Communicator and communication method and system

Abstract

A communication method and system for determining the transmission speed of a communicating remote unit with respect to a host communicator. The communication method uses a start of message header containing a known number of timing intervals, called ticks, with the header transmission in a logic one or a logic zero state. A start of message header is detected by the host communicator and its logic one state is sampled after a given period of time in order to determine its actual logic one duration. From this, the actual tick time is determined so as to be able to determine data '1' bits and data '0' bits from the remote unit by sampling the incoming data at precise intervals of time so as to properly determine the data bit states. A logic zero to logic one state transition at the start of each data bit is used to reset the communicator tick timer. The invention further comprises such a communicator which is able to interrogate one or more remote units, each remote unit having the capability of reporting its status as well as initiating self-discharge tests under commands from the host communicator. The incoming status information to the host communicator is then displayable by means of a printer.