C Sharp Serial Communications

Summary
1. How to use C Sharp to manage a windows COM port.
2. How to obtain a list of available COM ports.
This article comes with a sample application written in C# with source code included.
Download from: http://www.kicchip.co.uk/download/articles/serial_c_sharp.zip

The serialPort component

C# provides the serialPort object for managing COM port connections and is located inside the
toolbox where it can be dragged onto a form.
Connecting..

In order to open the serial port, the user must first set the PortName , BaudRate, Handshake and
StopBits properties.
Once the connection properties have been set, the port can be opened using the Open() routine.
/* This event fires when the user clicks the "Open" button
* It attempts to open the COM port using the user settings.
*/
private void btnOpen_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
try {
serialPort1.PortName
= lbComPort.Text
serialPort1.BaudRate
= Convert.ToInt32(tbBaudRate.Text)
serialPort1.Handshake
= Handshake.None
serialPort1.StopBits
= StopBits.One
serialPort1.Open()
} catch (Exception x) {
MessageBox.Show(x.Message)
}
SetButtonActions()
}

;
;
;
;
;
;
;

Sending data..

Data is transmitted from the PC to the serial port via the Write() routine.
/* This event fires when the user clicks the "Write Byte" button
*/
private void btnWriteByte_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
try
{
byte[] buf = { Convert.ToByte(tbWriteString.Text) } ;
serialPort1.Write(buf , 0, 1 )
;
}catch (Exception x) {
MessageBox.Show(x.Message)
;
}
}

Reading data..

Data is read from the serial port using the ReadByte() routine.
/* This event fires when the user clicks the "Read Data" button
*/
private void btnReadData_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
try {
// if we have data to read
if ( serialPort1.BytesToRead > 0) {
/* User can select between seeing the ascii char of the data
* or its numeric value
*/
if (cbDisplayAsASCII.Checked) {
// append data as ASCII char
tdDataWindow.Text = Convert.ToString(
Convert.ToChar(
serialPort1.ReadByte()
)
) ;
} else {
// append data as its number value
tdDataWindow.Text = Convert.ToString(
serialPort1.ReadByte()
) ;
}
}
} catch (Exception x) {
MessageBox.Show(x.Message)
;
}
}

Closing the connection..

It is imperative to close the connection when finished using the port. This is done using the Close()
routine.
/* This event fires when the user clicks the "Close" button
* It attempts to close the COM port
*/
private void btnClose_Click_1(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
try {
serialPort1.Close() ;
} catch (Exception x) {
MessageBox.Show(x.Message)
;
}
SetButtonActions() ;
}

Obtaining a list of available COM ports...

The Dot Net System.IO.Ports module provides a routine called GetPortNames()

To use this routine you must first include the System.IO.Ports module in the using section of
your code:
using

System.IO.Ports

; // Port

You can then call the GetPortNames() in your code as follows:

/* The routines populates the list of available port names
* The routine does not test to see if a port is already open,
* it just returns names.
*/
private void GetPortNames()
{
lbComPort.Items.Clear()
;
string[] ports = SerialPort.GetPortNames() ;
foreach(string port in ports){
lbComPort.Items.Add(port)
;
}
SetButtonActions()
;
}

KicBasic example code

The following KicBasic code works with the demo application:
REM SERIAL ECHO
DO
REM read a byte of data
SERIN 8 , N4800 , B0
REM echo it back
SEROUT 8 , N4800 , (B0)
LOOP
END