I know that serial ports work by sending one stream of bits to the serial port. I can write programs to send and receive data from this output.
However, there are many more contacts in the serial port connection that are not commonly used, but from the documentation everyone seems to have some sort of function for signaling rather than transmitting data.
Is there any way to force other contacts that are not used for direct data transfer to be monitored separately? If so, how do I do this?
EDIT: additional information
I work with a modern processor running Windows 7 64-bit on an Intel Core i7 870 processor. I use serial USB ports because it is impossible for me to use anything directly with a USB port, and my computer does not ship with serial ports, as well as for some inexplicable reason. I have a bunch of these USB serial adapters.
My goal is to control mutipul stepper motors (200 steps per revolution, 4-phase motors). My simple circuit takes single high pulses and interprets it as a command to make the engine spin one step. The circuit itself will work with a power supply and phase switching. I want to use a data pin to send rotation signals (we can control the position and speed by changing the number of high pulses and the frequency of high pulses through the pin, however there is no real modulation of the pulse width).
I have many motors to control, but they do not need to be controlled at the same time. I hope to use the remaining conclusions and run them through a simple logic circuit to determine which engine is moving and in which direction it should move. This is part of the power switching circuit.
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