only 50% full then the "Ready" signal or character is sent. In this way there is
some tolerance for data to continue to arrive after the "Not Ready" signal has been
sent and after the "Ready" signal has been sent there will be capacity for a
reasonable amount of continuous reception. The size of the buffer is fixed at a total
of 255 data characters.