User`s manual

CHAPTER 2
MODES OF OPERATION
2-2
The ESTeem has three major modes of operation,
Command, Converse, and Transparent. This chapter of
the manual describes each one of these modes.
COMMAND MODE
The COMMAND Mode (CMD: prompt) is the default
mode that the ESTeem initially enters on power-up or
after a hardware or software reset. From this mode the
user can command or program the ESTeem. In this
mode the user may access the various program
commands to configure the ESTeem for the specific
application. These values can be stored in nonvolatile
memory within the ESTeem by the use of the SAVE
command. The ESTeem reads these setup parameters
stored in memory on power-up or RESET.
When programming in the COMMAND Mode, the user
need only enter enough characters to uniquely identify
the respective command.
Example:
CMD:ADD 15 <cr>
This enters the source address of the ESTeem to the
decimal value of 15. The first three letters ADD were
enough for the ESTeem to uniquely identify the
command for ADDress. The number of characters that
need to be typed varies depending upon the command
being entered. In some cases, four or even more letters
may have to be entered in order for the identification to
be uniquely determined. Up to ten commands can be
written on the same line if separated by a colon.
Example:
CMD:ADD 15:SETC 2:SAVE <cr>
CONVERSE MODE
This mode allows bi-directional communication from the
input/output device attached to the ESTeem to a
destination ESTeem and its respective input/output
device. The ESTeem will automatically switch to the
CONVERSE Mode after the initial CONNECT has been
made.
When the ESTeem is in the CONVERSE Mode the *
prompt will be displayed. The ESTeem will remain in
the CONVERSE Mode until the radio link has been
broken or by typing a control character defined by the
user with the COMMAND variable.
The factory default for the COMMAND variable is
CTRL C. You can return to the CONVERSE Mode from
the COMMAND Mode by typing CONV <cr>.
When you are in the CONVERSE Mode the echoing of
the character comes from the ESTeem if ECHO = ON
(factory default) has been programmed in the ESTeem.
Transmitting Data
The ESTeem will transmit data from the CONVERSE
Mode if one or more of the following conditions have
been met.
1. The ESTeem transmit buffer has been filled. The
size of the transmit buffer is defined in the ESTeem
by the PACKLEN variable. This variable is
programmable from 1 to 1010 bytes. Factory default
is 1010.
2. The ESTeem receives a SENDPAC (send packet)
character from the RS-232C input data stream. The
SENDPAC variable can be defined from 0 to 255 by
the user. Factory default is 13 (carriage return). The
SENDPAC character is also transmitted by the
ESTeem. In file dump applications the SENDPAC
character can be programmed to be the EOF (end of
file) character transmitted from the sending device
(ie; CTRL Z, CTRL G, etc.).
3. Termination control timer. The termination control
timer is enabled by the TERMC (on/off) command.
When enabled, the termination timer starts from the
time the last transmit buffer has been updated in the
RS-232C port. If the termination timer expires
before another character is received or transmitted,
the contents of the ESTeem transmit buffer will be
transmitted. The waiting time of the timer is defined
by the TERMT variable (termination time). The
programming range of the TERMT variable is 1-255
(one unit equals 16.67 ms.). Factory default values
are TERMC = OFF and TERMT = 10. It is noted
that when the termination timer is used, the
SENDPAC variable is usually programmed to be a
character that is non occurring in your data stream
(ie; SENDPAC = 255) so that premature
transmission is not caused.