Windows com port capture

Why capture data from the COM port?

Tracking down a problem that might appear during the development stage of the custom application or a driver for a COM device and dealing with it in the shortest time would not be possible without the ability to capture serial data and store it for the later use and analysis.

Unfortunately, Windows does not offer any built into the OS utilities that would help achieve this. So, one would need to resort to the help of specialized, Serial port Monitor that would assist with capturing and examining the data exchange between RS232 devices and Windows applications

Key features of Serial Port Monitor

Serial Port Monitor, a software utility produced by Electronic Team, Inc. to capture serial data, will definitely come in handy with software/hardware debugging and development.

RS232 data capture

Capture and view the data exchange between the connected serial appliance and the application which opens the corresponding COM port. The information is collected in real time once the data packets are being transferred.

Monitor lots of serial ports at once

An activity from multiple COM ports can be captured using Serial Port Monitor. Data will be displayed in logs on a first-in-first-out basis, which will be especially convenient for later analysis.

View and export data

Select one from the 5 available view modes: Table, Line, Dump, Terminal or Modbus to display data in the required form. Capture serial data to file to examine it when the most convenient for you.

Send data to a serial device

A built-in terminal will allow you to open/close RS232 ports and send specific types of data to a serial device, which will be an excellent method to check its response to a certain command.

HDD Serial Port Monitor

HDD Serial Port Monitor is another friendly COM port sniffer for Windows, which allows monitoring and recording data from RS-232, RS-422, and RS-485 interfaces. This handy solution will help you easily analyze serial port activity and detect any issues with serial data communications.

Картинка с сайта: www.virtual-serial-port.org

Serial Port Monitor freeware gives you the way to sniff several COM ports simultaneously, so you can see how your apps interact with several serial devices within one session.

This app is especially useful for those who develop serial software, device drivers or serial hardware. It is a convenient tool for testing, debugging, and optimizing RS232 products.

One of the key advantages of this solution is that you can use this software sniffer of RS232 ports for free, but with limitation.

Serial Monitor is a reliable solution which works with high data transfer rates and makes it possible to easily change the way the raw data is displayed. Even if the session is completed you can still save the monitored data for its further analysis. This RS232 serial communication software is friendly and flexible and definitely deserves your attention if you’re a serial app developer or tester.

2. EZ-Tap RS232 Pro RS232 sniffer

RS232 hardware sniffer produced by Stratus Engineering will help you resolve the latency and time-tagging issues commonly faced by users of traditional dual COM port sniffing tools.

Картинка с сайта: www.virtual-serial-port.org

The clear benefits you get with EZ-Tap RS232 Pro hardware:

• No need to rely on bulky and expansive RS232 sniffer cables;
• You can track down the activity of multiple serial interfaces at a time and redirect the monitoring data to a file;
• The app provides simple access to serial ports and logging of all the data sent and received;
• EZ-Tap RS232 Pro fully supports Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7/10 (x32 and x64);
• Together with the hardware Com Port Sniffer, you receive the device drivers, Mini-B USB cable and a dedicated EZ-View monitoring software.

This RS232 packet analyzer can monitor full and half duplex serial communications and stream data to a dedicated RS232CPM COM monitor application.As well as an active rs232 sniffer cable that monitors the DTE/DCE and RTS/CTS lines in addition and Tx/Rx lines. EZ-Tap RS232 Pro is equipped with a male DB9 connector on one end and a female DB9 connector on the other end. Thanks to this, it can be inserted between two COM-based devices that need to be sniffed.

To use this solution, you just need to connect it to a USB port of your PC with the help of a USB A to mini B cable, install its drivers as well as the supplied RS232CPM app and start sniffing.

A nice thing about the RS232 COM Tap is that it can also be used with any RS232 terminal app supporting virtual COM ports, for instance, Windows HyperTerminal.

Modbus Sniffer

Modbus is a master/slave serial communication protocol popular in the industrial environment mainly because it’s openly published and royalty-free. Originally It was used to connect various industrial electronic devices over RS-485 protocol, though many other versions are available now for RS-232, RS-422, and TCP/IP (Modbus TCP) protocols.

Modbus protocol has a broad scope of application, particularly Modbus ASCII and Modbus RTU versions. The second is used the most among all Modbus protocols. So, if you are in the process of developing software to communicate with some electronic devices through the Modbus RTU, you’re definitely going to need a high- grade Modbus RTU sniffer. It’s a specialized RS485 Protocol Analyzer that will help you to analyze data sent through the protocol. The same applies to the Modbus ASCII version, with the only difference that you’ll need another version of a port scanner software.

Modbus Sniffer by Electronic Team, Inc. allows you to not only monitor all the relevant data sent through Modbus ASCII and Modbus RTU protocols but also log it for future analysis. It has a user-friendly interface and displays data in different view modes. On top of that, this particular protocol analyzer provides an opportunity to filter collected data for more accurate analysis.

Картинка с сайта: www.virtual-serial-port.org

With this professional-grade Modbus sniffer software you’ll be able to:

• Establish a connection with any serial port and instantly get a full real-time view of all the information transferred through it, so you can straightaway fix all the emerging problems. Even if some other application is already using that port at the very same time, it won’t stop Modbus Sniffer to effectively carry out its task.
• Simultaneously monitor multiple serial ports and conveniently log all the gathered information into a single file by the first-in-first-out principle.
• Choose the modes to display captured data: table, line, dump or terminal. Use them in any combination and apply filters for a more accurate and comprehensive analysis.
• Check the serial device’s response to specific commands with an emulated transmission of data.
• Use the terminal mode to emulate data transmission from a monitored serial port to a device that is connected to it. This feature might be particularly useful during the Modbus communication test, given that it provides means to monitor any given device responds to certain commands or data.