Simple Serial

A simple library for communication over serial interfaces. It can be used for microcontroller to microcontroller communication or computer to microcontroller communication.

Currently supported platforms:

Arduino / C++
Python

This is a repository for the Arduino / C++ version. Find python version at: https://github.com/nplan/simple_serial_python

The library supports simple and efficient transfer of data types:

Integer (signed, 32 bit)
Floating point (32 bit)
Strings

Custom data types can be easily added.

Installation

Add to Arduino IDE

Download the .zip file. Inside Arduino IDE, go to Sketch > Include Library > Add .ZIP Library... and select the downloaded .zip file. To include library in your sketch use #include <SimpleSerial.h>

Include in C++ project

Clone library to your project and include: #include "simple_serial_arduino/src/SimpleSerial.h>

Usage

Data is sent in packets. Each packet has an id in range 0 - 255. The id is used for identifying topic and data type of the packet. The library does not know data type for a certain id. User must keep track of this.

Example:

#include <SimpleSerial.h>

simple_ser = SimpleSerial(&Serial);

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(115200);
}

void loop() {
  // This function must be called inside main loop as frequently as possible.
  simple_ser.loop();
}

// Send some data
simple_ser.send_int(1, 1234);  // Send packet with id 1 containing an integer
simple_ser.send_float(2, 2.345) // Send packet with id 2 containing a float
simple_ser.send(3, "this is a string") // Send packet containing a string

// Receive data
if (simple_ser.available()) {

  // Read a packet from queue of received packets
  SimpleSerial::Packet packet = ss.read();

  // Convert to desired type
  if (packet.id == 123) {
    int val = byte_conversion::bytes_2_int(packet.payload_len, packet.payload)
    // do sth with val
  }
  // Note: there is no way to know the data type of payload.
  // You should use id to keep track of it.
}

How it works?

Before being sent over serial port, data is framed into packets using using special flag bytes:

START Byte - Signalling start of packet, default = ASCII 2 STX
END Byte - Signalling end of packet, default = ASCII 3 ETX
ESC Byte - Inserted prior to payload data byte if it happens to have the same byte value as one of the flag bytes. default = ASCII 1 SOH

A complete packet frame:

BYTE 0	BYTE 1	BYTE 2	BYTES 3 ... N-1	BYTE N
START	LEN	ID	Payload Data Bytes	END

Byte 1 LEN indicates the total length of packet in bytes.

When SimpleSerial::send() function is called, the payload is framed into a packet and placed into send queue. Packets from this queue are sent over serial port inside SimpleSerial::send_loop().

Serial port is being monitored for incoming packets using SimpleSerial::read_loop() function. The function reads incoming packet frames byte by byte. When a complete packet frame is received, it is placed into read queue. Packets are retrieved from this queue with function SimpleSerial::read().

The length of send and read queues is set by optional max_queue_len parameter. If a queue is full, packets are discarded (not sent or not received).

Testing

For testing the library you can use TransmissionTest.ino example or implement your own loop using transmission_test.h

Test example is designed to evaluate packets sent from Python version of this library. You can use python3 -m simple_serial.transmission_tester to run the tests.