AiChip Terminal Emulator

hippy

Technical Support
Staff member
Latest release of the AiChip Terminal Emulator ( Version 7.07 ) available ...

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/the.happy.hippy/picaxe/aiterm.zip?2 345KB (ZIP)

This now includes serial port auto-disconnect and auto-reconnect so it can be used in parallel with the Programming Editor. Seamlessly switch from Programming Editor to Terminal Emulator and vice-versa without having to close either to allow downloading and SerTxd monitoring.

# Windows 32-bit operating system support
# Automatic style configuration for Windows 98 and XP Themes
# Wide range of industry standard baud rates supported
# Non-standard baud rates supported and easily configured
# Selectable Data bits, Parity and Stop Bits
# Supports COM1 through COM12
# Auto-disconnection for use in parallel with other applications
# Menu and Frames Modes for user interface
# Configuration Settings can be saved to disk
# Plain character display with non-printable characters revealed
# Proportional and fixed-width font display
# Hexadecimal display of bytes received
# As-typed and line at a time transmission options
# Character codes can be specified in decimal, binary or hexadecimal
# Character codes using industry standard mnemonics
# Manual control of RTS and DTR lines
# Source code included
 
Last edited:

mackingu

New Member
Thanks to the wonderful world of spammers, I happened across this thread.

I was wondering what the "AiChip Terminal Emulator" actually is. I google'd it, and the best I came up with was this link - http://aichip.atspace.org/ - but all it had was the AiChip logo.

Is this like the VSM/ISIS program or something?
 

hippy

Technical Support
Staff member
They do sort of provide a service in bumping things up to the top of the list in a random manner which trigger an "oh yes, I forgot about that!" way - and of course is the trigger for spotting a spammer at work :)

It's really a replacement for HyperTerm; connects to a serial port and shows what's coming out of a PICAXE.
 

Texy

Senior Member
They do sort of provide a service in bumping things up to the top of the list in a random manner which trigger an "oh yes, I forgot about that!" way - and of course is the trigger for spotting a spammer at work :)

It's really a replacement for HyperTerm; connects to a serial port and shows what's coming out of a PICAXE.
Can you explain to a newbie how that is usefull?
I mean, the editor already has the terminal option
which I find indispensible.
texy
 

hippy

Technical Support
Staff member
The Terminal option is indispensible, combined with SERTXD I think it's the best way to debug code on chip. Unfortunately it doesn't do everything one may want and this fills in the missing pieces. The three main uses I find for it are -

Showing tabular data with fixed width font
Showing what characters are sent which Terminal canot display
Being able to send characters which the Terminal cannot accept ( Ctrl-C etc )
 

lbenson

Senior Member
I am looking for an easy way to read what my picaxe program is sending to a SimpleLAN module. I replaced the SimpleLAN with a serial->USB->PC link (the programming cable), and opened Hyperterminal. Unfortunately, I get garbage at the 2400,8,n,1 setting--I presume because I am sending the data with the t2400 setting instead of n2400. I downloaded AITerm in the hopes that there would be a simple setting which could invert the data received, but such a setting doesn't pop out in a browse of the manual. Pardon my ignorance, but would such a setting be possible, or is the inversion of the bits such as to make synchronization impossible? Is there a way to do what I want without changing the t2400 setting and without putting something like a MAX232 interface inline?
 

hippy

Technical Support
Staff member
I am sending the data with the t2400 setting instead of n2400. I downloaded AITerm in the hopes that there would be a simple setting which could invert the data received, but such a setting doesn't pop out in a browse of the manual.
A PC's physical serial port expects the serial input to be of a certain polarity and there's nothing one can do to change that except with hardware inversion.

Is there a way to do what I want without changing the t2400 setting and without putting something like a MAX232 interface inline?
You may be able to reprogram your USB-to-Serial interface. That depends upon what chipset it uses.

The easiest option is to change the T2400 for N2400. You can change all T2400 to BAUDRATE or something similar the create a "SYMBOL BAUDRATE = N2400", that way you only have to make one edit to switch between the two.
 

Bangstick

New Member
Windows 7 and AiChip

Struggled with this problem...so I thought I'd let you guys know how to fix it.

Windows 7 64bit and the AiChip Terminal.

