Serial Preferences

Baud Rate

The Baud Rate gadget slider allows you to configure the number of bits that is transferred through the serial port a second. The further to the right the slider is the faster the transfer. Your modem must be capable of achieving the highest baud rate you set.

Input Buffer Size

The Input Buffer is an area of memory for incoming data. The buffers should be set in relation to the baud rate, so a large buffer should be set for the higher baud rates.

Handshaking

Handshaking controls the flow of information that goes through the serial port and the modem. The available handshaking options are:

XON/XOFF
XON and XOFF are special characters that regulate the flow of data between devices.

RTS/CTS
These are acronyms, RTS stands for Request to Send and CTS is Clear to Send. Like XON/XOFF, above, these regulate data flow for special serial cables.

NONE
No handshaking are used.

Parity

Parity is used to detect errors in the data stream by examining a bit in each character. These are called the parity bit. The available parity settings are:

None

Parity checking is not performed. This should be used when the Bits/Char is set to 8 (below).

Even
The number of ON bits in each character should be an even number.

Odd
The number of ON bits in each character should be an odd number

Mark
The parity bit is set to be ON always.

Space
The parity bit is set to be OFF always.

Bits/Char

The Bits per character specifies the number of bits that is expected and is actually sent through the serial port for each character.

If the parity is set to EVEN, ODD, MARK, or SPACE the bits per character should be set to 7. If it is set to NONE it should be set to 8.

Stop Bits

The Stop Bits are extra bits of data that are added to the end of a character to allow spacing between words as well as indicate the end of a transmission. This should be set to 1 data bit.

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