Good examples of drivers to support RS-232 devices can be found on this site.
If you bought the card, you can ask the supplier for the protocol/command set.
If it is an internally developed device (we do that frequently) the complexity/robustness of the protocol will depend on what the task of the device is (and under what conditions, lab is quite different from plan-operation). And as long as this will not be sold as an open commercial system to the outside world, you can use your own protocol. Sorry, have no example.