Embedded Microcontroller Programming
Homework - Section 4, Serial Ports
This homework requires you to become familiar with using the internal serial port on the 8051
processor. As we mentioned in class, the SDK has two serial ports; the external serial port which we have
been using to communicate with the SDK via the monitor program, and the 8051's own internal serial port
which we will be using for this homework assignment. DO NOT use the external serial port for this
homework assignment !!!
First, a quick reminder about accessing the 8051's internal serial port. This port is accessed via the
DB25 connector on the SDK. To use this port, you just need to connect an ordinary modem cable (NOT a
null modem cable) between this port and your computer. To test the homework, you need to either have
two PC's running terminal programs (one for loading the code like we have been doing all along, and a
second for communicating with the internal serial port), or just one PC running the terminal program while
you switch serial cables. To do the cable switching option, assemble and load your program, then start it
running by typing the exec command. After doing this, switch your serial port cable to the DB25 pin
connector on the SDK so you are now communicating with the internal serial port. You can try this with the
demo programs (serial1, 2, and 3) to make sure both serial ports are working correctly. In addition, you can
use these demo programs as examples of how to read and send data using the internal serial port. Your
homework program should do the following;
1) Read in a string of characters from the internal serial port as they are typed in to your PC's
terminal program and store them in a buffer area in the EXTERNAL memory space (i.e. the MOVX
memory). The serial port should be setup to MODE 1 and 9600 BAUD.
2) The buffer should be able to handle at least 80 characters, however, you can make it as large as
you want within the limits of the external memory.
3) As each character is typed, the SDK should store the character in the external memory buffer and
continue storing characters until it encounters the CR/LF characters. (Which get sent when you hit the enter
key).
4) After receiving the CR/LF character, (the easiest way to check for this is to check for either a CR
(ASCII 0Dh), or LF (ASCII 0Ah)) the program should stop loading characters in the buffer, and then,
5) Send back the entire contents of the buffer (which would be all the characters entered up to the
point of the CR/LF) over the internal serial port.
6) Return to 1) above and wait for another string of characters to come in...
To test the program, just run it as described above. As you type characters on the keyboard, you
should not see anything on the screen until you hit the enter key, at which time the SDK should send back
the entire string which has been stored in external memory.
Keep in mind that you need to check the state of the serial buffer (SBUF) before reading to or
writing from it by inspecting the TI and RI bits. You may want to use a string termination character to mark
the end of your buffer in external memory to simplify the process of finding the end of the string when
sending the characters back. You could also keep track of the number of characters in the buffer by
creating a buffer count variable.