docs/man20081211a/man20081211a.tex

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//PURPOSE.  THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM
//IS WITH YOU.  SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF
//ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
//
//  16. Limitation of Liability.
//
//  IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING
//WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MODIFIES AND/OR CONVEYS
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//PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS),
//EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
//SUCH DAMAGES.
//
//  17. Interpretation of Sections 15 and 16.
//
//  If the disclaimer of warranty and limitation of liability provided
//above cannot be given local legal effect according to their terms,
//reviewing courts shall apply local law that most closely approximates
//an absolute waiver of all civil liability in connection with the
//Program, unless a warranty or assumption of liability accompanies a
//copy of the Program in return for a fee.
//
//                     END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
//
//            How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
//
//  If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
//possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
//free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.
//
//  To do so, attach the following notices to the program.  It is safest
//to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
//state the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least
//the "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
//
//    <one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.>
//    Copyright (C) <year>  <name of author>
//
//    This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
//    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
//    the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
//    (at your option) any later version.
//
//    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
//    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
//    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
//    GNU General Public License for more details.
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//    along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
//
//Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.
//
//  If the program does terminal interaction, make it output a short
//notice like this when it starts in an interactive mode:
//
//    <program>  Copyright (C) <year>  <name of author>
//    This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `show w'.
//    This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
//    under certain conditions; type `show c' for details.
//
//The hypothetical commands `show w' and `show c' should show the appropriate
//parts of the General Public License.  Of course, your program's commands
//might be different; for a GUI interface, you would use an "about box".
//
//  You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or school,
//if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program, if necessary.
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//<http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
//
//  The GNU General Public License does not permit incorporating your program
//into proprietary programs.  If your program is a subroutine library, you
//may consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with
//the library.  If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Lesser General
//Public License instead of this License.  But first, please read
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//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------%
%\pagestyle{headings}
%
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%
%-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
%Constants
\newcommand{\productversion}{0.1a}
\newcommand{\productname}{scirfmmon}
\newcommand{\productnameemph}{\emph{\productname}}
\newcommand{\productcompiledate}{Jan 17 2009}
\newcommand{\productassertletter}{a}
\newcommand{\productversionhash}{63570560d4fd6dc71431d7bca67c8ff35c9fd1fe}
%-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
%New environments
%The following environment is for the glossary of terms at the end, if
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%%
%-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
%Embarrassingly, I've forgotten why "makeindex" is necessary ...
\makeindex
%
\begin{document}
%-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
%"See" References
%-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\title{\textbf{\huge{The \productnameemph{} Program, Version \productversion{}}\\\vspace*{0.7cm}
       \normalsize{(\productcompiledate{}, \productassertletter{}, \productversionhash{})}}}
\author{\vspace*{3.0cm}\\%
   \small{David T. Ashley   (\texttt{dashley@gmail.com})}}
\date{\vspace*{3.5cm}\small{Document Version Control $ $Revision: 1.20 $ $ \\
      Document Version Control $ $Date: 2009/01/17 22:17:01 $ $ (UTC) \\
      Document $ $RCSfile: man20081211a.tex,v $ $ \\
      Document \LaTeX{} Compilation Date: \today{}}}
\maketitle
\begin{abstract}
This document describes the \productnameemph{} program,
version \productversion{} (mnemonic:  \emph{SCI} \emph{RF} \emph{m}odule
\emph{mon}itor).  The \productnameemph{} program is a console-mode \emph{Win32} program 
that monitors SCI communication between 
a host microcontroller and the LS Research \emph{FreeStar Module}, analyzes character and 
packet transmissions and exchanges, logs communication activity,
and outputs diagnostic information.
\\\\
This document also provides some information about a hardware configuration that will
work to interface the SCI lines of a host microcontroller to the
\productnameemph{} program running on a PC.
\\\\
The \productnameemph{} program and all related documentation
is provided under the GPL (GNU General
Public License).
\end{abstract}

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\clearpage{}
\pagenumbering{roman}    %No page number on table of contents.
\tableofcontents{}
\clearpage{}
\listoffigures
\clearpage{}

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%Force the page number to 1.  We don't want to count the TOC page(s) as a
%used-up number.
%
\setcounter{page}{1}
\pagenumbering{arabic}

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%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\section{Introduction and Overview}
\label{siov0}


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subsection{Overview of \productnameemph{}}
\label{siov0:sovw0}

\index{\productname@\productnameemph{}}\productnameemph{} is a \emph{Win32} console-mode
application that:

\begin{itemize}
\item Monitors the SCI traffic between one host system and one LS Research Freestar 
      Module.  
      (Because the traffic is bidirectional and full duplex, two serial adapters are 
      required.)
\item Logs and displays the characters transmitted between the host system and FreeStar Module.
\item Logs, displays, and analyzes the packets transmitted between each host system and FreeStar 
      Module, flagging any errors or anomalies.
\end{itemize}

\productnameemph{} is designed so that:

\begin{itemize}
\item It can use any serial ports that \emph{Windows} recognizes; including ports built into
      the motherboard of a laptop 
      or desktop PC, bus expansion cards, and USB-to-serial adapters.
\end{itemize}

\productnameemph{} is designed to run under 
\index{Windows XP@\emph{Windows XP}}\emph{Windows XP} 
and \index{Windows Vista@\emph{Windows Vista}}\emph{Windows Vista} only (although
it is possible that it will run under other versions of 
\emph{Windows}).


