I am building a small device with its own CPU (AVR Mega8) that is supposed to connect to a PC. Assuming that the physical connection and passing of bytes has been accomplished, what would be the best protocol to use on top of those bytes? The computer needs to be able to set certain voltages on the device, and read back certain other voltages.

At the moment, I am thinking a completely host-driven synchronous protocol: computer send requests, the embedded CPU answers. Any other ideas?


Modbus might be what you are looking for. It was designed for exactly the type of problem you have. There is lots of code/tools out there and adherence to a standard could mean easy reuse later. It also support human readable ASCII so it is still easy to understand/test.

See FreeModBus for windows and embedded source.


There's a lot to be said for client-server architecture and synchronous protocols. Simplicity and robustness, to start. If speed isn't an issue, you might consider a compact, human-readable protocol to help with debugging. I'm thinking along the lines of modem AT commands: a "wakeup" sequence followed by a set/get command, followed by a terminator.

Host -->  [V02?]      // Request voltage #2
AVR  -->  [V02=2.34]  // Reply with voltage #2
Host -->  [V06=3.12]  // Set voltage #6
AVR  -->  [V06=3.15]  // Reply with voltage #6

Each side might time out if it doesn't see the closing bracket, and they'd re-synchronize on the next open bracket, which cannot appear within the message itself.

Depending on speed and reliability requirements, you might encode the commands into one or two bytes and add a checksum.

It's always a good idea to reply with the actual voltage, rather than simply echoing the command, as it saves a subsequent read operation.

Also helpful to define error messages, in case you need to debug.


My vote is for the human readable.

But if you go binary, try to put a header byte at the beginning to mark the beginning of a packet. I've always had bad luck with serial protocols getting out of sync. The header byte allows the embedded system to re-sync with the PC. Also, add a checksum at the end.


I've done stuff like this with a simple binary format

struct PacketHdr
  char syncByte1;
  char syncByte2;
  char packetType;
  char bytesToFollow;  //-or- totalPacketSize

struct VoltageSet
   struct PacketHdr;
   int16 channelId;
   int16 voltageLevel; 
   uint16 crc;

struct VoltageResponse
   struct PacketHdr;
   int16 data[N];  //Num channels are fixed
   uint16 crc;

The sync bytes are less critical in a synchronous protocol than in an asynchronous one, but they still help, especially when the embedded system is first powering up, and you don't know if the first byte it gets is the middle of a message or not.

The type should be an enum that tells how to intepret the packet. Size could be inferred from type, but if you send it explicitly, then the reciever can handle unknown types without choking. You can use 'total packet size', or 'bytes to follow'; the latter can make the reciever code a little cleaner.

The CRC at the end adds more assurance that you have valid data. Sometimes I've seen the CRC in the header, which makes declaring structures easier, but putting it at the end lets you avoid an extra pass over the data when sending the message.

The sender and reciever should both have timeouts starting after the first byte of a packet is recieved, in case a byte is dropped. The PC side also needs a timeout to handle the case when the embedded system is not connected and there is no response at all.

If you are sure that both platforms use IEEE-754 floats (PC's do) and have the same endianness, then you can use floats as the data type. Otherwise it's safer to use integers, either raw A/D bits, or a preset scale (i.e. 1 bit = .001V gives a +/-32.267 V range)


Adam Liss makes a lot of great points. Simplicity and robustness should be the focus. Human readable ASCII transfers help a LOT while debugging. Great suggestions.

They may be overkill for your needs, but HDLC and/or PPP add in the concept of a data link layer, and all the benefits (and costs) that come with a data link layer. Link management, framing, checksums, sequence numbers, re-transmissions, etc... all help ensure robust communications, but add complexity, processing and code size, and may not be necessary for your particular application.


USB bus will answer all your requirements. It might be very simple usb device with only control pipe to send request to your device or you can add an interrupt pipe that will allow you to notify host about changes in your device. There is a number of simple usb controllers that can be used, for example Cypress or Microchip.

Protocol on top of the transfer is really about your requirements. From your description it seems that simple synchronous protocol is definitely enough. What make you wander and look for additional approach? Share your doubts and we will try to help :).


If I wasn't expecting to need to do efficient binary transfers, I'd go for the terminal-style interface already suggested.

If I do want to do a binary packet format, I tend to use something loosely based on the PPP byte-asnc HDLC format, which is extremely simple and easy to send receive, basically:

Packets start and end with 0x7e You escape a char by prefixing it with 0x7d and toggling bit 5 (i.e. xor with 0x20) So 0x7e becomes 0x7d 0x5e and 0x7d becomes 0x7d 0x5d

Every time you see an 0x7e then if you've got any data stored, you can process it.

I usually do host-driven synchronous stuff unless I have a very good reason to do otherwise. It's a technique which extends from simple point-point RS232 to multidrop RS422/485 without hassle - often a bonus.


As you may have already determined from all the responses not directly directing you to a protocol, that a roll your own approach to be your best choice.

So, this got me thinking and well, here are a few of my thoughts --

Given that this chip has 6 ADC channels, most likely you are using Rs-232 serial comm (a guess from your question), and of course the limited code space, defining a simple command structure will help, as Adam points out -- You may wish to keep the input processing to a minimum at the chip, so binary sounds attractive but the trade off is in ease of development AND servicing (you may have to trouble shoot a dead input 6 months from now) -- hyperterminal is a powerful debug tool -- so, that got me thinking of how to implement a simple command structure with good reliability.

A few general considerations --

keep commands the same size -- makes decoding easier.

Framing the commands and optional check sum, as Adam points out can be easily wrapped around your commands. (with small commands, a simple XOR/ADD checksum is quick and painless)

I would recommend a start up announcement to the host with the firmware version at reset - e.g., "HELLO; Firmware Version 1.00z" -- would tell the host that the target just started and what's running.

If you are primarily monitoring, you may wish to consider a "free run" mode where the target would simply cycle through the analog and digital readings -- of course, this doesn't have to be continuous, it can be spaced at 1, 5, 10 seconds, or just on command. Your micro is always listening so sending an updated value is an independent task.

Terminating each output line with a CR (or other character) makes synchronization at the host straight forward.

for example your micro could simply output the strings;

  V2= ...
  and then start over -- 

Also, commands could be really simple --

? - Read all values -- there's not that many of them, so get them all.

X=12.34 - To set a value, the first byte is the port, then the voltage and I would recommend keeping the "=" and the "." as framing to ensure a valid packet if you forgo the checksum.

Another possibility, if your outputs are within a set range, you could prescale them. For example, if the output doesn't have to be exact, you could send something like


which would set port 5 off, port 6 to full on, and port 2 to half value -- With this approach, ascii and binary data are just about on the same footing in regards to computing/decoding resources at the micro. Or for more precision, make the output 2 bytes, e.g., 2=54 -- OR, add an xref table and the values don't even have to be linear where the data byte is an index into a look-up table ...

As I like to say; simple is usually better, unless it's not.

Hope this helps a bit.

Had another thought while re-reading; adding a "*" command could request the data wrapped with html tags and now your host app could simply redirect the output from your micro to a browser and wala, browser ready --


Your Answer
