https://github.com/tschulte/comportpipe
A simple utility that pipes all bytes received from one or more serial ports to another serial port. It automatically recovers from port errors. Ports don't even need to be present at startup of the program.
https://github.com/tschulte/comportpipe
Last synced: about 1 month ago
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A simple utility that pipes all bytes received from one or more serial ports to another serial port. It automatically recovers from port errors. Ports don't even need to be present at startup of the program.
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/tschulte/comportpipe
- Owner: tschulte
- Created: 2019-07-27T20:37:04.000Z (almost 6 years ago)
- Default Branch: master
- Last Pushed: 2019-07-28T19:59:01.000Z (almost 6 years ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-02-14T11:27:27.951Z (3 months ago)
- Language: Java
- Size: 58.6 KB
- Stars: 0
- Watchers: 2
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 0
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Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.adoc
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README
# ComPortPipe
A simple utility that pipes all bytes received from one or more serial ports to another serial port.
It automatically recovers from port errors.
Ports don't even need to be present at startup of the program.
## Use Cases
### Multiple steno machines connected to the same computer
When you have multiple steno machines connected to a computer and want to use both with Plover, this is currently not possible with Plover alone.
In that scenario, at least when using USB, the OS might even assign the port dynamically and in the order of plugging in the devices.
I for example have an ErgoDox and a Stenoboard.
Both devices use the TxBolt protocol and can be used with Plover.
Sometimes I connect the ErgoDox first, sometimes the Stenoboard.
But only the first to be connected can be used with Plover.
Using ComPortPipe, it is now possible to use both devices at the same time without any problems.
### Using Plover within a VM
In addition to the problem above, I do all my work in a Linux VM.
And I start Plover in the VM, because when Plover is running on the host, it doesn't work in the VM at all (https://github.com/openstenoproject/plover/issues/707).
I can configure the VM to automatically connect the Stenoboard to the VM.
I could do the same for the ErgoDox, but in that case I cannot use the ErgoDox as normal keyboard in the Windows host.
Therefore I had to manually connect and disconnect the ErgoDox to the VM.
But again, while connected to the VM, the keyboard is not usable in the host.
Plus when connecting the ErgoDox, it took a couple of seconds for the TXBolt protocol to be available.
And in Plover I need https://github.com/openstenoproject/plover/issues/596 applied and https://github.com/tschulte/plover_auto_reconnect_machine installed.
Now on the Windows host I use com0com to create COM10 and COM11.
Everything that is written to COM10 will be available on COM11.
I also start ComPortPipe to pipe all possible com ports to COM10: `ComPortPipe COM1 COM2 COM3 COM4 COM5 COM6 COM7 COM8 COM9 COM10`.
COM11 is permanently connected to the VM in the settings of that VM.
Inside the VM Plover connects to the new com port (`/dev/ttyS1` in my case).
Now I can connect and disconnect both the ErgoDox and the Stenoboard in any order and still use both in Plover.
And the ErgoDox is always usable in the host as well.
I only have to switch between the steno and the keyboard layer.
The only downside is that Plover cannot show the connection state any more, since that port is always available.
## Prerequisites
### Virtual pair of com ports
For this program to work, you need to have a pair of virtual COM ports with a virtual null-modem connection between them.
I.e. everything that is send to one port can be read from the other and vice versa.
#### Windows
On Windows you may install http://com0com.sourceforge.net/[com0com].
#### Linux and MacOS
On Linux and MacOS you can use http://www.dest-unreach.org/socat/[socat].
`socat -d -d pty,rawer pty,rawer`
creates two PTYs, e.g. `/dev/pts/7` and `/dev/pts/8`.
The problem with above command is that the exact devices are dynamic and might change with every call.
To allow to have stable port names, you can tell socat to create symlinks for both devices.
`socat -d -d pty,rawer,link=$HOME/dev/ttyS0 pty,rawer,link=$HOME/dev/ttyS1`
will create symlinks `$HOME/dev/ttyS0` and `$HOME/dev/ttyS1`.
The folder (`$HOME/dev` in this case) must exist and you need to have permission to write to that folder.
### Java
ComPortPipe needs Java 8 or newer installed.
If you don't know where to get Java, you may use https://aws.amazon.com/de/corretto/[Amazon Corretto].
## Installation
Download and unpack the latest https://github.com/tschulte/ComPortPipe/releases[release].
## Launching
* Open a console window and navigate to the `bin`-subfolder of the installed ComPortPipe application
* Execute `ComPortPipe COM1 COM2 COM3 COM10` to use COM1, COM2 and COM3 as input and transfer everything to COM10.
(On Linux use `./ComPortPipe /dev/ttyS1 /dev/ttyS2 $home/dev/ttyS0`)