Nonsense characters and cannot communicate in Hyperterminal Log - WKB2838

SYMPTOMS

• Monitoring MS boot sequence using HyperTerminal with a serial cable for troubleshooting purposes.
• Page is mixed characters, non-English, random symbols and spaces making the log illegible and cannot communicate via Hyperterminal
• Instrument seems to restart without issue and can by controlled correctly using control software (e.g. MassLynx)
• Telnet output is as expected when using an IP address or host name.

ENVIRONMENT

• MassLynx
• Empower
• Hyperterminal
• ACQUITY QDa Mass Detector
• Xevo TQ XS
• Xevo TQ S micro
• Xevo TQ S cronos

CAUSE

Some new control cards use faster data transfer rates than older ones, so they need a different speed setting in HyperTerminal than the default setting of 9600 bits per second.
Control card names may differ from instrument to instrument but include
EPC (Embedded Personal Computer) motherboards
Personality Control Boards (PCB)
Detector Control Card (DCC)

FIX or WORKAROUND

Open your Terminal program (HyperTerminal, PuTTY...) and change port settings to the appropriate speed an 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit, flow control Xon/Xoff

See below for some specific settings for mass spectrometers and EPC / PCBs:

QDa DCC

• Earlier detectors (part number - 700009594,  engineering part number - 210000792)  9600bps
• KAD series detectors (part number 700011090, engineering part number 210001039) - 115200 bps  
• KAB series detectors 38400 bps

PCBs for Xevo TQ XS Xevo TQ S micro Xevo TQ S cronos

• Kontron v1 - 9600 bps
• Kontron v2 - 115200 bps
• Apollo Lake - 115200 bps

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

A terminal program may be used for advanced diagnostics, it is not required for daily operation.