MATLAB®

Introduction

What Is the MATLAB Serial Port Interface?

The MATLAB serial port interface provides direct access to peripheral devices such as modems, printers, and scientific instruments that you connect to your computer's serial port. This interface is established through a serial port object. The serial port object supports functions and properties that allow you to

• Configure serial port communications

• Use serial port control pins

• Write and read data

• Use events and callbacks

• Record information to disk

Instrument Control Toolbox™ software provides additional serial port functionality. In addition to command-line access, this toolbox has a graphical tool called the Test & Measurement Tool, which allows you to communicate with, configure, and transfer data with your serial device without writing code. The Test & Measurement Tool generates MATLAB code for your serial device that you can later reuse to communicate with your device or to develop GUI-based applications. The toolbox includes additional serial I/O utility functions that facilitate object creation and configuration, instrument communication, and so on. With the toolbox you can communicate with GPIB- or VISA-compatible instruments.

If you want to communicate with PC-compatible data acquisition hardware such as multifunction I/O boards, you need Data Acquisition Toolbox™ software.

For more information about these products, visit the MathWorks Web site at http://www.mathworks.com/products.

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Supported Serial Port Interface Standards

Over the years, several serial port interface standards have been developed. These standards include RS-232, RS-422, and RS-485 - all of which are supported by the MATLAB serial port object. Of these, the most widely used interface standard for connecting computers to peripheral devices is RS-232.

This guide assumes you are using the RS-232 standard, discussed in Overview of the Serial Port. Refer to your computer and device documentation to see which interface standard you can use.

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Supported Platforms

The MATLAB serial port interface is supported on Microsoft Windows 32-bit, Linux^[1] 32-bit, and Sun Solaris 64-bit platforms.

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Using the Examples with Your Device

Many of the examples in this section reflect specific peripheral devices connected to a serial port — in particular a Tektronix^® TDS 210 two-channel oscilloscope connected to the COM1 port. Therefore, many of the string commands are specific to this instrument.

If your peripheral device is connected to a different serial port, or if it accepts different commands, modify the examples accordingly.

^[1] Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

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Serial Port I/O

Overview of the Serial Port