RS-232, RS-422, and RS-485 are serial communication methods for computers and devices. There are two articles in the Resource Center section of the Sealevel website that address these standards: Overview of Serial Communication Standards Choosing Serial I/O…

We maintain serial programming samples with source code on our FTP site: ftp.sealevel.com/pub/SOFTWARE/SEACOM/source samples/ Examples of programming samples include: a simple terminal program; a program to toggle modem control signals; and a Win32 API program…

Sealevel products are tested with many popular software programs. The 3rd Party Software Support page has a list of these programs with links to application notes that will help your get your Sealevel product working in your choice of application. If you…

PortMon for Microsoft Windows is a very useful tool. This utility monitors all serial port activity, shows how an application uses a port, and identifies problems with system or application configurations. You can find other helpful utility programs on the…

The SeaCOM serial driver looks exactly like the Windows driver to your application. SeaCOM uses the same API and calls as the Microsoft driver. However, SeaCOM provides many additional features not provided by the Microsoft serial driver such as: Auto RS-485…

There are known issues with the USB driver built into Windows XP SP1 (Service Pack 1) that affect suspend, hibernation, and restarting. This issue potentially affects all USB devices and is not specific to those manufactured by Sealevel. Microsoft released…

Yes. The Sealevel SeaCOM serial driver fully supports interrupt sharing. There are however a couple of points to mention. All Sealevel PCI serial cards fully support interrupt sharing on Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP and Vista operating systems. In order for interrupt…

For Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP/Vista, use Device Manager to uninstall the product prior to removing it from the computer or unplugging it, as in the case with USB serial. This ensures that when the product is reinstalled, the system will see it as a new piece…

Practically, it depends on your application and environment. The RS-232 standard specifies transmitting data up to 50 feet at 9600 bits per second (bps).

The most convenient method is to use a Sealevel Interface Converter to convert the electrical interface from RS-232 to RS-422 or RS-485. Use one of our interface converters at each end, with standard twisted pair cable in between, and you can communicate…