serial data simulation problem

[skegsy 142]

Hi

I have been working with a vi witch connects to a serial port and reads load and displacement, how can I simulate the type of data I would normally be receiving , so that I can test everything thoroughly, without actually connecting to the instrument at work. There is a peak load detection and clear indicator function as well as some front panel indicators that blink according to when a comparison has been made.
Thanks in advance, any help examples in V6 would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards

Brett Scott
Western Australian School of Mines

[Mads]

The best is probably to make a simulation software and then use a null-modem cable and have your application talk to the simulator via a loop-back serial link...But making the simulator could be some work (if it's just a few commands to support it should be possible to make within an hour, but that depends on your experience). The second best is to have a VI that returns simulated data and then use that instead of the serial VIs when testing. That does not test things as thorough as the former method, but is probably quicker to implement.

[skegsy 142]

Thanks mads , surely there's got to be a easier way ,Perhaps there's a vi around that I could wire up to the relevant paths and this could give we a sort of ascending or descending streams numerics

[Dennis_Knutson]

You can use the VISA Write to output data to one serial port and like Mads suggested, have a loopback cable to another serial port to do a read from. The actual format of the data is what might get tricky. There is no kind of standard describing what the data from a serial instrument should look like but if you have that information from the manufacturer you can probably be able to code up a simple simulator. It's doing the full functionality of the instrument in sofware that will be the real time sink.