Free Serial Port Monitor

Free Serial Port Monitor F.A.Q.

Free Serial Port Monitor questions and answers:

1. How can I monitor the connection between two serial devices?

   It can not be done with Free Serial Port Monitor. You should upgrade to Serial Monitor or Serial Monitor Professional in order to do this.

2. How can I specify the packet format?

   You can use the Serial Monitor Converter SDK, which is a part of the Serial Monitor Professional, to write the custom protocol analyzation.

3. How can I search for a specified byte or text?

   Select the Edit|Find... menu option to bring the Find Dialog up. See the included documentation for more information.

4. How can I upgrade my product?

   You can download the Serial Monitor or Serial Monitor Professional edition and run the downloaded installation package in order to do this.

5. Is it possible to close the monitored session before closing the serial port?

   No, it is not possible. This behavior is by design. It is critical for the system to have all filter drivers loaded until the object is closed.

6. Should I deinstall the product to install the newer version?

   Yes, all our products must be deinstalled before installing the newer version.

7. I can't see the port I want to monitor in the Free Serial Port Monitor. Where is it?

   Remember that the port must not be opened at the time you create a monitoring session. This is a correct behavior to create (or open) a monitoring session:

   1. Create a new monitoring session.
   2. Configure it by choosing the serial device and its settings.
   3. Start the monitored application
   4. ...
   5. Stop the monitoring application (or force it to close the port).
   6. Close the monitoring session (or the Free Serial Port Monitor).

8. How can I see the port settings, such as baud rate, flow control, parity etc.?

   When an application opens a port and then configures it, the system responds by sending the so called Input/Output Control Code requests (IOCTLs). The Serial Monitor intercepts all control requests, but do not display them by default (except the Table View). To enable displaying one or more control requests, go to the Tools|Settings menu option. Open the Serial IOCTLs tab and check the required control codes. This in an example of the Set Baud Rate request displayed in the Request View:
   
   

   IO Control: 04.09.2003 19:20:49.111931264 ( 0.0000000000 seconds)
DOWN (0x00000000): IOCTL_SERIAL_SET_BAUD_RATE: Set baud rate
  Baud Rate=115200


   See the included documentation for more information on this topic.

9. How can I configure the way the hex data displayed in the Request View?

   Start the monitoring session and select the View|Hex Data Display menu option to bring the Hex Data Display configuration dialog up. You can specify different visualization settings for the hex blocks. See the included documentation for more information.

10. How can I view the state of the serial control lines?

    Use the "Line View" visualizer to view the control line states.

11. How can I monitor multiple ports simultaneously?

    This functionality is not available directly, but you can launch multiple copies of the Free Serial Port Monitor and use them to monitor different ports.

12. I run the installtion/deinstalltion of the Free Serial Port Monitor and receive this error: "The ... following file was not found: 'HHD Software Free Serial Port Monitor X.XX.msi'". What should I do?

    This error can be caused by a damaged Windows Installer database on your computer. It is usually corrected by performing the full uninstall of the product and then by installing it again.

    To uninstall, use the original package you used to install the product. If the error persists, follow this procedure:

    1. Run the installation program.
    2. Select the language and press the OK button.
    3. Switch to your temporary folder (the one located by the TEMP environment variable).
    4. Make a copy of the created msi file (it looks like 'HHD Software Free Serial Port Monitor X.XX.msi').
    5. Cancel the running installation.
    6. Issue the following command at the command prompt:
       msiexec /x <path-to-msi-file>