Trimble ACE II Programming Notes

I donwloaded a handy program called WinHexCom from here. This is very nice because it allows viewing and sending binary data in hexadecimal form. The default settings for the Trimble ACE II are: 9600 baud, 8 data-bits, 1 stop-bit, ODD parity and no flow control. Setup your port that way, choose hexadecimal display and select the Run button. You should start to see data across your screen. These are the TSIP packets. Each packet begins with {10} and ends with {10 03}.

You can enter commands down at the bottom. You just enter hexadecimal values as 2-digit pairs separated by a space. The command for setting all NMEA messages at a 1 second interval would be {10 7A 00 01 00 00 01 1F 10 03}. The fourth byte (the first 01 above) is the interval in seconds (from 1 to 255). The 7th and 8th bytes (01 1F) specify the NMEA messages to send. the low bit of the 7th byte is for the RMC message. The 8th byte is as follows:
Bit NMEA Message
0x01 GGA
0x02 GLL
0x04 VTG
0x08 GSV
0x10 GSA

If the message is accepted then you should get a response that looks very much like what you sent except instead of the 0x7A in the 2nd byte, you'll see 0x7B which is the response packet for a 0x7A command.

If you want to save settings, send the following command {10 8E 26 10 03}

If you want to double-check the port settings, you can issue the command {10 BC FF 10 03}. A typical response would be {10 BC 00 07 07 03 01 00 00 02 02 00 10 03} referencing page A66.
Byte Item Setting
0 Port 0=Port 1
1=Port 2
0xFF=Current
1 Input Baud 2=300
3=600
4=1200
5=2400
6=4800
7=9600
8=19200
9=38400
2 Output baud Same as above
3 Data bits 2=7
3=8
4 Parity 0=None
1=Odd
2=Even
5 Stop bits 0=1 bit
1=2 bits
6 Flow control0=None
7 bit0 TAIP input 0=Off
1=On
7 bit1 TSIP input 0=Off
1=On
7 bit2 reserved 0
7 bit3 RTCM input 0=Off
1=On
7 4-7 reserved 0
8 bit0 TAIP output 0=Off
1=On
8 bit1 TSIP output 0=Off
1=On
8 bit2 reserved 0
8 bit3 RTCM output 0=Off
1=On
8 4-7 reserved 0
9 reserved 0