Here is the situation. I have a piece of hardware that reads machine pulses and sends data to the serial port of a Windows 2000 server. I can't say that I know what to expect when I monitor this port. Eventually, I want to add records to a SQL database, based on what the serial port receives.

I found some sample code. I went to the manufacturer's site to get the configuration data
Code:
  With MSComm1
    'make sure the serial port is not open (by this program)
    If .PortOpen Then .PortOpen = False
    'set the active serial port
    .CommPort = 1
    'set the badurate,parity,databits,stopbits for the connection
    .Settings = "19200,N,8,1"
    'set the DRT and RTS flags
    .DTREnable = True
    .RTSEnable = True
    'enable the oncomm event for every reveived character
    .RThreshold = 1
    'disable the oncomm event for send characters
    .SThreshold = 0
    'open the serial port
    .PortOpen = True
  End With 'MSComm1
When I have the rate set at 9600, I get a string of unreadable characters (such as a y with line above it). Is that Uncode? When I have the rate set a 19200 I get a series of vertical bars separated by an astrisk-like character. Neither case does me any good.

I am using thsi code to read the pulses
Code:
Private Sub MSComm1_OnComm()
  Dim strInput As String
  With MSComm1
    'test for incoming event
    Select Case .CommEvent
      Case comEvReceive
        'display incoming event data to displaying textbox
        strInput = .Input
        Text1.SelText = strInput
    End Select
  End With 'MSComm1
End Sub
I have never tried this before, so I do not know what to expect to see. I was hoping to see a machine number, and a time stamp.

I'm thinking that I need to do something in the CommEvent code to translate the input.

Any help would certainly be appreciated.