Haxxio UDP Serial Port Redirector
Field Specific Help
Topics
Topics
Topic Description
AutoStart Behaviour CheckBox If this box is checked, then an entry is made in the Windows Registry that will cause the Redirector to start automatically each time Windows is started.

 

This setting only takes effect the next time windows is started.

Bind To UDP Port Checkbox If this box is ticked, the Redirector will "bind" to the port in order to receive incoming data.

 

Only one program on a PC can be bound to a particular port at one time, and thus if the port is in use by another application the Redirector will be unable to bind. Thus the Redirector will be unable to receive data.

Buy Now Button This button only appears if you have not purchased a licence to use this software.

 

It will take you to the purchase portal, which will allow you to purchase a licence for this particular computer.

Bytes Transmitted Statistic This field is a counter which shows how many bytes of data have been sent to your application through the virtual serial port your application is connected to. If you don't have an application connected to the virtual serial port, or it has been disconnected then no bytes are being sent anywhere, so this counter does not increment.

 

This field is reset to zero whenever you change the serial port setting, or press the adjacent reset button.

Bytes Received Statistic This field is a counter that shows how many bytes have been received from your application into the Redirector's Virtual Serial port.

 

This field is reset to zero whenever you change the serial port setting, or press the adjacent reset button.

Disable Exit Button Checkbox If checked then this box disables the Exit Button.

 

Check this box to prevent the application accidentally being closed.

Exit Button This button closes the application.

 

If an application is connected to the Redirector, you will be asked if you really mean to exit. The reason for this is that if you terminate the Redirector, a virtual serial port to which you application is connected will get "stuck". If you restart the Redirector, it will attempt to reconnect to the "stuck" port.

 

This button can be disabled using the Disable Exit Button Checkbox.

Packets Transmitted Statistic This field counts how many UDP packets have been sent.

 

This field is reset to zero whenever you change the UDP port settings, or press the adjacent UDP Statistics Reset Button .

Packets Received Statistic This field records how many packets have been received on the UDP interface you have configured.

 

Packets will only be received, and thus counted if you have ticked the Bind to UDP Port Checkbox

 

This field is reset to zero whenever you change the UDP port settings, or press the adjacent UDP Statistics Reset Button.

Remote IP Address This field has a number of functions, depending on what mode is selected using the UDP Transmit Mode Selection feature.

Serial Port Configure Button This button will have one of two captions, either "Open" or "Configure"

 

If the button is captioned "Open", when pressed the Redirector will create the serial port you have selected or defined in the Serial Port Selection Entry field. Prior to pressing the button you can change the serial port setting.

 

if the button is entitled "Configure" then the port is currently created, and you may not change the setting. Press the button to enable configuration of the port.

Serial Port Selection Entry Select which Virtual Serial Port you would like to have created here.

 

You may either select a port from the list provided, or you may enter a port name directly.

 

The port list provided is edited to remove ports that are already present in your system. You can override this by creating another (eg) COM1, but this is not recommended, and may lead to system instability.

 

Serial ports do not have to begin COM, they can have any name. However, many applications that operate with serial ports only provide for a subset of fixed names, sometimes as limited as COM1 through COM4. Under these circumstances, you have to configure a port in the Redirector that matches a port that is both available, and can be selected from your target application.

Serial Port Status This field displays the status of the created Virtual Serial Port.

 

If there is no application connected to the port, it will be captioned as "Closed".

 

Once an application connects, the field will reflect the settings of the port as set by your connecting application. The field will then display something like "Open 4800,N,8,1" reflecting the state of the port.

 

The string displayed is built up as the connecting application calls for settings of the serial port, so there may be either an incomplete string, or just the word "Open" if the connecting application hasn't got around to setting the port parameters yet. The setting of the serial parameters normally happens so quickly that the field changes from "Closed" to "Open 2400,N,8,1" apparently instantly.

 

See Also: Why does the Redirector not have flow control

Serial Port Stats Reset Button Pressing this button resets the counters for the serial port.
Startup behaviour Radio Buttons This set of radio buttons determines how the Redirector looks and acts when it starts up.

 

Note: You can choose the Redirector to start automatically each time Windows starts, see AutoStartBehavior

Timer Interval Selection This dropbox selects how frequently the Redirector considers transmitting a packet of data.

 

If the UDP Transmit Mode Selection is set for "No Transmissions" then this setting does not appear.

 

The appropriate setting of this variable is the most critical tuning setting for the Redirector. Generally, the higher the baud rate of the connecting application, and the greater volume of data that needs to be sent, and the faster the application response time needs to be, then the shorter should be the inter packet interval.

 

If the transmit frequency is too great, then many short packets of data will be sent, which is generally considered wasteful of network bandwidth. If the transmit frequency is too low, then a small number of large packets will be sent. This is good from the network's perspective, but may introduce unacceptable delays into the communication process.

 

A number of statistics are provided to help you optimize your setting, see Maximum Block Size and Average Packet Size statistics.

 

A single UDP packet can hold 1492 bytes of data. If in a single transmit slot the Redirector has more than 1492 bytes of data to send, then an "Oversize" indicator will appear. This does not mean that either an oversize packet has been sent (which would be illegal from the network's perspective) or that data has been lost; merely it indicates that two or more packets have been sent in this time interval. Whether this is acceptable or not depends on the receiving application. If there is something special about a packet, then it may matter. if the data is just transmitted as a stream, then there is probably not going to be any negative impacts.

UDP Average Packet Size Statistic This statistic shows the average size of UDP network transmitted packets. The maximum possible size is 1492 bytes, the size of a full UDP packet.

 

This counter is reset whenever the network communications parameters are changed, or when the UDP Statistics Reset Button is pressed.

UDP Bytes transmitted Statistic This is a simple count of the number of bytes transmitted in UDP packets.

 

This counter is reset whenever the network communications parameters are changed, or when the UDP Statistics Reset Button is pressed.

UDP Configure Button This button will have one of two captions, either "Open" or "Configure"

 

If the button is captioned "Open", when pressed the Redirector will open a network port according to the setting configured. Prior to pressing the button you can change the UDP port setting, which are held within the frame entitled "Transmitted data". Note many fields in this frame appear and disappear according to the UDP Transmit Mode Selection.

 

if the button is entitled "Configure" then the UDP port is currently open, and you may not change the setting. Press the button to enable configuration of the port.

UDP Maximum Block Size Statistic This statistic records the maximum number of bytes of data that have been sent in one transmission interval. This number can be greater than 1492 bytes, the maximum size of a UDP packet, as the data may have been split into several packets.

 

See also: Timer Interval Selection

UDP Port Selection Entry Select which UDP port you wish to transmit and/or receive on here.

 

Whilst the Redirector is running, this field is not editable, to make it editable use the adjacent "Configure" button.

 

Choice of port should be made carefully. Many of the UDP ports have pre-assigned functions, particularly those below 1024.

UDP Statistics Reset Button This button resets all the statistics related to UDP transmission and reception.
UDP Transmit Mode Selection This selection controls how the Redirector sends data.

 

There are five distinct transmission modes.

Links
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