python serial port example windows script

As I write this on a Mac, the serial port name for the first thing that gets plugged in is /dev/tty.usbserial.

However, poorly written code can throw exceptions when trying to deal with this jibberish data, so adding the errors='replace' argument to decode() is a way to make sure that the bytes objects are defensively handled. This is common, as it takes a few lines for the output to get warmed up. Third, you may notice that the output is complete jibberish for the first few lines. Second, the timeout=1 parameter is essential…it makes sure that when opening a serial port with no output (as you are bound to accidentally do at some point), the program doesn’t block indefinitely when calling readline(). You can also open() and close() Serial ports, but failure to do so can lead to unexpected behaviour when opening them again in the future, and handling all of the possible exception cases is a headache. First, use the with syntax when using serial ports. There’s a few very important things about this code that took some strategic handling. # read 10 lines from the serial output for i in range( 10): Serial( '/dev/tty.usbserial', baudrate = 4800, timeout = 1) as ser: In Python, the implementation is quite simple: The library is easily installed using pip3 ( pip3 install pyserial). Luckily, the PySerial library provides easy access to all matter of serial communication (Raspberry Pi and otherwise). In theory the Rapsberry Pi was an easy solution, all we needed was the Python code to make it happen. In the rain, the Raspberry Pi could easily be tucked away in a waterproof container, which was another issue we faced with using laptops in the field.

All totalled we needed to collect bathymetric data for 5 days, which represented a significant challenge even with multiple batteries.Įnter the Raspberry Pi, which runs on 5 volts and can easily log serial data provided a suitable USB adapter.

However, the two lakes we needed to map were massive, and we needed a large amount of detail. Usually the lakes we do research on are quite small, and the battery life of our laptops (around a few hours) is not an issue. On the laptop, we used sofware called UnderSee Explorer (formerly Contour3D) which as far as I can tell, is now completely out of business.

Our usual approach is to use an old Windows XP laptop with a serial port to log data from our Garmin GPS/Depth sounder unit. A few months ago I needed to create detailed bathymetric maps for a water utility with which I was doing research.

Python serial port example windows script