If you want to use just a serial port, use the FreeSerialPort device. You will be asked to specify which serial port to use, as well as the baud rate and other serial port settings. You can then use the following build-in Micro-Manager commands to communicate with the device:
- (String) getSerialPortAnswer(String portLabel, String term)
- Continuously read from the serial port until the terminating sequence is encountered.
- (CharVector) readFromSerialPort(String portLabel)
- Reads the contents of the Rx buffer.
- setSerialPortCommand(String portLabel, String command, String term)
- writeToSerialPort(String portLabel, CharVector data)
- Sends an array of characters to the serial port and returns immediately.
In the Beanshell scripting environment, these functions are accessible using the “mmc” object. Ed Burgin send the following example to the MM mailing list:
gui.clearMessageWindow();
update();
port = "COM5";
command = "M114"; //gcode example reports current XYZ coordinates
commandTerminator = "\r";
answerTerminator = "ok"; //reprap gcode terminates with this
mmc.setSerialPortCommand(port, command, commandTerminator);
answer = mmc.getSerialPortAnswer(port, answerTerminator);
print(answer);
Here is an example of how to use ‘readFromSerialPort’ & ‘writeToSerialPort’:
import mmcorej.CharVector;
gui.clearMessageWindow();
commandTerminator = "\r";
answerTerminator = "ok";
port = "COM11";
update();
readBuffer() {
str1 = "BLANK";
answer = mmc.readFromSerialPort(port);
if (answer.capacity() > 0) {
for(i=0; i<answer.capacity(); i++){
if(str1 == "BLANK") {
str1 = "" + answer.get(i);
} // you have to add the "" otherwise adds decimal value
else {
str1 = "" + str1 +(char)answer.get(i);
}
}// end loop
print(str1);
}////////end if statement
}///////////////////////////////////////end readBuffer
readBuffer();
Thread.sleep(200); //in milliseconds
//////////////////////message///////////////////////
//command = "M114";
//G21: Set Units to Millimeters Example: G21 Units from
// now on are in millimeters. (This is the RepRap default.)
//mmc.setSerialPortCommand(port, command, commandTerminator);
CharVector message = new CharVector();
message.add('M');
message.add('1');
message.add('1');
message.add('4');
message.add('\r');
mmc.writeToSerialPort(port, message);
print("message to COM is: " + message.capacity());
////////////////////////reply//////////////
gui.sleep(200); //in milliseconds
readBuffer();
Click here to search for FreeSerialPort on the Micro-Manager mailing list archive.