COM port emulator
 

Hey everyone,

I'm trying to write code that will be sent out of the COM port to a PIC microcontroller. However, I don't have the controller available yet. Is there an emulation software that will allow me to virtualize a COM port and capture the data that's being sent to it? Maybe that will help me to make sure I have the code functioning properly.

I've tried one program but I must have been doing something wrong, because when I try to transfer data to it, it says Access Denied in the debugger. However, when I try to send data to the actual COM port on my computer without the emulator running, everything looks to be running fine. But I can't be positive about that until I can actually capture the data leaving my COM port.

Thanks for any help!

Re: COM port emulator
 

A loopback test would verify that.
http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/3450

Re: COM port emulator
 

Thanks!

Re: COM port emulator
 

If anyone else has an emulator solution, please post as well. The loopback will work for my home PC, but I often code from school machines and would like to have a software solution available.

Thanks!

Re: COM port emulator
 

I've used com0com - a serial port/null-modem emulator. See http://sourceforge.net/projects/com0com/
or just google com0com.

Each null modem emulation creates 2 virtual serial ports - i.e. each end of a serial cable; you'll need a program on the other port to loopback/modify data as required. You may need admin access to install it.