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subsection{License}
\label{siov0:slic0}

\index{license}The \productnameemph{} program and all related documentation
is provided under the \index{GPL}GPL (\index{GNU General Public License}%
GNU General Public
License) \cite{bibref:swlic:gpl}.

The reason for the selection of the GPL is so that LSR and CEL can pass this solution
(including source code) on to customers without restrictions.

The GPL does require that modifications to the program be made public.  There
are several ways to meet this requirement, including:

\begin{itemize}
\item The modified source code may be posted on a website (\emph{any} website).
\item The modified source code may be supplied to 
      Dave Ashley \cite{{bibref:i:daveashley}}, and Dave
      may integrate the changes into the version control archives and re-release the
      program.
\item The entity making the modifications may create a project at 
      \index{SourceForge@\emph{SourceForge}}\emph{SourceForge} \cite{bibref:osws:sourceforge}
      or add the source code to an existing \emph{SourceForge} project.
\end{itemize} 

Dave Ashley \cite{bibref:i:daveashley} is the logical first contact for discussion
about how to make modified source code public.


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subsection{Versioning of Executable Program}
\label{siov0:svin0}
 
In the console output and at the start of log files, the
\productnameemph{} program writes a line similar to the following.  This
line is a version identification line.
\\\\
\begin{footnotesize}
\noindent{}\texttt{scirfmmon, v0.1a (Jan 15 2009, A, 0132f11a686cd6efcb395cef23b2231106d5fd25)}\\
\end{footnotesize}

The components of the version identification line are:

\begin{itemize}
\item The program name (``\texttt{scirfmmon}'').
\item The version number (``\texttt{v0.1a}'').
\item The compile date (``\texttt{Jan 15, 2009}'').
\item Whether or not debugging assertions are enabled (``\texttt{A}'').  (``\texttt{A}''
      indicates that debugging assertions are enabled, whereas ``\texttt{a}''
      would indicate that debugging assertions are disabled.)
\item A hash (``\texttt{0132f11a686cd6efcb395cef23b2231106d5fd25}'')
      calculated as a function
      of the version control information and compile date/time
      information as known to the compiler and embedded in the software source files.
      (The purpose of the hash is to decisively identify different compilations of the
      program that unwisely have the same version number.  Compilation at a different date or time
      or using a different version control revision 
      of a source file will
      result in a different hash.)
\end{itemize}


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subsection{Revision History}
\label{siov0:srhs0}

\begin{itemize}
\item \textbf{0.1a, January 17, 2009, a,\\
      63570560d4fd6dc71431d7bca67c8ff35c9fd1fe}\\
      Initial release.  No known defects other than documented in
      \S{}\ref{skli0}.
\end{itemize}

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\section{Software Design and Theory of Operation} 
\label{sswd0}


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subsection{General Theory of Operation} 
\label{sswd0:sgto0}

The general theory of operation of the \productnameemph{}
program is that:

\begin{itemize}
\item Each serial interface to the target system is
      2-wire only (ground and received data)\@.  Data is not
      transmitted by \productnameemph{}
      (it is only received).  Neither hardware nor software 
      handshaking
      is used.
\item The program uses exactly three threads:
      \begin{itemize}
      \item Two identical communication worker threads (one for each serial
            port)\@.  These threads each:
            \begin{itemize}
            \item Poll a single serial port using the 
                  \emph{Windows} serial API.
            \item Place received characters and events (serial
                  break, several types of errors) into a queue.  There is
                  a separate queue for each serial port.
            \item Separately timestamp received characters and events\@.  (Because
                  of thread scheduling latencies and for other reasons, 
                  this means that it is difficult to determine
                  exact timing relationships between characters arriving on
                  \emph{different} serial ports.)
            \end{itemize}
      \item The primary thread which:
            \begin{itemize}
            \item Accepts input from the two communication worker threads
                  via two queues of events.\footnote{Not related to the
                  \emph{Windows} notion of events.}  (Received characters 
                  as well as detected
                  serial communcation errors are events.)
            \item Duplicates (or ``fans out'') queued events into other queues.
                  (There is a
                  separate queue for event logging, and a separate queue for
                  packet analysis,
                  for example).
            \item Processes and parses events, characters, and packets.
            \item Writes information to several log files, created automatically in
                  the working directory whenever the program is invoked.
            \item Writes information to the standard output (usually the console).
            \item Accepts CTRL-C as a termination signal and gracefully stops the
                  communication worker threads as part of the termination sequence.
            \end{itemize}
      \end{itemize}
\item Because of IPC issues between threads, there is some care taken
      in the way that the communication worker threads and the
      primary thread share queues (\S{}\ref{sswd0:sqip0}).
\end{itemize}


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subsection{Serial Communication Theory of Operation}
\label{sswd0:ssct0}

The most helpful online information about the \emph{Win32} serial 
communication API is \cite{bibref:twp:ms810467}.  \cite{bibref:twp:ms810467}
describes
both nonoverlapped and overlapped I/O.

