ASCII (American Standard Code for Information INTERCHANGE) uses 10 bits of data comprised of 7 data bits, 1 parity bit, 1 start bit and 1 stop bit. It uses LRC (Longitudinal Redundancy Check) for error checking. The advantage of ASCII is it allows up to 1 second TIME intervals to occur between character transmissions without generating an error. It’s most useful when communication is slow.

RTU mode (Remote Terminal Unit) contains 4 bit hex characters divided up into 8 data bits, 1 parity bit, 1 start bit, and 1 stop bit. It uses CRC (Cyclical Redundancy Check) for error checking. RTU has the advantage that it can send more data in the same amount of time but it has to be in a CONTINUOUS stream (no DELAYS between characters).

ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) uses 10 bits of data comprised of 7 data bits, 1 parity bit, 1 start bit and 1 stop bit. It uses LRC (Longitudinal Redundancy Check) for error checking. The advantage of ASCII is it allows up to 1 second time intervals to occur between character transmissions without generating an error. It’s most useful when communication is slow.

RTU mode (Remote Terminal Unit) contains 4 bit hex characters divided up into 8 data bits, 1 parity bit, 1 start bit, and 1 stop bit. It uses CRC (Cyclical Redundancy Check) for error checking. RTU has the advantage that it can send more data in the same amount of time but it has to be in a continuous stream (no delays between characters).