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Beginners Column
Serial Devices
How to talk to serial devices
Issue: 3.2 (November/December 2004)
Author: Thomas J. Cunningham
Author Bio: Thomas is a self taught hobbyist programmer who enjoys sharing the RB loving with others. He is the proud father of a daughter who attends SDSU and a son with a newly acquired driver's license!
Article Description: No description available.
Article Length (in bytes): 9,903
Starting Page Number: 30
RBD Number: 3213
Resource File(s):
3213.sit Updated: Friday, November 19, 2004 at 9:20 AM
Related Web Link(s):
http://www.realsoftware.com/support/listmanager/
Known Limitations: None
Excerpt of article text...
Over the past year or so, I've had the pleasure to meet, via e-mail, and work with two gentlemen who needed some coding assistance with communicating with their respective Serial-USB devices. REALbasic comes with a very nice set of serial classes to work with. In addition, I've been fooling around with an X10 controlled device from SmartHome that allows you to turn things on and off in your home via your computer. Oh, and also a GPS. Fun stuff, really.
I'm guessing that many RBD readers also have thought about trying to talk to some electrical device via their computer, hence the topic for this month's column.
Background
We basically cannot directly communicate with an external device via our USB ports. Doing this involves driver software and REALbasic is not designed to write this type of software. However, left over from days gone by is the trusty serial port. The serial port is the nine pin connector that almost every computer made once came with. These days, most of our computers come with USB ports. To bridge this gap between external devices which come with serial ports and our USB ports, enter the USB-Serial device. There are a lot of companies that provide these relatively inexpensive devices. I've been using Keyspan's product with good results in REALbasic. By merely plugging one end to a USB port on your computer and the other to the serial device you want to talk to, you are ready to go.
...End of Excerpt. Please purchase the magazine to read the full article.
Article copyrighted by REALbasic Developer magazine. All rights reserved.
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