Question

Interfacing through RS-232 cable (serial port)

Asked by: mastallama

Hey everyone,

I need a little bit of direction here.  I've recently purchased a sweet Video Matrix Switcher and really like the software that comes with it, but I'd like to rewrite the program with a little more functionality.  I've got a very basic knowledge of C++ (it's been a few years since I used it but I've got a pretty good memory and my text books) but the one thing I've never worked with before is sending/recieving information through the serial port on the computer.  The Matrix Switcher I've got will accept ASCII characters, so I basicly would like to create a pretty GUI to send preset ASCII strings through the serial port.

Should I use MFC?  STL?  ATL?  ...and what functions should I focus on?

Can someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks,
MastaLlama

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Asked On
2006-05-27 at 14:38:02ID21866212
Tags

serial

,

port

,

programming

Topic

C++ Programming Language

Participating Experts
2
Points
250
Comments
8

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Answers

 

by: jkrPosted on 2006-05-27 at 14:59:19ID: 16777020

Check out http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnfiles/html/msdn_serial.asp ("Serial Communications in Win32") - it is the most comprehensive article regarding this subject and comes with all the code you'll need. MFC, STL and ATL are quite unrelated here.

 

by: mastallamaPosted on 2006-05-27 at 18:35:05ID: 16777654

Ok, I read through that one but their sample code (as always seems the case) won't compile due to errors.  Also, I don't have VisualStudios or anything that comes with MFC and this code seems to lean on the MFC stuff a bit, but I could be mistaken.  Has anyone on here done this before?

 

by: jkrPosted on 2006-05-27 at 19:28:01ID: 16777771

What errors are you getting? That article does not really us any MFC code.

 

by: mahesh1402Posted on 2006-05-29 at 00:57:20ID: 16782732

You may also take a look at this 'Serial library for C++' at codeproject :

http://www.codeproject.com/system/serial.asp <== have a look at CSerial which is the base serial class, which provides a wrapper around the Win32 API

-MAHESH

 

by: mahesh1402Posted on 2006-05-29 at 01:01:43ID: 16782745

OR
A smiple CSerial class with CSerial::Open() CSerial::ReadData() CSerial::SendData() etc functions :
http://www.codeguru.com/Cpp/I-N/network/serialcommunications/article.php/c2503/ <==

Also : A communication class for serial port
http://www.codeguru.com/Cpp/I-N/network/serialcommunications/article.php/c2483 <== MFC

-MAHESH

 

by: mastallamaPosted on 2006-06-01 at 10:08:18ID: 16809149

I'll take a look at the CSerial.  It looks real easy to use.  I'll let you know how things go.  

Does anyone know if there's a difference in how a program should communicate through the serial port depending on the type of cable the equipment requires?  Different pins on different types of serial cables are the send pins.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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