ORE-Term Help | Datalogging Accelerometers

This document is a duplicate of the Help file that is embedded inside ORE-Term. The same Help file is used for all versions of ORE-Term.

May, 2022 Version 1.0

James Wagner

Oregon Research Electronics

Introduction

ORE-Term is a general-purpose cross-platform serial terminal program with enhancements for the Oregon Research Electronics (ORE) line of data logging accelerometers. See “Version Log” at the end of this document for version information. For installation information, see the separate ORE-Term ReadMe document that is version-specific.

1. Modes

ORE-Term operates in one of two modes. The first. and default, mode is “ORE”. It offers a connection mechanism to ORE AL100, AL101, and subsequent logging accelerometers.

The second is “Generic” in which the program behaves as a standard serial terminal without the connection enhancement, though it will still operate with the ORE products using a manual connection procedure.

The mode is selected by clicking one of the two radio buttons at the left end of the ORE-Term tool bar. Once a serial link is open, the mode cannot be changed. If a serial link is open, it needs to be closed to allow a mode change.

2. Settings

Settings refer to the standard asynchronous channel parameters of baud rate, number of data bits, parity type, and number of stop bits. The dialog where these are set is accessed using the Settings button in the tool bar. Once changes are made, click the OK button in the dialog. ORE-Term does not remember settings changes between sessions.

Current ORE products require a baud rate of 9600 baud, 8 data bits, no parity, and one stop bit. These are the default settings for ORE-Term and you should not need to change them in ORE mode. Other devices may require different settings.

3. Port

Different operating systems show serial ports differently. On Windows, serial ports are shown as COM3, COM4, and so forth. On MacOS, serial ports are identified with a name. The link to an ORE device on MacOS will appear as “usbserial-#####” where “#####” represents a serial number.

On Windows, there is usually only one COM port listed and it will only appear when a serial cable connects the computer to the data logger. The COM port number may change for a given device if you unplug it, then reconnect.

On MacOS, there will be multiple serial ports listed, typically including one or more for BlueTooth. The port for ORE products can usually be identified with the characters “usbserial” that ONLY appear when the data logger is attached by cable to the computer. On MacOS, the name of the poet stays the same for a given device.

In either case. select the desired serial port using the popup menu in the tool bar. This cannot be changed once the serial port is open.

4. Open

The term OPEN refers to the serial port. Once the port is open, it can transfer data. Click the OPEN button in the tool bar to open the port. Once open, the text on that button changes to CLOSE. Also, once the port is open, you cannot change mode, Settings, or Port.

The open/closed status is also shown by a colored LED at the right end of the tool bar and by text. Status changes are also shown in blue in the terminal window.

If the serial cable is disconnected while the serial port is open, the status LED changes to CLOSED and blue text <FAILURE: Link Lost> appears in the terminal window. Simply reconnecting the cable should allow you to start over, though, on Windows, you may be given a different COM port to use.

5. Connect

In ORE mode, there is an additional step before you can access the accelerometer menu system. You have to CONNECT. That is done, very simply, by clicking the CONNECT button in the tool bar. The status LED and text shows the connection status and it is also shown in red in the terminal window.

If you attempt to use ORE-Term in Generic mode to communicate with ORE products, you will need to connect manually. This is done by sending the character CONTROL-Y (ctl-Y) to the unit once the serial channel is open. Because ctl-Y is the Paste short-cut on Windows this may cause problems. The AL101 allows the optional ctl-R as a connection request. To use these, type the single character (control key down, and same time Y or R), then click the SEND button in the bottom right corner of the terminal window; there will be more about this button below.

The connection is automatically ended if the serial channel is closed or if the cable is disconnected.

6. Communicating

Communication is carried out using ORE-Term in the same way that communication is done with most terminal programs. Text that you wish to send is entered in the box at the bottom of the window.

You need to be careful that the text/mouse cursor is IN the send text box at the bottom of the window. If the cursor is elsewhere, you can type and have no effect!

The ENTER or RETURN keyboard key is used to trigger the actual sending. A line terminator character (carriage return) is added to the text in the entry box and the result is sent out though the serial channel. It is also copied in red to the terminal window. Incoming text is displayed in black in the terminal window. The terminal window expects a single carriage return as line terminator.

If you want to send one or more characters without a line terminator, enter the text to be sent and click the SEND button. It behaves the same as a keyboard ENTER or RETURN without adding the line terminator to the outgoing text.

7. Window

With the Window menu in the menu bar, you can clear the screen by selecting Window>Clear Window.

You can save the current contents of the terminal window by selecting Window>Save Window. The window text is saved to an RTF file, complete with text coloring. You simply choose a name and location for the file.

Closing the window terminates the program and closes the any serial connection to ORE device.

Bugs or Improvements

If you have a bug report or a suggestion for improvement, you can send an email to engineering@orelectronics.net or to orelectronics@comcast.net.

Version Log

V1.0 Initial release, May 14, 2022