Pocket PC RS232 communications???

[jpowell]

Can you do serial communication (RS232) in VB.NET CF? I know in VB6.0 you can add an object called the Microsoft Comm Control.

Also, suppose a pocket pc has a compact flash slot, and I want to utilize a RS232 compact flash card as my comm port, is there a way I can write code for the compact flash hardware in VB.NET CF?

Im really new to all of this, so my line of thinking may not be correct.

Thanks for the help!

[Mike Hildner]

Can you do serial communication (RS232) in VB.NET CF? Absolutely. Although there is no .NET equivilent to the Comm control, either in the CF or the full-blown framework.

You have two options. One use p/invoke and do everything yourself. Two, and I'd say the preferred way, use a class someone else has written that wraps the API calls and makes your life easy.

Head on over to OpenNETCF.org (http://opennetcf.org/) and take a look at their OpenNETCF.IO.Serial Namespace.

Very nice stuff they have, it's a fantastic resource.

[jpowell]

Excellent, Thanks Mike for the tremendous resource.

Would you happen to know anything about how a pocket pc interprets a comm port that is on a compact flash card?

Thanks, and Happy Holidays!

[Mike Hildner]

Sorry, I don't, have not dealt with that. To be honest, I've only played with serial stuff on the pocket pc, I don't have anything in production. Our stuff that's in production uses TCP, only because that was the requirement.

So I don't know nada about that, but I would hope it's transparent to you, it should be.

And while I hate to direct traffic away from this forum, there's forums at open net cf as well. You don't see too many people here who are doing production CF work. You may want to post there.

[Shaggy Hiker]

If you search the .NET forum on Serial ports, you will find a response to a post by Wossname that lists a few different classes that read com ports in .NET. I grabbed all three and have played with them a bit. They all do about the same thing.

I have been looking for a way to go Com through a PDA, but I hadn't looked at the flash card option. The .NET wrappers may not work on a PDA, but if they do, they are pretty simple to use.

However, I'm curious about your com port. What is the PDA, and who makes the com card?

[davidhman]

You could use the Com control in vb.net if you want to go that route. While you are testing your application on a pocket pc, you might want to use a tool such as one found at http://dataanddesign.com/pocketpc2002.html , this would help you get started on your application. And also help in testing your code.