INFICON HLD6000 Refrigerant Leak Detector Interface Description - Manual (Page 6)

6 Interface Protocols
1.3 Comparison between ASCII- and LD Protocol
ASCII- and LD protocol have nearly the same functional range, but each of them
have some advantages and disadvantages:
ASCII protocol:
Advantages:
• human readable
• easy to use with simple terminal program
Disadvantages:
• No checksum, therefor lower data security
• PC/ PLC software must convert numerical values from ASCII string to binary
• Lower efficiency (for example: 8 data bytes for one float value)
LD protocol:
Advantages:
• Leak detector status always transmitted in each slave telegram
• High data security due to CRC checksum
• Binary transmission of numerical values – no conversion needed in PC/PLC
software
• High efficiency (for example: 4 Byte data bytes for one float value)
Disadvantages:
• Not human readable
• Not useable with simple terminal program