Serial Communication DLL

[Chris]

Hi,

I'm trying to find out if a serial communication dll exists that would allow
me to communicate to devices connected on the com port through .net. My
implementation language will be C#. I was able to find MSCOMM.OCX but that
is an ActiveX control which requires a gui (i believe?). Eventually, the
application I will be running will be a Windows Service so I think I need a
regular dll (I'm not sure though).

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance,

Chris

[Thomas Scheidegger [MVP]]

My Serial Port FAQ:

..NET 1.0/1.1 has no support for legacy ports (COM/LPT).

There are plans to add support for serial ports in a future version:
http://groups.google.com/groups?&sel...%40tkmsftngp09
"this sample is very similar to what we will be adding" :
http://www.gotdotnet.com/community/u...ery=SerialPort
(note, project built with beta VS.NET, read gotdotnet comment)

Future Directions for Visual C#
http://msdn.microsoft.com/chats/vstu...dio_032103.asp
"We will add support for Serial ports to the framework..."
With 1.0/1.1 you have to use PInvoke or Interop :

First understand the Win32 API as described here (C++):
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en...sdn_serial.asp

MSDN article for .NET (mostly C#):
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/is...NETSerialComm/

PInvoke samples for C#:
http://www.gotdotnet.com/community/u...ery=SerialPort
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/is...NETSerialComm/
http://www.gotdotnet.com/community/u...y=SerialStream

or for VB.NET:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=823179
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en...ortinvbnet.asp
http://www.gotdotnet.com/community/u...px?query=rs232
http://www.mentalis.org/classlib/class.php?id=15
http://www.corradocavalli.cjb.net/

or you can use the "Managed Extensions for C++" and write wrappers.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en...MCOverview.asp
http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/cplusplus/
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en...rp12192002.asp
on your VS.NET path:
...\VC7\managedextensionsspec.doc
...\VC7\migration_guide.doc
MC++ Sample:
http://www.codeproject.com/managedcpp/howtocomport.asp

or reusing the VB6 MSComm ActiveX is easy, but it has some 'problems' (license)
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=318597
http://www.devhood.com/tutorials/tut...utorial_id=320
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homep...NETCommOCX.htm

commercial:
http://www.sax.net/dotnet/communications/
http://www.winsoft.sk/ncomport.htm

for Compact Framework (Windows CE)
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homep...r/CFSerial.htm

for Interop, use newsgroup:
microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.interop


--
Thomas Scheidegger - MVP .NET - 'NETMaster'
http://www.cetus-links.org/oo_dotnet.html - http://dnetmaster.net/