Serial Ports using System.IO.SerialPorts

Iterating over connected serial ports

using System.IO.Ports;
string[] ports = SerialPort.GetPortNames();
for (int i = 0; i < ports.Length; i++)
{
    Console.WriteLine(ports[i]);
}

Instantiating a System.IO.SerialPort object

using System.IO.Ports;
SerialPort port = new SerialPort();
SerialPort port = new SerialPort("COM 1"); ;
SerialPort port = new SerialPort("COM 1", 9600);

NOTE: Those are just three of the seven overloads of the constructor for the SerialPort type.

Reading/Writing data over the SerialPort

The simplest way is to use the SerialPort.Read and SerialPort.Write methods. However you can also retrieve a System.IO.Stream object which you can use to stream data over the SerialPort. To do this, use SerialPort.BaseStream.

Reading

int length = port.BytesToRead;
//Note that you can swap out a byte-array for a char-array if you prefer.
byte[] buffer = new byte[length];
port.Read(buffer, 0, length);

You can also read all data available:

string curData = port.ReadExisting();

Or simply read to the first newline encountered in the incoming data:

string line = port.ReadLine();

Writing

The easiest way to write data over the SerialPort is:

port.Write("here is some text to be sent over the serial port.");

However you can also send data over like this when needed:

//Note that you can swap out the byte-array with a char-array if you so choose.
byte[] data = new byte[1] { 255 };
port.Write(data, 0, data.Length);

Found a mistake? Have a question or improvement idea? Let me know.

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