Char	Dec	Hex	Binary	Octal
L	76	0x4C	01001100	114
o	111	0x6F	01101111	157
g	103	0x67	01100111	147
i	105	0x69	01101001	151
c	99	0x63	01100011	143
space	32	0x20	00100000	040
G	71	0x47	01000111	107
a	97	0x61	01100001	141
t	116	0x74	01110100	164
e	101	0x65	01100101	145

ASCII Tables in Embedded Debugging

ASCII is a character encoding standard that maps text characters to numeric values. The capital letter A is decimal 65, hexadecimal 0x41, and binary 01000001. The digit 0 is not numeric zero in a text stream; it is ASCII code 48, or 0x30. This distinction matters constantly in embedded systems, serial protocols, command interpreters, bootloaders, and binary logs that mix readable text with numeric fields.

Although modern systems often use Unicode, ASCII remains the foundation for many protocol elements and debugging workflows. Printable English letters, digits, punctuation, carriage return, line feed, and control characters all have well-known ASCII values. UART consoles, AT commands, NMEA GPS sentences, SCPI instrument commands, modem interfaces, and many microcontroller bootloaders are still easiest to understand through ASCII.

Manual Conversion

Each ASCII character is represented by a 7-bit value, commonly stored in an 8-bit byte with the high bit cleared. To convert manually, look up the character's decimal code and then express that code in hexadecimal, binary, or octal. For example, line feed is decimal 10, hex 0A, binary 00001010, and octal 012. Carriage return is decimal 13, hex 0D. The pair CR LF often terminates text protocols.

Text vs Numbers

A common debugging mistake is confusing numeric values with text digits. Sending the byte value 0x05 is not the same as sending the character "5", which is 0x35. A device expecting ASCII commands may ignore binary values, while a binary protocol may treat ASCII digits as incorrect payload bytes. Viewing text as numeric codes makes that mismatch obvious.

Protocol Applications

ASCII tables help decode serial captures, packet payloads, configuration strings, barcodes, RFID responses, and instrument commands. They also help firmware engineers implement parsers. If a parser checks for newline, comma, colon, or equals sign delimiters, knowing the exact byte values makes tests easier to write and failures easier to interpret.

Control Characters

Not every ASCII value is printable. Codes below 32 include control characters such as null, tab, line feed, carriage return, escape, and backspace. These values can alter terminal behavior or protocol framing even when they are invisible on screen. A table-based view can reveal hidden whitespace and terminators that would otherwise be missed in ordinary text editors.

Engineering Use

This converter is intentionally small and direct. Paste a command, token, or response, and inspect how each character appears as decimal, hex, binary, and octal. That view is useful when building test fixtures, comparing logic analyzer output with firmware strings, or documenting exact byte-level protocol examples for another engineer.

ASCII inspection is also helpful when a system appears to send the right text but another device refuses to respond. The problem may be a lowercase character where uppercase is required, a missing terminator, a tab instead of a space, or an unexpected nonprinting byte copied from a terminal. Looking at the numeric representation removes guesswork. It turns a vague "the command looks right" into a concrete byte-by-byte comparison that can be reproduced in firmware tests and protocol documentation.

For broader Unicode text, ASCII is only the first layer. Characters outside the original ASCII range are usually encoded as multiple UTF-8 bytes. That does not make the ASCII table obsolete; it makes it the baseline. Many protocols still reserve ASCII bytes for framing, commands, and delimiters even when payloads can contain UTF-8. Engineers who understand ASCII can more easily debug where plain text ends and encoded binary begins.

When documenting byte streams, include both the character and numeric code for delimiters. Writing "newline" can be ambiguous because some systems use LF, some use CRLF, and older equipment may expect only CR. A table row that explicitly shows decimal 10 and hex 0A removes that ambiguity. This is especially useful for production test fixtures, where one wrong terminator can make a working unit fail automated inspection.

For strict ASCII workflows, reject bytes above 0x7F or define the extended encoding explicitly. That prevents a terminal, parser, or test fixture from silently treating Unicode text as if it were single-byte ASCII.