Virtual Serial Port Cookbook [Paperback]

Joe Pardue (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2007 | ISBN-10: 0976682214 | ISBN-13: 978-0976682219

This is a cookbook for communicating between a PC and a Microcontroller using the FTDI FT232R USB UART IC. The book has lots of software and hardware examples. The code is in C# and Visual Basic Express allowing you to build Graphical User Interfaces and add Serial Port functions to create communications programs.

Part 1 - Serial Port via USB Made Almost Easy -- In the first section you will learn the basics of serial communications using a USB UART bridge. You will further learn to write a simple terminal program in C# and Visual Basic Express .NET.

Part 2 - PC to Microcontroller Conversations -- In the second section you will build on what you have learned and get into more details about GUI programming, using the SerialPort class, and some useful software tools such as XML. You will bring it all together by building a Developer Terminal, which will have most of the bells and whistles that you would want for communicating between a PC and a microcontroller. You will end this section with some neat hardware experiments.

Part 3 - The FTDI FT232R -- In the final section you will chuck the serial port paradigm and communicate directly with the FT232R. You will learn how to use the Smiley Micros port of the FTDI D2XX driver, you will do some more hardware experiments bit-banging the BBUSB pins, and finally you will build a software programmer for the FT232R.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

The author (Electrical Engineer and award winning writer) also wrote C Programming for Microcontrollers also available from Amazon. He brings over 20 years of experience to the sometimes difficult job of making dense technological subjects both interesting and easy to understand.

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Smiley Micros (August 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0976682214
• ISBN-13: 978-0976682219
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 9.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,225,085 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Sorry I bought it, March 13, 2011

By 

JonR - See all my reviews

This review is from: Virtual Serial Port Cookbook (Paperback)

Book has many error and author makes no attempt to have an errata page on his web site. Pardue suggests that you type in all the code to learn how his terminal program works, but then leaves out a critical function (pg 49 "GetCom(0);), so the code won't work. He does give all the source code on the CD, but that defeats his primary primary concept that you learn by doing. Since more than half the book is a listing of his source code, I would expect it to at least be accurate.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yet another Pardue embedded classic, February 27, 2008

By 

C. Baird (Bellingham, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Virtual Serial Port Cookbook (Paperback)

Once again Joe Pardue ("C Programming For Microcontrollers") shows his wry sense of humor and expertise in embedded systems and programming. This time he has produced a breadboard oriented USB interface (using the FTDI R232R chip) which this book examines with code examples in C# and VB.Net (both available free from Microsoft). The interface can act both as a USB based RS232 virtual port and as a 12 bit general purpose interface with several bells and whistles. Drivers for both types of applications are free, and currently the interface is available for $20 (smileymicros.com).

This book does not teach the ins and outs of USB (you'll want Axelson's book for that). It is application, not theory, oriented, and as such contains fully coded applications. There are also several simple hardware experiments to illustrate the power and techniques needed to use the interface.

3.0 out of 5 stars Useful for a True .NET Beginner, September 19, 2011

By 

Michael S. Wilk (Roseville, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Virtual Serial Port Cookbook (Paperback)

This book is a decent intro on the PC side. However, I was hoping to see examples and explanations from the microcontroller as well since that's generally where the FTDI part tends to be used more often. Please note that I did not buy this book. The review is based on the free 6 chapter version.

I emailed the author seeking a solution to the USB disconnect problem of virtual serial ports. His answer was that it has never happened to him. I asked if he'd every pulled the plug while his application was communicating over a virtual serial port. He tried it, his programs (and others) locked up. I received no follow-up beyond that information. No intent to help address the issue which I consider to be very serious and important. I think the problem should at least be mentioned and/or recognized as an issue since it is about Virtual Serial Ports.

In reading through the 6 chapters I have, the book gives a decent overview of how to use the .NET SerialPort object. The writing style is light and readable. I do really like that it gives different options of how to hookup the FTDI device using available parts.

The book does focus on the use of the FTDI part, but a lot of the topics are applicable to legacy serial port functionality as well as virtual serial ports.

The author does have a typo about how to spell Schmuck... :-0