Can it handle 9 bit data?

[mawg]

I need something to handle 9-bit data over the serial port from Delphi; preferably FOSS, otherwise not too expensive

[Roman Novgorodov]

Hello

RS232 for Windows PC supports <= 8bit data only.

If you need 9bit you can try to play with parity and stop bits settings of serial port and handle communication errors,
but we know nothing about real implementation such tasks.

Roman Novgorodov
DeepSoftware LLC

[mawg]

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Unfortunately, you are flat out wrong.

All it takes is a 16550 UART, as found in


PCI-Bus
   MOXA: IndustIo CP-132 (2xSER, RS-422/485)
   MOXA: IndustIo CP-114 (4xSER, RS-422/485)
   MOXA: SmartIo C104H/PCI (4xSER)
   MOXA: SmartIo C168H/PCI (8xSER)
   ADDI-DATA: APCI-73xx (1xSER)
   ADDI-DATA: APCI-74xx (2xSER)
   ADDI-DATA: APCI-75xx (4xSER)
   Brainboxes: PCI 4 Port Serial Card (z.B. CC-268) (4xSER)
   TCL: DataBooster (4xSER/8xSER) (via IoPort access)
   SUNIX: 4088A/4089A (2xSER,2xPAR)
   LINDY: 70585 (2xSER)
   LINDY: 70616 (2xSER,2xPAR)
   EXSYS: EX-41051 (1xSER)
   EXSYS: EX-41052 (2xSER)
   Wiesemann & Theis: 13812 (2*SER, RS-232, 1kV isolated)

CardBus 32-Bit
   QUATECH: Serial I/O PC Card SSP-100 (1xSER)
   SOCKET: Serial I/O PC Card (1xSER)

There are several s/w out there which will handle 9-bit data, but at $4+ they are out of my range.

[Roman Novgorodov]

Hello

You do not understand.

Possible there are hardware that supports 9 and more bits.

But Windows for PC (personal computer) does not support more than 8 bit.
Take a look here (remarks bottom section):
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa363214%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

Possible special driver allow work with 9bit data, but nrComm uses only standard Windows API for access to serial port and knows nothing about non standard hardware.

Roman Novgorodov
DeepSoftware LLC