For simplicity, the \productnameemph{} uses exclusively nonoverlapped 
I/O\@.  Within each communcation worker thread (\texttt{cw\_threads.c}), the 
\emph{ClearCommError()} function is called repeatedly
to obtain the number of characters available.  If characters are available,
the precise number of available characters is requested via the 
\emph{ReadFile()} call.  If no characters are available,
one character is requested via the \emph{ReadFile()} call, forcing
the \emph{ReadFile()} call to either time out or return immediately
when at least one character becomes available.


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subsection{Queueing and IPC Theory of Operation} 
\label{sswd0:sqip0}

The bulk of \productnameemph{} is ordinary C programming with no IPC
considerations.  Queues of timestamped events are carried through the program, where
an event is either a received character, a serial communication error (such
as a parity error), or a serial communication event (such as a received
\emph{break}).

In the shared data structures between the communication worker threads
and the primary thread, however, IPC issues do exist.  The way these
IPC issues are handled is described in this section.

The \emph{Win32} API is incompletely documented, so the
\emph{EnterCriticalSection()} and \emph{LeaveCriticalSection()}
functions were evaluated to determine their underlying behavior
(\texttt{thread\_test.c}).
It was determined that these functions won't necessarily allow threads
to enter critical sections in the same order that entry is attempted.
Under the right conditions where there is accidental synchronization between thread
scheduling, this could lead to deadlock (although it is improbable)\@.
For this reason, \emph{EnterCriticalSection()} and \emph{LeaveCriticalSection()}
were not used to handle the IPC issues in sharing a queue between the
communication worker threads and the primary thread.

The \emph{Win32} documentation indicates that reads and writes to
a 32-bit integer are always atomic, so the following simple mechanism 
was used to share data between the communication worker threads and the
primary thread.  The details of the mechanism (per queue) are:

\begin{itemize}
\item Each communication worker thread has a 32-bit variable reserved to
      indicate whether the communication worker thread or the primary thread
      is allowed to access the shared queue.
      \begin{itemize}
      \item The value of zero indicates that the communication worker thread
            is allowed to place characters into the queue.  (After placing
            characters into the queue, the communication worker thread should
            change the value of the variable to a non-zero value.)
      \item A non-zero value indicates that the primary thread is allowed
            to consume characters from the queue.  (After removing characters
            from the queue, the primary thread should change the value of the
            variable to zero.)
      \end{itemize}
      \item The mechanism is safe because in all threads a test is done
            before the assignment.  The communication worker thread
            will change the value of the variable only if it is zero, and
            the primary thread will change the value of the variable only
            if it is non-zero.
\end{itemize}

\begin{figure}
\centering
\begin{small}
\begin{verbatim}
//Try to move the characters from the 
//intermediate queue to the thread synchronization
//queue.  The thread synchronization queue is a 
//shared resource, so there is a protocol.
//
if (inceq.n != 0)
   {
   if (C_MAIN_TsQueueSyncSemaphore0 == 0) //Belongs to worker thread.
      {
      QCHAR_inceq_tsceq_transfer(&inceq, &C_MAIN_tsceq0);
      C_MAIN_TsQueueSyncSemaphore0 = 1;  //Belongs to primary thread.
      }
   }
\end{verbatim}
\end{small}
\caption{Communication Worker Thread Source Code to Safely Share Event Queue With Primary
         Thread}
\label{fig:sswd0:sqip0:01}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}
\centering
\begin{small}
\begin{verbatim}
//The transfer out of the TSCEQs has to be coordinated with the worker,
//threads, hence the use of the semaphore variables.  Without 
//coordination, bizarre effects could result with interleaving of
//access.
//
if (C_MAIN_TsQueueSyncSemaphore0 != 0) //Belongs to primary thread.
   {
   QCHAR_tsceq_ptceq_transfer(&C_MAIN_tsceq0, &C_MAIN_ptceq0);
   C_MAIN_TsQueueSyncSemaphore0 = 0;  //Belongs to worker thread.
   }
if (C_MAIN_TsQueueSyncSemaphore1 != 0) //Belongs to primary thread.
   {
   QCHAR_tsceq_ptceq_transfer(&C_MAIN_tsceq1, &C_MAIN_ptceq1);
   C_MAIN_TsQueueSyncSemaphore1 = 0;  //Belongs to worker thread.
   }
\end{verbatim}
\end{small}
\caption{Primary Thread Source Code to Safely Share Event Queue With
         Communication Worker Threads}
\label{fig:sswd0:sqip0:02}
\end{figure}

Figure \ref{fig:sswd0:sqip0:01} (p. \pageref{fig:sswd0:sqip0:01}) shows
the code in a communication worker thread to protect access to the
shared queue; and Figure \ref{fig:sswd0:sqip0:02} 
(p. \pageref{fig:sswd0:sqip0:02}) shows the analogous code in the
primary thread.

