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Has anybody successfully interfaced Medical Lab devices like Cell Counters /ABG instruments to mirth connect using ASTM 1381-02 or similar protocols over serial port. I am working on a small project. I need the data transmitted by the machine in ASTM format to a text file/ to a database and I cannot afford to pay $30000 for mirth commercial support. I need a low cost or open source solution.

I was expecting MLLP listener to be off use but it seems to work with TCP and I have to make it work purely on serial communication.

Secondly I tried writing ASTM serial data receiver in Java. But control characters such as ACK, STX, ETX, ETB, and other delimiters are not visible in terminals be it in Win 7 cmd or Netbeans/Eclipse console. Making me helpless in parsing the data.

Any help will in right direction be deeply appreciated.

Nawaz
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    "But control characters such as ACK, STX, ETX, ETB, and other delimiters are not visible in terminals be it in Win 7 cmd or Netbeans/Eclipse console. Making me helpless in parsing the data." So use a tool intended for the task that outputs hex as well, such as Minicom. – chrylis -cautiouslyoptimistic- Mar 23 '16 at 00:07
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    I've worked with the ASTM protocol some time ago. In Internet you may find many documents with its description. Of course you need some terminals that can display non-printable characters. I'm using Advanced Serial Port Monitor. – Helen Downs Mar 23 '16 at 04:16
  • How did you end up solving this? I'm dealing with a similar problem, listening on a serial port for ABX/ASTM format messages – mickadoo Nov 21 '16 at 10:00
  • I have my own professional low cost solutions for this. If you need get in touch with me. – Davut Gürbüz Jan 11 '19 at 07:00
  • You can convert control chars to human visible chars. Even just using Mirth you can easily integrate CBC analyzer. – Davut Gürbüz Jan 11 '19 at 07:02

3 Answers3

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If you are under Linux environment you may use COM port redirector to a given TCP port and use Mirth's TCP Listener to intercept that flow.

E.g., to pipe the serial port through netcat: netcat ipaddress port < /dev/ttyS0

Or using socat: socat pty,link=/dev/virtualcom0,raw tcp:ipaddress:port&

(check for correct parameters)

Azzabi Haythem
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Shamil
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  • Is any similar solution to redirect serial port to TCP for windows? – Nawaz Mar 25 '16 at 14:10
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    @Nawaz: That was discussed already, for example [here](http://serverfault.com/questions/490477/windows-linux-socat-to-share-a-serial-device-over-ip). – Shamil Mar 29 '16 at 16:01
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I recognize 2 problems: First, is it possible to raise an ftp service on the windows PC? if so, you only need to create a file reader addressed to ftp to capture the txt with the ASTM. Second, to determine the characters of start and end of message I recommend you read the information of the provider, if you do not have it available, I suggest you use notepad ++ to see the hidden features. I hope you help.

Eduardo Carvajal
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Just FYI there is a commercial extension available that provides ASTM E1381 support: https://www.nextgen.com/products-and-services/integration-engine?extension=astm-transmission

Nick Rupley
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