Hokay, some progress to report. I can now turn the data dumped from RS-232 into a picture, more or less, using some rather skanky BASIC code. (BBC BASIC is the only language I am comfortable with - I taught myself it when I was in my early teens and haven't ever really needed anything else, despite developing several successful microcontroller-based products over the years).
Back to a description of the code. First, I ignore the header section, then I scan the 'payload' (image data), converting each 4-character ASCII 'hex' into a figure, which I use to determine the lowest and highest data (and so set my black and white points).
Then I go through the payload again, subtracting the black level and scaling the remainder proportionately to the 'peak white' I established in the first run, and output each (now 8-bit) sample to a file, which I can then import as a raw (headerless) image into my old standby Paint Shop pro X.
The program wouldn't win any awards for style or efficiency but it does all the processing in about one second so I'm not disposed to optimise it (yet).
These images show the processed image as it arrives in Paint Shop Pro, and the same image after a 'one step photo fix'.
Hokay, some progress to report. I can now turn the data dumped from RS-232 into a picture, more or less, using some rather skanky BASIC code.
First, I ignore the header section, then I scan the 'payload' (image data), converting each 4-character ASCII 'hex' into a figure, which I use to determine the lowest and highest data (and so set my black and white points).
Then I go through the payload again, subtracting the black level and scaling the remainder proportionately to the 'peak white' I established in the first run, and output each (now 8-bit) sample to a file, which I can then import as a raw (headerless) image into my old standby Paint Shop pro X.
The program wouldn't win any awards for style or efficiency but it does all the processing in about one second so I'm not disposed to optimise it (yet).
The next step will probably be to add a suitable header to the file so I can use it properly as an image without having to go through the PSP import step. It's still going to be clunky though, at least for now. But at least I'm getting somewhere!
Then I suppose I'll start looking at nonlinear palettes and - who knows? Possibly making higher bit depth images.