The protocol used for the shared queues (\texttt{C\_MAIN\_tsceq0}
and \texttt{C\_MAIN\_tsceq1} in Figures \ref{fig:sswd0:sqip0:01}
and \ref{fig:sswd0:sqip0:02}) implies (due to thread scheduling
uncertainties) that the shared queues may be unavailable to the
communication worker threads for an unknown period of time once
the coordination variable is assigned to a non-zero value.
For this reason, each communication worker thread keeps an internal
queue to hold received characters until they can be transferred to the
shared queue.  The primary thread also keeps queues 
(\texttt{C\_MAIN\_ptceq0} and \texttt{C\_MAIN\_ptceq1} in
Figure \ref{fig:sswd0:sqip0:02}) so that the shared queues can be
evacuated quickly and fully.  The only queues in the
\productnameemph{} program
shared between threads and subject to special
access protocols are \texttt{C\_MAIN\_tsceq0}
and \texttt{C\_MAIN\_tsceq1}.


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\section{Hardware Setup}
\label{shsu0}


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subsection{Hardware Requirements}
\label{shsu0:shrq0}

The \productnameemph{} program uses the serial commication API of \emph{Windows}, so any
serial port recognized by \emph{Windows} should be satisfactory.  Two serial interfaces
are required.  \productnameemph{}
should work with any mixture of the following types of serial interfaces:

\begin{itemize}
\item A serial port built into the motherboard of a computer.
\item A serial port installed as a bus expansion card.
\item A serial port interfaced via a USB-to-serial adapter.
\end{itemize}

The interface required to the personal computer is 2-wire only:  ground and
received data.  The \productnameemph{} program does not transmit data or
use hardware or software flow control (it only monitors serial traffic).

Generally, some electronics are required to interface the serial lines of the
host microcontroller system to a PC, as the RS-232
interface nominally requires 12-volt signals.  It is likely that serial adapters
exist that will work at TTL logic levels (negating the need for
interface electronics), but this possibility was not 
investigated.


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subsection{Description of a Possible Interface Hardware Configuration}
\label{shsu0:sdph0}

This section describes in detail a hardware configuration that is known to work
for interfacing from a host microcontroller to a personal computer.
The hardware configuration described is certainly not unique.

Note that the interface hardware as described has some limitations.
Please see \S{}\ref{skli0:sdap0}, \S{}\ref{skli0:sgoi0}, and
\S{}\ref{skli0:ssud0}.

The serial adapters used were the \index{Dynex}Dynex \cite{bibref:vendor:dynex}
``\emph{16-Inch USB PDA/Serial Adapter Cable}'', model \index{DX-UBDB9}DX-UBDB9.
There was no particular reason for choosing this model except availability: 
it was on the shelves at \emph{Best Buy} for about \$35.\footnote{\$35 each---two
will cost approximately \$70.}  These adapters are shown most clearly in
Figure \ref{fig:shsu0:sdph0:06}.  As of January, 2009 these adapters have been
discontinued, but there are other similar adapters available from several
manufacturers.

\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=4.6in]{etminia.eps}
\caption{ET-MINI RS-232 Level Translator, With U.S. Quarter for Size Scale}
\label{fig:shsu0:sdph0:01}
\end{figure}

In order to shift the SCI levels for input into a PC serial adapter,
the ``\emph{RS232 to TTL-3V Converter Mini Board}'' (Figure \ref{fig:shsu0:sdph0:01})
was purchased from \index{Futurelec}Futurelec \cite{bibref:vendor:futurelec}.
(\emph{Note:}  \index{Futurelec}Futurelec took a few weeks to deliver the interface boards,
despite the fact that I specified overnight shipping.
If time is critical, I recommend ordering a similar product from another
vendor or building a board from scratch using the ADM3232 or similar.)

\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=4.6in]{rs232transinnera.eps}
\caption{RS-232 Level Translator Box Inside View}
\label{fig:shsu0:sdph0:02}
\end{figure}

The RS-232 converter board was packaged inside a project box
(purchased from \index{Radio Shack}Radio Shack).  The 
converter board was affixed with standoffs to the back of the top
panel (Figure \ref{fig:shsu0:sdph0:02}).

