Jim Phillips says
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>ISI said to set up Hyperterm using a "Direct to COM1"
> connection and then to "Capture Text" and start the upload
> process on the scanner.  But when I do that I either get
> garbage, or nothing, usually nothing.  The scanner is
> connnected to COM1 and Hyperterm will talk to a modem if I
> plug one into the port.

When you get garbage from a com port there is usually either a baud-rate
mismatch or a parity mismatch.  You can set both of these from within
hyperterm.

When you get nothing at all you usually have the wires crossed (i.e.you
need a null modem).  Devices can be DTE or DCE.  PCs are DTE, and modems
are DCE, so that they talk with a straight through connection.  If the
scanner is a DTE like the PC, you need a null modem cable or box.  Check
your scanner's documentation to see which it is.

Otherwise there could be a hardware handshaking problem - for example the
PC software could be waiting for a carrier detect, which it gets from a
modem but maybe not from a scanner, or one of the other hardware
handshaking signals.  It's possible to fake these by tying certain wires
together.

Peter Gofton
Author of "Mastering Serial Communications" (Sybex).