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Serial Send

Send binary data over serial port

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  • Serial Send block

Libraries:
Instrument Control Toolbox
Motor Control Blockset / Protection and Diagnostics

Description

The Serial Send block configures and opens an interface to the specified serial port. The configuration and initialization occur once at the start of the model's execution. The block sends data from the model to the serial port during the model's run time. You can use multiple Serial Send blocks at a time to send data to a specific serial port.

Note

You must configure your serial port parameters using the Serial Configuration block before you specify the Serial Send block parameters.

The Serial Send block has one input port that accepts both 1-D vector and matrix data. This block has no output ports. The block inherits the data type from the signal at the input port. Valid data types are single, double, int8, uint8, int16, uin16, int32, and uint32.

Other Supported Features

  • The Serial Send block supports the use of Simulink® Accelerator mode, but not Rapid Accelerator. This feature speeds up the execution of Simulink models.

  • The Serial Send block supports the use of model referencing. This feature lets your model include other Simulink models as modular components.

  • The Serial Send block supports C/C++ code generation. This feature allows you to generate C and C++ code using Simulink Coder™.

For more information on these features, see the Simulink documentation.

Ports

Input

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Data values to send from the block over your serial port, specified as a vector, matrix, or array. Set the parameters for this block before you send data.

Data Types: single | double | int8 | int16 | int32 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32

Parameters

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Serial ports on your machine that you want to send data to. Select a port from the available ports and then configure the port using the Serial Configuration block. If you have not configured a port, the block returns an error when you run your model.

Note

Each Serial Send block must have a configured Serial Configuration block. If you use multiple serial ports in your simulation, you must configure each port using a separate Serial Configuration block.

Programmatic Use

Block Parameter: Port
Type: character vector, string

Header that indicates the beginning of your data block. The Serial Send block adds the header in front of the data before sending it over the serial port. By default, no header is specified.

The numeric array specified in this parameter is the uint8 integer representation of the corresponding ASCII characters. The exact form of this parameter depends on the type of the ASCII character.

Type of ASCII CharacterExample ASCII CharacterMATLAB CommandParameter Value
Special character"#"uint8('#')[35]
Numeric"81"uint8('81')[56 49]
Alphabet"Start"uint8('Start')[83 116 97 114 116]

You can also specify this parameter using the hexadecimal representation of the ASCII characters.

Programmatic Use

Block Parameter: Header
Type: character vector, string
Values: integer array

Terminator that indicates the end of your data block. The Serial Send block appends the terminator to the data before sending it over the serial port.

If you select Custom Terminator, you can specify your own terminator value.

Programmatic Use

Block Parameter: Terminator
Type: character vector, string
Values: '<none>' | 'CR ('\r')' | 'LF ('\n')' | 'CR/LF ('\r\n')' | 'NULL ('\0')' | 'Custom Terminator'
Default: '<none>'

Custom terminator that indicates the end of your data block. The Serial Send block appends the terminator to the data before sending it over the serial port.

The numeric array specified in this parameter is the uint8 integer representation of the corresponding ASCII characters. The exact form of this parameter depends on the type of the ASCII character.

Type of ASCII CharacterExample ASCII CharacterMATLAB CommandParameter Value
Special character"#"uint8('#')[35]
Numeric"81"uint8('81')[56 49]
Alphabet"End"uint8('End')[69 110 100]

You can also specify this parameter using the hexadecimal representation of the ASCII characters.

Programmatic Use

Block Parameter: CustomTerminator
Type: character vector, string
Values: integer array

This parameter has the simulation wait while the block sends data. Unselect the check box if you do not want the write operation to cause the simulation to wait.

If you enable blocking mode, the simulation waits for the data to be sent. If you do not enable blocking mode, the simulation runs continuously.

Programmatic Use

Block Parameter: EnableBlockingMode
Type: character vector, string
Values: 'on' | 'off'
Default: 'on'

Extended Capabilities

Version History

Introduced in R2008a