\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=4.6in]{rs232transtopa.eps}
\caption{RS-232 Level Translator Box Top View}
\label{fig:shsu0:sdph0:03}
\end{figure}

The RS-232 level translator was equipped with batteries, a power switch, 
a battery test feature,
and the necessary connections (Figure \ref{fig:shsu0:sdph0:03}).

\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=4.6in]{rs232transdesktopa.eps}
\caption{RS-232 Level Translator Box In Use On Desktop}
\label{fig:shsu0:sdph0:04}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=4.6in]{rs232transmicroconnecta.eps}
\caption{RS-232 Level Translator Box Microcontroller Product Connection}
\label{fig:shsu0:sdph0:05}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=4.6in]{rs232transpcconnecta.eps}
\caption{RS-232 Level Translator Box PC Connection}
\label{fig:shsu0:sdph0:06}
\end{figure}

Figure \ref{fig:shsu0:sdph0:04} shows the level translator in use with a laptop computer.
Figure \ref{fig:shsu0:sdph0:05} shows the connection of the level translator to a
microcontroller product (phono jacks were used).
Figure \ref{fig:shsu0:sdph0:06} shows the connection of the level translator
to a laptop computer.


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\section{Program Usage}
\label{susg0}


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subsection{Finding Device Names of PC Serial Ports}
\label{susg0:sfdn0}

Before invoking the \productnameemph{} program, the device names of 
the two personal computer serial ports that will be used
to monitor SCI communication must be known.

\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=4.6in]{devmancomassignmentsa.eps}
\caption{Screen Snapshot From \emph{Windows} Device Manager 
         (\emph{Windows Vista})}
\label{fig:susg0:sfdn0:01}
\end{figure}

Guessing the serial device names is not always possible, especially with USB adapters,
where the port numbers assigned may be $>10$ and may change when the USB adapter
is disconnected and reconnected to the computer.

The device names can typically be found by opening the \emph{Device Manager} (typically
under \emph{System} in the \emph{Windows} control panel).  (Naturally, the
devices must be plugged in if they are removable and the correct drivers
must be installed.)

Figure \ref{fig:susg0:sfdn0:01} is a screen snapshot from the \emph{Device Manager}
under \emph{Windows Vista}.  Under \emph{Ports (COM \& LPT)} it can be seen
in this figure that the device names are ``COM12'' and ``COM13''.


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subsection{Testing and Troubleshooting Serial Ports}
\label{susg0:stts0}

For testing and troubleshooting, it was found that
\index{Realterm@\emph{RealTerm}}\emph{RealTerm} \cite{bibref:swp:realterm}
(free open-source software) works very well for displaying the
characters received by a serial port.  
\index{Realterm@\emph{RealTerm}}\emph{RealTerm} is able to display all
received characters in hexadecimal, which is very helpful.

\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=4.6in]{rtermsnapshot01.eps}
\caption{\emph{RealTerm} Screen Snapshot (Hexadecimal Display Selected)}
\label{fig:susg0:stts0:01}
\end{figure}

Figure \ref{fig:susg0:stts0:01} is a screen snapshot of
\index{Realterm@\emph{RealTerm}}\emph{RealTerm} being used
to capture data.

\index{HyperTerminal@\emph{HyperTerminal}}\emph{HyperTerminal} (the default
serial communcation program in many versions of \emph{Windows})
is not recommended because of bugs involving bit 7 of incoming characters
(and perhaps other bugs as well).


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%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subsection{Program Invocation and Command-Line Parameters}
\label{susg0:spin0}

\productnameemph{} is typically invoked by opening a DOS shell and 
typing ``\texttt{\productname{}} \emph{ch0commport}
\emph{ch1commport} \emph{logcharstocon} \emph{logpacketstocon}'' (where
the four required parameters are described in detail below), 
followed by \emph{ENTER}.  Because the program creates the log files 
(\S{}\ref{susg0:slgf0}) in the current working directory, the desired
working directory is normally selected before invoking the program.

It is likely possible to invoke the program via the \emph{Windows} GUI,
but this has not been explored.

\productnameemph{} requires the following four command-line parameters:

\begin{itemize}
\item \emph{ch0commport}\\
      \emph{ch1commport}\\
      These two parameters are the serial port names
      of the communication ports to be used.
      
      By convention, Channel 0 (\emph{ch0commport} above) is the serial communication
      from the host microcontroller to the RF module, and Channel 1
      (\emph{ch1commport} above) is the
      serial communication from the RF module to the host microcontroller.

      For example, with the communication hardware implied by 
      Figure \ref{fig:susg0:sfdn0:01}, invoking the program using the
      command line\\\\
      \texttt{\productname{} com12 com13 n n}\\\\
      would result in the program expecting to listen to the output from
      the host microcontroller on \emph{com12} and the output from the
      RF module on \emph{com13}.
\item \emph{logcharstocon}\\
      \emph{logpacketstocon}\\
      Whether to log received characters and received packets, respectively,
      to the console (in addition to logging them to the
      character and packet log files).  

