Toggle parity bit for sending and receiving data via Serial Port

[awu]

All:
I am writing a window program to communicate with a embedded frimware
device via PC RS232 serial port. My program requires sending and
receiving data. In each frame, first and last bytes need parity bit
set (MARK), the rest of bytes need parity bit reset (SPACE). The
window program is the master.

My question is when I set parity bit on PC is different than the one I
receive, do I really receive this type (I am using ReadFile)?

I used HyperTerminal to try out this test. I start HyperTerminal in
two different PCs. Two PCs are connected via serial port. I set up
one PC with MARK parity, the other one with SPACE parity. The rest of
settings are the same. When I send only one byte, I did receive this
type on the other PC, but if I send more bytes, I didn't receive
anything on the other PC. Can someone explain the parity bit problem
on PC in general? Should my program be ready to receive any data even
in different parity bit?

Thank you for the help
awu10

[Scott McPhillips [MVP]]

Windows does not give you the received parity bit. The hardware checks
it and reports an error if it does not match what you have set. So you
might not be able to do this at all using the standard Windows serial
driver.

A possible work-around: If your device data format is 7 bits plus parity
try setting 8 bits with no parity in your program. I think the received
parity bit will then appear in the high bit of each received byte, with
no hardware checking. And if that works it would probably also let you
set the high bit when you send, letting you directly control the send
parity in each character.

--
Scott McPhillips [VC++ MVP]