Improve serial bridge

[ghost]

Open to options here.

SerialPort + windows users suffer, are forced to use older versions of node or compile SerialPort native module from source.

No, we cant say we dont support windows (lasercutter people are graphics people so i expect mac+win to be the majority

Win no 1 would be a precompiled executable doing everything server.js does. Cross platform, too

Or lets explore chrome app / serial api etc

[ghost]

@danawoodman @andrewhodel @quillford

[Cinezaster]

Make an Electron app from it. Someone made this work https://gist.github.com/jedthehumanoid/a7f8278e0a37d259adca for windows.

I only have experience on osx

[ghost]

That looks ideal in quick overview! Same code we already have, just built as a desktop app...

Investigating!

[danawoodman]

Electron would be sweet! Having everything bundled together and bootable by just launching the app would be a win for usability. My makerspace users aren't all technical so this would be a big plus in my book.

I know Chilipeppr uses this https://github.com/johnlauer/serial-port-json-server. That or the Chrome serial API https://developer.chrome.com/apps/serial

Maybe it can work? It is cross platform.

EDIT: Just noticed you mentioned the Chrome serial API already

[andrewhodel]

I have a few days with nothing to do here, I'll try making a rrw and gw version that uses the chromium serial api and see what happens. Then you can test it on Windows.

I'll share the Javascript by updating those projects then you can merge if it all works.

I've been working with RPI and tty for a navigation project and that is working great with very little code.

Before running the app, this configures the tty:

stty -F /dev/ttyUSB0 4800 -brkint -icrnl -imaxbel -opost -isig -icanon -iexten -echo -echoe -echok -echoctl -echoke

cat /dev/ttyUSB0 | node app.js

Code for app.js

var readline = require('readline');
var rl = readline.createInterface({
  input: process.stdin,
  output: process.stdout,
  terminal: false
});

rl.on('line', function(line){
    console.log(line);
});

Nonetheless I like the idea of the chrome serial api, it seems very cool.

[andrewhodel]

Electron looks cool as well, I will also check that out and thanks for sharing.

[ghost]

Thanks @andrewhodel!

Yip unfortunately actually, this project has outgrown the pi image concept (unfortunate because thats really the easiest to support for distribution - as you can also control the environment)

[ghost]

I'm going to close this one for now. With good documentation as contributed by the community lately. it's been a while since someone had issues installing. Keep it in back of mind, will still accept Pull requests (;

[ghost]

Reopening... We have some issues where Node Serialport doesnt send all the data to the device

[funinthefalls]

Have you taken a look at nodewebkit?

[ghost]

Wont help, the issues is in Node SerialPort so alternatives boil down to more than just install.

[reconbot]

Hi, We've got a new beta version ready for testing that fixes a lot of issues on windows. This includes throwing some errors that might have been lost that helps explain bad situations. I don't know too much about your project but I'd love to help debug. You can learn more about serialport@2.0.7-beta4 here https://github.com/voodootikigod/node-serialport/issues/733

[ghost]

Awesome, we are busy moving away from node-serialport though (see github.com/openhardwarecoza/LaserWeb2 ) but hey, any existing LaserWeb1 users, feel free to give this a try (:

[reconbot]

I'm sorry the project dove you away! Besides fixing bugs and improving the api.

We're approaching parity with chrome's own serial object. (we'll actually have more features!) We've got a project called browser-serialport which wants to maintain a compatible api that uses the chrome's serialport as it's backend. That way you could switch to an electron app and keep the same code.

https://www.npmjs.com/package/browser-serialport

[ghost]

Well i am always happy to go back and forth (: - but my time is limited and contributors too. If you can help out, i would love assistance with playing with that. (i am self taught, so excuse the mess which is the code) On 7 Apr 2016 19:47, "Francis Gulotta" notifications@github.com wrote:

I'm sorry the project dove you away! Besides fixing bugs and improving the api.

We're approaching parity with chrome's own serial object. (we'll actually have more features!) We've got a project called browser-serialport which wants to maintain a compatible api that uses the chrome's serialport as it's backend. That way you could switch to an electron app and keep the same code.

https://www.npmjs.com/package/browser-serialport

— You are receiving this because you modified the open/close state. Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/openhardwarecoza/LaserWeb/issues/21#issuecomment-207023530

[reconbot]

Time always is. I wanted to make sure you knew what we were up to, as maybe it might save you some in the future. =)

On Thu, Apr 7, 2016, 1:52 PM Peter van der Walt notifications@github.com wrote:

Well i am always happy to go back and forth (: - but my time is limited and contributors too. If you can help out, i would love assistance with playing with that. (i am self taught, so excuse the mess which is the code) On 7 Apr 2016 19:47, "Francis Gulotta" notifications@github.com wrote:

I'm sorry the project dove you away! Besides fixing bugs and improving the api.

We're approaching parity with chrome's own serial object. (we'll actually have more features!) We've got a project called browser-serialport which wants to maintain a compatible api that uses the chrome's serialport as it's backend. That way you could switch to an electron app and keep the same code.

https://www.npmjs.com/package/browser-serialport

— You are receiving this because you modified the open/close state. Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub < https://github.com/openhardwarecoza/LaserWeb/issues/21#issuecomment-207023530

— You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/openhardwarecoza/LaserWeb/issues/21#issuecomment-207026326

[ghost]

Serial Port JSON server under LaserWeb2 works OK so closing this for now