      The normal guesses for \emph{yes} and \emph{no}
      (``y'', ``1'', ``n'', ``0'', etc.) are all accepted.

      Errors are \emph{always} displayed on the console (as well as written to
      the alert log
      file).
\end{itemize}


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%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subsection{Program Termination}
\label{susg0:sptm0}

The \productnameemph{} program can be terminated by using CTRL-C.  Using 
CTRL-C once will signal the program to terminate the communication threads
in an orderly way, write trailing information to log files, and terminate.
Termination may take up to approximately 5 seconds.

The program will also terminate upon a variety of abnormal conditions,
such as unexpected errors from \emph{Win32} API functions.


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subsection{Log Files}
\label{susg0:slgf0}

When started, the \productnameemph{} program creates several log files in
the current working directory.  All of the created log files are 
plain text and can be viewed, manipulated, and printed
using a text editor.  This section describes these files.


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subsubsection{Log File Creation, Naming, and Syntax}
\label{susg0:slgf0:sfcn0}

Log files are named based on the local date and time in
YYYYMMDD\_HHMMSS format.   For example, a log file named
``\texttt{20090116\_131247\_alert.txt}'' was created at 
approximately 1:12 p.m. on January 16, 2009 (local time).

When started, \productnameemph{} creates an alert log file (containing error
messages), a character log file (containing a log of received characters,
serial events, and serial errors), a packet log file (containing 
information about parsed packets), and a comprehensive log file
(containing all log entries to any file).

Additionally, messages are written to the console (\S{}\ref{susg0:spin0}).

The naming convention for log files means that \productnameemph{}
can be run repeatedly in the same directory and the log file names will
not conflict.

A typical set of log file names from a single invocation of
\productnameemph{} is:

\begin{verbatim}
20090116_131247_alert.txt
20090116_131247_character.txt
20090116_131247_comprehensive.txt
20090116_131247_packet.txt
\end{verbatim}

Within each log file, entries are timestamped in HHMMSS.FFF format,
where ``FFF'' is the fractional portion of the second.


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subsubsection{Alert Log File Contents}
\label{susg0:slgf0:salf0}

The alert log file contains entries that indicate some sort of 
unusual event or logical problem.  The purpose of the alert log
file is to segregate error messages so that the other log files
do not have to be searched for error messages.  Generally, an
empty alert log file indicates no problems in SCI communication.

Typical entries from the alert log file are:

\begin{small}
\begin{verbatim}
131247.848:ALRT: CH01:Non-packet start event discarded: Character: 0x57.
131247.848:ALRT: CH01:Non-packet start event discarded: Character: 0xFF.
\end{verbatim}
\end{small}

Note that:

\begin{itemize}
\item All alert messages are also duplicated to the console.
\item Alert messages are usually also duplicated to the log files(s) 
      where the messages have relevance.  For example, the packet parse errors
      reproduced above would also be placed in the packet log file.
\end{itemize}


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subsubsection{Character Log File Contents}
\label{susg0:slgf0:sclf0}

The character log file contains a complete log of received characters,
serial events, and serial errors.

Typical entries from the character log file are:

\begin{footnotesize}
\begin{verbatim}
131247.848:NORM: CH00:<01><12><14><3A><11><00><04><B1><BB><D4><60><00><40><40>
131247.848:NORM: CH00:<01><1D><B4><04>
131247.879:NORM: CH00:<01><12><14><3B><11><00><04><B1><BB><D4><60>
131247.848:NORM: CH01:<57><FF><01><08><94><3A><01><00><D8><04>
131247.864:NORM: CH01:<01><15><95><41><11><D4><00><16><E6><04><B1><AA><EE><02>
131247.864:NORM: CH01:<01>
\end{verbatim}
\end{footnotesize}

Note in the text above
that the log entries between channels are slightly out of chronological order.
Please see \S{}\ref{skli0:sooc0}.


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subsubsection{Packet Log File Contents}
\label{susg0:slgf0:splf0}

The packet log file contains the parsed packets from the two communication channels.

Typical entries from the packet log file are:

