My "Serial" plugin

[F1uctus]

Hello everybody. I developed "Serial" plugin for VoxCommando to communicate with devices connected to PC by USB/Serial/COM port.

-Send and receive messages by Serial ports.
-Upload sketch to your Arduino on the fly.

DOWNLOAD OLD VERSION HERE

Important Note: You need have .NET framework 4.5.2 to be installed

[jitterjames]

Sounds very useful. Thanks!

I will check it out later today.

[jitterjames]

I did some quick tests and everything looks good but I don't really have an Arduino project set up right now to test with properly. I will try to get to this but hopefully someone else will try it too.

This plugin might also be useful for those with audio receivers that accept control by serial. In that case it might be necessary to send more than just regular strings. Sometimes they need hex codes that ASCII does not cover.  I handled this in the TCP plugin by parsing strings that look like \x0A in to a byte with decimal value of 10.


Anyway, I'm happy to see people working on plugins for VoxCommando!

[F1uctus]

Hello again, and meet a plugin update!

OLD VERSION. LATEST UPDATE INCLUDED IN VC 2.2.3.8-B

Changes:

• HEX codes parser (Ability to send HEX messages on port.)
• New option to restart Arduino/other device(not tested) when opening the port.
• New option to connect strings that came from port with interval less than specified in options value.
• Small translation correction.
• Some code optimizations and improvements.

Installation:

• Replace old Serial folder in "VoxCommandoFolder\plugins" with new one.
• If you do a clean\first install, insert "Serial" folder in "VoxCommandoFolder\plugins", then copy
  "ArduinoUploader.dll" and "IntelHexFormatReader.dll" in "VoxCommandoFolder\dlls"
• See Wiki How to UNBLOCK the dll

Plugin sources on GitHub

I will be interested to see your suggestions and questions about plugin.

[nime5ter]

Cool, thanks for posting these updates.

How are you currently using the plugin? Any interesting projects?

[F1uctus]

Cool, thanks for posting these updates.

How are you currently using the plugin? Any interesting projects?

I have an Arduino uno r3 and rgb led strip, on which VC send ir codes from arduino ir led.
Also i'm planning to make robo-hand on arduino, and control it by VC.

[nime5ter]

Also i'm planning to make robo-hand on arduino, and control it by VC.

That sounds fun. I would love to see photos or -- even better -- a video of that, once it is working. (In Russian, of course. )

[F1uctus]

photos or -- even better -- a video of that

I still design it, haven't details, so it may take a while. But when it 'll be ready i'll try to show results

[nime5ter]

Great, thanks again.

[nime5ter]

REMINDER TO ALL:

Once you have downloaded and extracted all the files, you will have to "unblock" all three of the dll files.

See Wiki How to UNBLOCK the dll

[F1uctus]

Thanks for reminder, i didn't know that.
If it cause error, why nobody asked about this at first release

[nime5ter]

It's OK. It is not a problem with your plugin.

It is normal that Windows users have to unblock dll files that we download from the Internet. Usually we include this step in our instructions (for example: http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=2706.msg23216#msg23216).

Most experienced users already know that this is a standard requirement. But I mentioned it for people who may not be aware that Microsoft tries to "protect" us by blocking the dll files. 

[jitterjames]

Sorry. I should have mentioned this extra step when you released the first version. 

If you want to send me the source code I will include this plugin in the installation of VoxCommando in future versions. Ideally we could have this plugin on GitHub so we can both (all) contribute updates.

In the future I would like to have more open source plugins for VoxCommando.

[F1uctus]

There is a Serial plugin sources (GitHub): https://github.com/NAITcompany/Serial/
I agree to adding plugin in next VC versions.

[jitterjames]

OK. Cool.  Thanks.

I am going away for a few days so I probably won't even be able to look at this until Tuesday but I will get in touch with you when I can..