Remote interface

The SMD4 offers 3 communication interfaces, USB, LAN and Serial. The serial interface is dual mode, and can be configured for RS232 or RS485. Multiple interfaces can be connected and in use at the same time. All interfaces use a text based communication protocol described here.

This section may only be relevant if you are using terminal software or writing your own application. AML Device control software interacts with the SMD4 in the same way and requires no specialist knowledge to use. A C# API is also provided, allowing you to easily integrate communication with the SMD4 into your own C# .NET application.

USB

A reversible USB-C connector is provided.

The SMD4 appears as a virtual COM port on your PC, and will be assigned a designation such as "COM1". Each unique SMD4 that is connected to the PC will be assigned a new designation. Upon reconnecting a previously known SMD4, it will typically assume the same designation as when last used, however this behaviour cannot be guaranteed.

The virtual COM port does not require any particular configuration to function correctly. Typical settings such as baud rate and parity are not applicable.

Most programming languages include easy built in methods to read and write data to and from a COM port, for example the SerialPort class in the System.Io.Ports namespace in C#, or pySerial in Python. Alternatively use a terminal program such as Terraterm to manually type commands and see responses.