\begin{footnotesize}
\begin{verbatim}
131455.144:NORM: CH01:ACK_SEND_DATA (0x94).
131455.144:NORM:      cspan=16, mdelta=109.
131455.144:NORM:      <01><08><94>
131455.144:NORM:      <6D><01><00>
131455.144:NORM:      <0B><04>
131455.144:NORM:      PACKET_ID: 0x6D, ACK_NACK: 0x01, NUM_RETRIES: 0x00.
131455.129:NORM: CH00:SEND_DATA (0x14).
131455.129:NORM:      cspan=15, mdelta=110.
131455.129:NORM:      <01><12><14>
131455.129:NORM:      <6D><11><00><04><B1><BB><D4><70><00><40><73><01><1D>
131455.129:NORM:      <2A><04>
131455.129:NORM:      PACKET_ID: 0x6D, TARGET_SENDER: 0x11, ADDRESS_MODE: 0x00.
131455.129:NORM:      DST_TRANS_AD: 0xB104.
131455.129:NORM:      DATA:
131455.129:NORM:      <BB><D4><70><00><40><73><01><1D>
131455.238:NORM: CH01:RXED_DATA (0x95).
131455.238:NORM:      cspan=15, mdelta=125.
131455.238:NORM:      <01><15><95>
131455.238:NORM:      <74><11><E4><00><16><E6><04><B1><AA><E7><02><01><80><6D>
131455.238:NORM:      <7E><FF>
131455.238:NORM:      <C3><04>
131455.238:NORM:      PACKET_ID: 0x74, TARGET_SENDER: 0x11, LQI: 0xE4.
131455.238:NORM:      ADDRESS_MODE: 0x00.
131455.238:NORM:      DST_TRANS_AD: 0xE616, SRC_TRANS_AD: 0xB104.
131455.238:NORM:      DATA:
131455.238:NORM:      <AA><E7><02><01><80><6D><7E><FF>
\end{verbatim}
\end{footnotesize}

Each parsed packet is documented as:

\begin{itemize}
\item The channel and packet type.
\item The approximate time span between the first and last 
      characters of the packet, in milliseconds (``\emph{cspan}'').
      A large value of \emph{cspan} would indicate some sort of
      a software error in transmitting the packet.
\item The approximate time since the last packet of this type
      was received (``\emph{mdelta}'').
\item The raw bytes of the packet, grouped by header, payload,
      and trailer.
\item The extracted data (symbolically) from the packet.
\end{itemize}

Note in the text above that the packet entries are sometimes
chronologically out of order between the two channels
(see \S{}\ref{skli0:soop0}).


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subsubsection{Comprehensive Log File Contents}
\label{susg0:slgf0:shlf0}

Each entry written to any other log file is also written to the
comprehensive log.  The comprehensive log is simply an interleaved concatenation
of the alert, character, and packet log files.


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subsubsection{Concurrent Access to Log Files Using a Text Editor}
\label{susg0:slgf0:scat0}

As the \productnameemph{} program may run for days or weeks at a time,
it is useful to examine the log files (especially the alert log) before
the program has terminated.

\productnameemph{} opens the log files in a mode compatible with sharing,
so they can be safely viewed read-only with a text editor while the program
is running.

Please see \S{}\ref{skli0:sndf0}.


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\section{Known Issues and Limitations}
\label{skli0}

This section describes known issues and limitations with the
\productnameemph{} program or the hardware configuration
described in \S{}\ref{shsu0:sdph0}.


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subsection{Possible Destruction of the ADM3232 Part}
\label{skli0:sdap0}

The level conversion board used is designed to be powered from the same power supply
as the microcontroller.

It is suspected that as the batteries discharge, the TTL 
SCI inputs from a product may
damage the \index{ADM3232}ADM3232 part (as the 
inputs may be more than a diode drop above the
supply voltage provided by the batteries).

In retrospect, rather than using 3 AA 
batteries in series (4.5 volts),
it would have been more prudent to use 
4 AA batteries in series (6.0 volts) 
with a forward-biased diode to bring the supply 
voltage down to about 5.4 volts.

A resistor in series with the SCI inputs 
(not included in the first version
of the SCI interface box) may also be prudent.


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subsection{Ground Offset Issues}
\label{skli0:sgoi0}

It was observed that the hardware interface box
(\S{}\ref{shsu0:sdph0}, p. \pageref{shsu0:sdph0})
works perfectly when using a laptop computer, but 
less reliably when using a desktop computer.

When the interface box fails to operate, the problem can usually
be cured by disconnecting and then reconnecting the serial cables
to the PC and/or the SCI connections to the microcontroller product.

A ground offset issue involving the power supply and the PC 
is suspected.


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subsection{Startup Difficulties}
\label{skli0:ssud0}

The \productnameemph{} may not start reliably in the presence of serial
errors or events (such as a break event on the serial line, typically
caused by the target module being turned off but the interface box being turned
on).  
A typical error message involves inability to 
obtain serial port state or configure the port.

To get \productnameemph{} to start, remove the serial error, start the
program, then reapply the source of the errors.  The two easiest approaches
are:

\begin{itemize}
\item Disconnect the serial cables from the serial adapters, start the program,
      then reconnect the cables.
\item Turn off the interface box, start the program, then turn on the interface box.
\item Power up everything (including the target product) before starting the
      program.
\end{itemize} 

The root cause is that the serial errors cause (by design) certain 
\emph{Windows} API functions not to operate until the error is cleared using
another \emph{Windows} API function.  The present version of the program will
correctly handle serial errors at any time except startup.

This is a very minor issue and does not affect the logical correctness
of the program once it is running.


