Serial - TCP

Provide remote (network) access to a serial port. Built using the Qt Framework.

Features

• Opens a serial port and connects bidirectional all active TCP streams (text mode)
• Accepts (no restrictions, no security considerations/precautions neither) incoming TCP connections

TODO

• Support local input
• Current limitations:
  • Supported baud rates: 4800, 9600, 19200, 38400, 57600, 115200
  • Immutable serial port parameters: 8N1 (8 data bits, no parity, one stop bit), no flow control

Info

Tested on platforms:

• Debian 12 rc3 using Qt 6.4.2
• Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS using Qt 5.12.8
• Ubuntu 16.04, 18.04 using Qt 5.5.1 / 5.7
• Raspberry Pi Model 3, Raspbian 9 (stretch) using Qt 5.7
• macOS Sierra (10.12.6), using Qt 5.10
• Windows 10, VS 2015 using Qt 5.7

Usage

$ ./serialTcp --help
Usage: ./serialTcp [options] serial-port serial-baud local-ip local-port
Open serial port and connect to all active TCP streams.
(https://github.com/Mokolea/serialTcp)

Options:
  -h, --help               Displays this help.
  -v, --version            Displays version information.
  -l, --list-serial-ports  List all currently available serial ports.
  -i, --local-input        Activate local input. (not implemented)
  -o, --local-output       Activate local output.
  -m, --mode-binary        TCP mode binary, default text (multi connection,
                           wait for <LF>).

Arguments:
  serial-port              Serial port this program is opening.
  serial-baud              Data baud rate for serial port, e.g. 115200 (8N1, no
                           flow control).
  local-ip                 IP address this program is binding to, 'any' for any
                           interface.
  local-port               TCP port used by this program, listening.
$ 

List all currently available serial ports:

$ ./serialTcp -l

Serial ports:
  'ttyUSB0'
  'ttyS0'
$ 

Example (using Linux)

Scenario 1: remote access logging information from a device (like Arduino, ...) attached to a serial port of Host A:

• Host A with serial port /dev/ttyS0 (or /dev/ttyUSB0, ...) and IP address 192.168.1.100
• Host B connecting to serial port of host A
• Host C also connecting to serial port of host A

Host A: Prepare local serial port to be connected to from remote machines:

$ ./serialTcp ttyS0 115200 any 65432

Host B and C: Connect to serial port of host A:

$ nc 192.168.1.100 65432

Hint: Linux socat

On Linux you can also use socat to access a serial port over TCP.

Example (see above): Host A:

$ socat TCP-LISTEN:65432,fork,reuseaddr FILE:/dev/ttyS0,115200,raw

MIT License

-- Mario