Docklight News

For industrial measurement equipment, the classic serial RS232 DB9 or SUB D9 interface is still very much alive. In most cases because this was the original design. And all the device has to do, now and forever, is to pass a few measurements and respond to a few basic commands. However, in a world where RS232 DB9 connectors for PCs almost always come as external USB-to-RS232 adapters, and tablet computers with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are becoming increasingly popular for operating panels, this does not really make sense any more. This is why equipment makers are gradually updating their connectivity, many times keeping their application layer serial protocol, but providing a modernized transport layer and physical connector to the end users. Popular solutions include: USB connector with integrated RS232-to-USB UART, e.g. using FTDI or Prolific chipsets and boards. Embedded Serial Device Server for TCP/IP via Ethernet or Wifi, e.g. Lantronix XPort or MOXA device server modules.

Introducing Docklight Pro Monitor and Docklight Tap 485 Using Docklight helps eliminate a lot of time-consuming manual labor when testing or validating serial protocol applications. Now you can work with the same outstanding ease in more challenging areas, where our classic Docklight software was not designed to operate. We are pleased to introduce: Docklight Pro Monitor and Docklight Tap 485 , a dedicated software & hardware solution for: High-speed serial monitoring up to 921 kbps Time-critical applications RS232 applications where hardware handshaking , resp. RTS / CTS / DTR / DSR / DCD / RI signal states are involved RS485 2-wire and RS422 4-wire differential signal applications  Docklight Pro Monitor is a free addition to all Docklight Scripting license holders. Evaluation is free and without time limit, as always. Try it now: Download Docklight Pro Monitor Docklight Pro Monitor works with our Docklight Tap Pro and Docklight Tap 485 USB data taps

The free updates to Docklight and Docklight Scripting are out now. You can download the updated software from here: Docklight runs smoothly on the fresh Windows 10 Download Docklight V2.1 and Docklight Scripting V2.1 It has taken us quite a while to come up with the final features, and here's why: We actually spend a lot of time working with Docklight, not on  Docklight. Docklight & Kickdrive powered Touch Panel UI New functions that go into Docklight are either things our users needed to solve a specific problem. Or we needed it ourselves, to build some interesting applications for equipment control & configuration. The pretty touch panel to the left was made using a  Docklight DLL  inside a  Kickdrive Runtime Application . It talks to a Technosoft controller using a custom serial protocol including a checksum. So in Docklight and Docklight Scripting V2.1 you can benefit from a very accessible checksum/CRC calculator for Send and Receive Sequence