If you get error 339 when trying to register regsvr32 mswinsck.ocx

Move MSWINSCK.OCX to the C:\Windows\SysWOW64\

regsvr32 C:\Windows\SysWOW64\MSWINSCK.OCX

should work now....
cheers
Bangstick
 

techElder

Well-known member
Hello ... hello ... hello ... There seems to be an echo in here ... :)

Hippy, can you recommend another terminal program? I can't seem to get this one installed on Windows 7 even with the above info. I keep getting the "error 339".

I just want to monitor RS232 port (hser) on my project from the AXE091 board.


EDIT:

Oh, well. I've found something else already! Fickle, ain't I? :)
 

hippy

Technical Support
Staff member
The Terminal capability included with PE6 should provide for most things one would want to do when interacting with a PICAXE.
 

techElder

Well-known member
Yep, "something else" for me was PE6 Terminal. I had forgotten about the "Port Settings", and that I could monitor 2 ports by changing COM ports.

I am monitoring hser on a separate port.

Thanks!
 

Jack Burns

New Member
Latest release of the AiChip Terminal Emulator ( Version 7.07 ) available ...

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/the.happy.hippy/picaxe/aiterm.zip?2 345KB (ZIP)

This now includes serial port auto-disconnect and auto-reconnect so it can be used in parallel with the Programming Editor. Seamlessly switch from Programming Editor to Terminal Emulator and vice-versa without having to close either to allow downloading and SerTxd monitoring.

# Windows 32-bit operating system support
# Automatic style configuration for Windows 98 and XP Themes
# Wide range of industry standard baud rates supported
# Non-standard baud rates supported and easily configured
# Selectable Data bits, Parity and Stop Bits
# Supports COM1 through COM12
# Auto-disconnection for use in parallel with other applications
# Menu and Frames Modes for user interface
# Configuration Settings can be saved to disk
# Plain character display with non-printable characters revealed
# Proportional and fixed-width font display
# Hexadecimal display of bytes received
# As-typed and line at a time transmission options
# Character codes can be specified in decimal, binary or hexadecimal
# Character codes using industry standard mnemonics
# Manual control of RTS and DTR lines
# Source code included

I realise this is an old thread, but does anyone have a copy of this (or one of the earlier versions) as I’m interested in the VB6 Source code?
 

hippy

Technical Support
Staff member
I realise this is an old thread, but does anyone have a copy of this (or one of the earlier versions) as I’m interested in the VB6 Source code?
Not sure if I ever released the source code but I may have. There wasn't really a lot to it; read from an 'mscomm.vbx' object and put characters received to a TextBox, send characters typed into a one line TextBox to that 'mscomm.vbx'.
 

Jack Burns

New Member
hippy, thanks for your reply.
Not sure if I ever released the source code but I may have.
It looks like you did!
# Source code included

There wasn't really a lot to it; read from an 'mscomm.vbx' object and put characters received to a TextBox, send characters typed into a one line TextBox to that 'mscomm.vbx'.
I have got something similar to this working, but was more interested in learning from your expertise and was wondering how you achieved the “serial port auto-disconnect and auto-reconnect so it can be used in parallel with the Programming Editor”.

This now includes serial port auto-disconnect and auto-reconnect so it can be used in parallel with the Programming Editor. Seamlessly switch from Programming Editor to Terminal Emulator and vice-versa without having to close either to allow downloading and SerTxd monitoring.
Any further information or source code would be greatly appreciated.

Regards
Jack
 

hippy

Technical Support
Staff member
I have got something similar to this working, but was more interested in learning from your expertise and was wondering how you achieved the “serial port auto-disconnect and auto-reconnect so it can be used in parallel with the Programming Editor”.
You are right; it seems I did release the source code and I managed to find the attached source.zip from 2010 !

The auto-disconnect has two parts - First is closing the port whenever the terminal is minimised, re-opening it when restored or maximised. Second is calling Windows API's to see if the Programming Editor is the foreground task and closing the port when it is, re-opening when the terminal is re-selected. I have no idea if that will work 'as is' for PE6.

The routines which are important; Disconnect, Reconnect, GotFocus_GetActiveTitle$()
 

Attachments

Jack Burns

New Member
hippy - Many thanks for the additional information and for taking the time to locate the source code and posting it here.

Regards
Jack
 
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