717/727 CONDUCTANCE MONITOR DATA SCHEME

    Serial port settings are:  4800 Baud, 8 Data Bits, No Parity, 1 Stop Bit

    The data communication scheme used is a polling system in which the
    PC sends a request to the 717/727 by sending as data the channel
    number of the 717/727 instrument.  On single channel systems, this
    number is set to 16 binary (0001 0000, or hex 10).  After the 717/727
    reads it's channel number on the serial port, it sends a six byte string.
       
    The format is as follows:

    Byte 1:  This byte set to 1111 1111 (hex FF), and is used only as the
    marker for the beginning of the byte string.  The software in the PC
    tests for this byte before it accepts the following five bytes as
    valid.
    Byte 2:  This byte is used to send information on sign, range, and
    overange conditions.  Only the three lower bits are used, the other
    bits are always 0, except bit 7 which is always 1.

                      0100 0000
                                 | | |----Sign,  1 = Negative
                                 | |-----Range, 1 = High Range
                                 |------Overrange = 1

    Byte 3 and 4:  These bytes give the conductance value, with byte 3
    being the most significant.
    Byte 5 and 6:  Normally not used.

    Note:  The cable type required is an IBM AT type Serial Cable.
           (25 Pin Straight Thru, or 9 Pin Female to 25 Pin Male)    
 
    Serial Port Settings and Data Format  Above information in text file.

    Graphical Interface Program   (DOS)  Standard Range Instruments

    The following programs have been tested on DOS, Windows (95,98, 2000, and XP),
    and Linux using Dosbox.

    Character-based Interface Program  100-200 Mho Instruments

    Character-based Interface Program  Standard Range Instruments

    Character-based Interface Program  High Sensitivity Instruments