ASTM viewer for laboratory instruments
Paste the log of the communication with the analyzer (serial or network) and see the frames, checksums and records, with the results in a table. Everything is processed in your browser: nothing is sent to a server.
Tip: Ctrl + Enter (⌘ + Enter on Mac) also analyzes.
Issues found
No log analyzed yet.
Transmission
Paste a log and click Analyze.
Results
The results (R records) appear here.
| Test | Result | Units | Reference | Flag | Status |
|---|
Records
The record tree appears here.
Field names are our own descriptive names; check the position (such as R.4) in the instrument interface manual.
What ASTM is and how to use the viewer
ASTM is the name commonly given to the protocol that laboratory analyzers use to send results to the laboratory information system (LIS) and to receive orders. It was published as the ASTM E1381 and E1394 standards, now maintained by CLSI as LIS1-A and LIS2-A2, and it is described in the interface manuals of instrument manufacturers.
There are two layers. In the transmission layer, the instrument asks for the line with ENQ, the receiver answers ACK, and the content travels in frames: STX, the frame number (1 to 7, then 0), the text, ETB for an intermediate frame or ETX for the final one, a two-digit hexadecimal checksum, CR and LF. Each frame is acknowledged with ACK or rejected with NAK, and EOT ends the transmission. In the content layer, the message is made of records: H (header, which defines the delimiters), P (patient), O (order), R (result), C (comment), Q (query), M (manufacturer-specific) and L (terminator).
How to use it: paste the log as it came from the serial or network capture, with control characters as raw bytes or written as <STX>, [STX], \x02 or ^B, or just the records. The viewer checks the number and checksum of each frame, reassembles records split across frames, and shows the transmission as a timeline, the record tree (patient, orders, results and comments) and a table with test, value, units, reference range, flag and status. Field names are our own descriptive names; the position of each field is shown so you can check it in the instrument manual. The log is processed in your browser and is never sent or stored.