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Oryx draws signals with no time and no voltage: a channel is a row of cells and every cell is high or low. A serial protocol needs nothing more than that —one bit per cell— so reading a frame means reading that row of zeros and ones and saying what each stretch means.
Protocols are read in digital mode only. In analog the control is disabled: “Protocols are read in digital mode”.

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How a frame is written

1

Split the steps

Every sub-step is one bit. With the Division tool (D) the selected steps are split into as many bits as you need.
2

Draw the bits

Click each sub-step to set it high or low.
3

Pick the protocol

With the Protocol control in the header: None, UART, CAN, I2C or Modbus.
4

Read the interpretation

A band appears under the channel, with one labelled bar per field.

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A full example: sending the letter “A” over UART

Good for getting the hang of the flow. The letter A is 0x41, that is 01000001 in binary.
1

Set the protocol to UART

The Protocol control in the header. Leave the default format: 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit, LSB first, idle high.
2

Work out how many bits you need

With that format, one character takes 10 bits: 1 start + 8 data + 1 stop.
3

Select a step and split it into 10

Click a step, then Division (D), go up to 10 with → and press Enter. That step now has 10 cells, one per bit.
4

Draw the bits, left to right

  • Bit 1 — start: low.
  • Bits 2 to 9 — data, least significant first: since A is 01000001, reversed it reads 1000 0010.
  • Bit 10 — stop: high.
5

Look at the reading

The bars appear under the channel: Start, Data and Stop. Hovering the data bar shows 0x41 · 65 · 01000001 · "A".
If the reading is not what you expected, the most common cause is writing the data bits the right way round. UART sends the least significant bit first, so the byte is drawn backwards from how it is written.

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What you see

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The band under the channel

One bar per frame field, with:
  • A short label: SOF, ID, DLC, CRC.
  • The value written out to read: 0x1A3, 8, FF.
  • A color according to the role the field plays.
  • On hover, the long text explaining what it is.
While a protocol is being read, its reading takes the place of the step numbers.

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The colors

The color does not belong to the protocol but to the role the stretch plays, so two different protocols paint alike what is alike: the start is always the same color, the data always another.

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The status box

A summary appears on the channel’s name card: how many frames there are and whether they are all fine —“3 frames · all OK”— or how many failed —“3 frames · 1 with errors”. Expand it to see the full reading, frame by frame, with the problems listed. When the channel has nothing yet, the box explains how to start, with text of its own for each protocol.

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The four protocols

UART

One channel. Configurable character format: data bits, parity, stop bits, bit order and idle level.

CAN

One channel. Standard and extended frames, with the CRC checked, stuff bits and error flags.

I2C

Two channels per bus: SDA and SCL. Several buses at once.

Modbus

RTU, ASCII and TCP, with the function codes and the exceptions translated.

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Where they are configured

The Protocol control in the header opens the window with every setting. Each protocol has its own, and they are stored in the browser with the rest of the configuration.
The protocol settings belong to the whole application, not to each mode: since they only apply in digital, they do not need to be repeated per mode.