Recieve from SerialPort from Another Machine

[JOSheaIV]

Hello everyone,

So today I wrote a small little application that reads in the bytes from a SerialPort object. While this worked successfully, it was completely local. The device I was reading from was plugged into my machine.

Now, again while that worked, I need to use the same logic to read from a SerialPort object that might be located on another machine. Is there someway to do this? I know I'll have an IP address to work with. Can I use that IP in relation to the SerialPort to pull data from another source (the one device I should point out is connected to a wireless transmitter)? And if so, how would I go about doing this?

Hope this makes sense, it's been a really long day

[SalmiSoft]

I think you'll need to have some software running on the machine which physically has the serial port. You could write that software yourself, or buy it (eg http://www.advancedvirtualcomport.com/index.html).

[JOSheaIV]

Yeah I assumed I might, any idea how I would got about though writing it? I know how to use the Serial Port, but is there anyway to pull that data from another machine using say an IP address?

[SalmiSoft]

I would set the machine that has the physical serial port to be a server (use TcpListener?) and the remote machine to be a client (use TcpClient?). Then the client can send stuff to the server for the server to send to the device attached to the serial port, and the server can send back whatever it receives from the serial device. The server doesn't need to understand whatever data is flowing through this system, it just acts as a middleman, passing the data back and forth.

[JOSheaIV]

So I finally got an update on this. Turns out the device that usually connects to a serial port, is actually plugged into a wireless transmitter. I have an IP Address, but sadly, the SerialPort object can accept that IP, it just complains that when trying to connect it's not valid.

So I have this wireless device transmitting, I just need to figure out how to read the byte data from it

[SalmiSoft]

I am lost. How is your device connected?
Serial line? (RS232 or something else?).
Network cable?
Wifi?

If the device is connected via a network cable or wifi, can you ping it?

[rubberman]

If you are using physical serial ports (even via USB) then IP addresses are irrelevant, and not used. You need to connect to the correct COM: port.

[JOSheaIV]

Oh man I totally forgot about this.

The device is a scale, but instead of hooking up to a standard serial port (like to a PC), it's hooked up to what I think was a wireless transmitter for like WiFi.

Unfortantly I have to go back on site to work with the device. So for now I am at a stand still.