.NET Core Serial COM Port
DotCOM is an open source serial port CLI written in C# using .NET Core. It is in early development stage, it has only been tested to work in Windows, and currently supports the following operations:
- send a single string to the specified port
- send a single hex string to the specified port using standard C notation (
1A->0x1A) - list available COM ports
- open an interface to read/write data from/to the device
When working with serial devices, there aren't many options for serial terminals. At least not for Windows users. All of these options are in the form of a standalone desktop program, like PuTTY and TeraTerm.
I find it particularly useful to be able to interact with these device using the command prompt because I usually send just a single string to test a feature on the device, and I end up sending the same string over and over again. For this kind of applications, it may be faster and more comfortable to just use a single command on a terminal or command prompt.
For a fair amount of time, I opted to use Minicom on my WSL machine, but it crashed a lot, and I'd have to open Arduino and open the serial monitor over there. Furthermore, to see the desired port number, I'd have to go over the device manager window and check it manually.
This program was built using the System.CommandLine and System.IO.Ports tools. The System.CommandLine library is quiet new, and not properly documented yet. You'll find this project to be a good example of a fairly complex program, and a real use case as well. However, there's a chance this program doesn't represent the best practices of System.CommandLine, as I couldn't find a better real example.
For the moment, I don't intend to publish an official release on GitHub, nor am I going to release this program by any other means. If you wish to use this tool, you'll have to build it yourself.
dotcom:
A serial port cli for windows
Usage:
dotcom [options] [command]
Options:
--version Show version information
-?, -h, --help Show help and usage information
Commands:
send, send-string, single <message> Sends a single message to the specified port
send-bytes <bytes> Sends one or more byte values to the specified port
list Lists the available serial ports
open Open serial communication with the specified port
send-string:
Sends a single message to the specified port
Aliases:
send, send-string
Usage:
dotcom send-string [options] <message>
Arguments:
<message> The message to be sent to the device
Options:
-d, --device, --port <port> (REQUIRED) Device portname (e.g. com12)
-b, --baudrate <baudrate> Communication baudrate [default: 115200]
-p, --params <params> Communications parameters [default: 8N1]
-l, --line-end <line-end> Appends a line-ending symbol at the end (valid values: LF, CRLF) [default: NONE]
-?, -h, --help Show help and usage information
send-bytes:
Sends one or more byte values to the specified port
Usage:
dotcom send-bytes [options] [<bytes>...]
Arguments:
<bytes> The bytes to be sent to the device. Supports both decimal and hex values
Options:
-d, --device, --port <port> (REQUIRED) Device portname (e.g. com12)
-b, --baudrate <baudrate> Communication baudrate [default: 115200]
-p, --params <params> Communications parameters [default: 8N1]
-?, -h, --help Show help and usage information
list:
Lists the available serial ports
Usage:
dotcom list [options]
Options:
-?, -h, --help Show help and usage information
open:
Open serial communication with the specified port
Usage:
dotcom open [options]
Options:
-d, --device, --port <port> (REQUIRED) Device portname (e.g. com12)
-b, --baudrate <baudrate> Communication baudrate [default: 115200]
-p, --params <params> Communications parameters [default: 8N1]
-l, --line-end <line-end> Appends a line-ending symbol at the end (valid values: LF, CRLF) [default: NONE]
-e, --echo Echoes back the message [default: True]
-?, -h, --help Show help and usage information