Data Link

A data link is a software component that provides an application-defined communications link between a microcontroller device and a Windows PC. The data link component provides automatic handling of the messaging protocol which provides a convenient higher level API for application development. The messaging protocol is created by using the data link editor tool where code is automatically generated for both the device and the host. The auto generated code reduces development time by removing the tedious effort of writing low-level byte handling code.

Key Features

• Auto Generated Code
  The message handling code is automatically generated from the protocol definition which makes testing and implementing changes fast.
• Code For Both Ends
  The data link provides code for both ends of the link. This results in a simple, meaningful function to call to transfer a message over the link.
• CRC Validation
  Optionally have messages validated using a CRC-32 check value. The check value is appended to every message and only valid messages are passed to the application.
• Maximum Bandwidth
  The data link uses binary serialization and dynamic length arrays to minimize the amount of data transferred over the link to maximize bandwidth.
• Any Transport Interface
  The data link is a module that works independently from the transport interface, thus the data link can be used over many different interfaces. The data link supports the following interfaces.
  • Native USB
  • FTDI USB-to-Serial
  • Standard Serial Port

Messaging Protocol

The messaging protocol can be defined for any specific application. The protocol simply puts a higher level meaning to the low level bytes that are transferred over the data link.

• Messaging Protocol
• Data Link Editor Tool

Demo & Custom Data Links

The Embedded SDK includes demonstration projects that show how to implement a data link over each of the supported transport interfaces.

• Demo Data Links
• Custom Data Links