ASTM Protocol

ASTM Format
Analyzers format responds to the ASTM specifications E-1381 & E-1394:
? E-1381: Standard specification for Low Level protocol to transfer messages between
clinical or laboratory instruments and computer systems.
? E-1394: Standard specification for transferring Information between clinical or
laboratory instruments and computer systems.
1. Connection specifications (ASTM E-1381)
1.1. Hardware and software characteristics
You can setup Baud rate, Parity, Stop bit,…
Hardware setting of the interface: Connect the Host and the instrument by the DB9 serial
port.
1.2. Output data characteristics
Characters: ASCII
Maximum message length: 247 characters.
Analyzer manages Xon/Xoff protocol.

ASTM Procotol :

Interruptions
If the emission of results is started, the EOT interruption character will not be taking into
consideration.
On the other hand, if the EOT interruption character is received during the frame
preceding the results, the analyser will close its message by the terminal phase, then will
wait for 20 s before to take the line again.
ASTM Data frame format
A sequential number located after the <STX> charcater is inserted into each Data frame.
Frame number is set to 1 when transfer phase is initialized and is incremented by 1 for
each frame up to 7 and then returns to 0.
Frame number is to permit receiver to distinguish between new and retransmitted frame,
in case of retansmitted frame (after a <NAK> response from Host), frame number is not
incremented: <STX>1…Data…<CR><ETX>xx<CR><LF>

Frame cheksum
According to ASTM E-1381 frame checksum (<STX>1…Data…<CR><ETX>xx<CR><LF>) is
defined as modulo 256 of ASCII values sum between <STX> not included and <ETX>
included characters: 1…Data…<CR><ETX>
nb:It’s Depend on machine spesification . Please read user manual from vendor
Records general format specifications (ASTM 1394)
- Codes of characters
ABX analysers use Standard ASCII characters set with codes between 32 and 127
(Codes from 0 to 31 are reserved for protocol).
The Escape delimiter is not used in the datas sended by analysers.
Data frames encapsulate Records defined by ASTM E-1394 norm, Records themselves
encapsulate ASTM fields.