Re: [Newbies] Serial ComPort

On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 08:38:29PM -0800, Overcomer Man wrote:
> How do I make a Serial ComPort to text I/O with a USB device?
>
> I am currently trying to emulate most of this simple software so I can
> build better tools in Smalltalk:
> http://www.parallax.com/Portals/0/Downloads/sw/propeller/Parallax-Serial-Terminal.exe
>
> I am using Cuis 3.3 under Win XP and/or Vista but am willing to use any VM,
> .dll, or package to get started.  Thanks.

Hi Kirk,

This may turn out to be a complicated question, so I am copying the
squeak-dev list also.

Since you are starting with a Cuis image, you will want to add the
class SerialPort from a Squeak image (probably you can just file it
out from Squeak, and file it in to Cuis). This will give you the basic
access to COM ports from your image. I think (but I'm not certain) that
any of the usual VMs (standard VM or Cog) will have the necessary
support for using SerialPort on Windows.

I think that on Windows using USB serial ports is a matter of mapping
the serial ports to something that looks like e.g. COM3:, but I am
not a windows user so I don't know the specifics. Probably someone
on the squeak-dev list will be able to give some advice.

HTH,
Dave

If you're using something like an FT232 to convert from usb to TTL on the device side, Windows will automatically install a virtual com port driver, and you just need to look in the device manager to see which COM port # it set for that device. When you open the SerialPort object in Cuis, just provide the port # as the port argument, and it should work with no issues.