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Using the Terminal Configurator
[software]
The [software] section is used to control the receiving and sending of bytes over the serial
port. Proper setting of these values can significantly enhance the efficiency of data
transmission because the radio is “packet based” and the UART is “stream based.”
Stream based data means that the data is transmitted and received one byte at a time,
without any mechanism to separate chunks of data from other chunks of data. The devices
generating and using the data produced by the stream based packet determines how the data
is delimited. Additionally, the devices also determine the meaning of the packet.
Packet based data means that the data is grouped into chunks then wrapper information is
added to this data specifying the destination of the data. Computer networks are packet
based by design. The radio in the Ethernet Adapter is really a computer network interface,
so the Ethernet Adapter’s radio is packet based.
This becomes important as the data is moved between the UART and the radio. When data
is received over the radio, sending it to the UART is simple. The wrapper information is
removed and the data inside the wrapper is sent out the serial port as fast as it can go.
However, data being received over the serial port must be converted into packets.
In order to perform this conversion, the Ethernet Adapter must be given a set of rules that
tell it that it is okay to start transmitting the data already received. The data cannot be
transmitted as soon as it is received, because as explained earlier there is overhead in the
radio transmitting process.
The values in this section define these conversion rules.
• line length. Data is transmitted over the radio once the maximum number of
characters has been achieved. The line length default is 1408. Once 1408
characters have been received by the UART, these characters of data will be
transmitted regardless of the content of the data. This value can range from 1
to 1408, but be cautious of using values too small for they could result in data
loss.
• input timeout. The Input timeout is how long the Ethernet Adapter will wait
after some data has been received on the UART before giving up on waiting
for more. Once a character has been received the timer starts with this time-
out. If the timer expires, the data is considered to be complete and gets
These rules don’t change the data. They specify when data can be
transmitted over the radio.
NOTE