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subsection{Inability to Determine Timing Relationships Between Channels}
\label{skli0:itr0}

The three-thread software design may lead to more timestamp inconsistency
between the two channels than necessary.  If possible, the design should probably
be changed to two threads and overlapped I/O.

The timestamps have, however, proved to be very accurate.


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subsection{Out-of-Order Character Logging}
\label{skli0:sooc0}

The primary thread dequeues and processes all characters from 
Channel 0, then dequeues and processes all characters from Channel 1;
regardless of the chronological ordering of the characters between the
channels.
This can result in characters being logged out of chronological order if
characters are arriving on both channels nearly simultaneously.

This problem can be easily fixed by changing the character logging
algorithm to dequeue the characters in chronological order with respect
to
both queues.

This problem does not affect the correctness of the timestamps in the 
character log file.  It only affects the ordering of the log
entries.  Please see the sample log file text in
\S{}\ref{susg0:slgf0:sclf0}, p. \pageref{susg0:slgf0:sclf0}.


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subsection{Out-of-Order Packet Logging}
\label{skli0:soop0}

The packet logging issue occurs for exactly the same reasons as the
character logging issue discussed in 
\S{}\ref{skli0:sooc0}.  The solution is analogous---to modify the
packet logging algorithm to process both queues simultaneously and
log packets in chronological order.

The sample text in \S{}\ref{susg0:slgf0:splf0}, p. \pageref{susg0:slgf0:splf0}
illustrates the issue.  The SEND\_DATA packet is sent at 131455.129 and it is
followed by the ACK\_SEND\_DATA packet at 131455.144; but the log entries are 
not in chronological order.

This issue does not affect the correctness of the log entries---only their 
ordering.


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subsection{Suspected Out of Sequence Communication Errors}
\label{skli0:sose0}

It is suspected that framing errors and other errors become events
that are reported out of sequence by the communication worker threads.
The root cause is that communication errors may occur with characters 
buffered behind the \emph{Windows} API.

The \productnameemph{} program handles errors first, then dequeues any characters;
although the characters probably came first, followed by the error.

The problem can be fixed by experimenting to determine the behavior of
\emph{Windows} and then changing the communication worker threads to match.

This issue is inconsequential because any communication error
(break, framing error, overrun, etc.) is very serious if it occurs
once the target product is operating, and exactly when it occurred is
less important than that it did occur.

The errors will be detected,
but they may
be slightly out of sequence in the event queue.


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\subsection{Non-Detection of Log File Flushes}
\label{skli0:sndf0}

\productnameemph{} flushes the log file streams every 15 seconds using
the \emph{fflush()} function.  Still, 
\index{SlickEdit@\emph{SlickEdit}}\emph{SlickEdit}
(the text editor I use) does not
exhibit the desired behavior of detecting the updated file when focus
is restored.  In order to see additions to a log file, the file must be
closed and then re-opened in \emph{SlickEdit}.

The technical basis for this non-detection should be investigated.

Note that this limitation does not affect the correctness or completeness
of any log file---it only affects whether a typical text editor will
automatically detect that the open file has changed.


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

%\clearpage{}
%\section{Glossary of Terms, Acronyms, and Nomenclature}
%\label{sglo1}

%\begin{docglossaryenum}

%\item \index{fTq@$f_{T_q}$}$f_{T_q}$

%      \cite[p. 161]{bibref:freescale:gz60a} defines $f_{T_q}$ as the
%      frequency of $T_q$, the atomic unit of time handled by the HSCAN
%      peripheral built in to the microcontroller.

%\end{docglossaryenum}

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\clearpage{}
\addcontentsline{toc}{section}{References}

\begin{thebibliography}{000}
\bibitem{bibref:vendor:dynex}
   \emph{Dynex},\\
   \texttt{http://www.dynexproducts.com}
\bibitem{bibref:vendor:futurelec}
   \emph{Futurelec},\\
   \texttt{http://www.futurelec.com}
\bibitem{bibref:twp:ms810467}
   \emph{Serial Communications in Win32},\\
   \texttt{http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms810467.aspx}
\bibitem{bibref:swlic:gpl}
   \emph{GNU General Public License},\\
   \texttt{http://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html}
\bibitem{bibref:osws:sourceforge}
   \emph{SourceForge},\\
   \texttt{http://www.sourceforge.net}
\bibitem{bibref:i:daveashley}
   David T. Ashley,\\
   \texttt{dashley@gmail.com}
\bibitem{bibref:swp:slickedit}
   \emph{SlickEdit},\\
   \texttt{http://www.slickedit.com}
\bibitem{bibref:swp:realterm}
   \index{Realterm@\emph{RealTerm}}\emph{RealTerm},\\
   \texttt{http://realterm.sourceforge.net}
\end{thebibliography}

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\clearpage{}
\addcontentsline{toc}{section}{Index}
\printindex

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\end{document}
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