Ascii Text Communications Mode; Overview; Limitations Of This Protocol; Further Information - Equinox Systems ISPnano I Series User Manual

Programmer

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Distributor of Equinox Technologies: Excellent Integrated System Limited

Datasheet of ISPNANO S3 KIT - ISP PORTABLE PROGRAMMER

2.6 ASCII Text Communications Mode

The 'ASCII Text Control' communications protocol or 'ATC' is designed as a simple way for a

Remote Test System to control the basic programming operations of an Equinox programmer via an

RS-232 serial link. It is an 'ASCII' protocol with simple commands to initiate programming of pre-

loaded 'Standalone Programming Projects' which are stored in the on-board 'FLASH Memory

Store' of the programmer. The protocol supports up to 64 independent Programming Projects per

programmer, but is limited to one programmer.

Implementation of this protocol is straightforward due to the limited number of commands and

restricted functionality. As this is an ASCII protocol, it can be quickly evaluated using any Terminal

Emulation Software Utility such as Hyperterminal.

This protocol has been designed as a simple method to allow a Remote Application such as an In-

Circuit Tester to control the basic operations of an Equinox programmer. The programmer only

supports the programming of entire 'Programming Projects' which are already uploaded to the

programmer on-board FLASH memory. This protocol does not support writing / reading of individual

bytes or blocks of data to / from a Target Device.

The limitations of this protocol are as follows:

1. The protocol only supports programming of Programming Projects which are pre-loaded into

the Programmer on-board FLASH Memory Store.

2. The protocol does not support writing / reading of individual bytes or blocks of data to / from a

Target Device.

3. The protocol does not support uploading of 'Standalone Programming Projects' to the

programmer. This must be performed using the 'EQTools – Project Upload Wizard'.

4. Only very limited diagnostics are available using this protocol ie. FAIL + Error Number.

A full description of this protocol can be found in the following Application Note:

'AN110 - ASCII Text Control (ATC) Protocol for Remote Control of Equinox Programmers'.

ISPnano Series Programmer - User Manual – V1.11 – 12

May 2011

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