Install serial port

Many devices are controlled over an RS-232 serial port.

CPAN serial port module

The xPL serial port device bases on the Perl CPAN Device::SerialPort module.

Open a terminal and login as root.

Update CPAN:

su
perl -MCPAN -e shell
  > install LWP
  > reload LWP
  > install CPAN
  > reload CPAN
  > install YAML
  > q

Check if the serial port driver is already installed:

perl -MFile::Find=find -MFile::Spec::Functions -Tlw -e 'find { wanted => sub { print canonpath $_ if /\.pm\z/ }, no_chdir => 1 }, @INC' 2> /dev/null | grep -i serial

Install the serial port driver:

perl -MCPAN -e "install 'Device::SerialPort'"

Alternatively, on Ubuntu:

apt-get install libdevice-serialport-perl

Install xPL serial port device

Download the serial port xPL device.

Move the script to xPL scripts directory:

SCRIPTS_BASE_DIR=/home/control/Documents/Controls
mv xpl-serial_port.pl $SCRIPTS_BASE_DIR
chown control:users $SCRIPTS_BASE_DIR/*.pl
chmod 775 $SCRIPTS_BASE_DIR/*.pl

Test xPL serial port device

Test it on a BeagleBone:

su control
SCRIPTS_BASE_DIR=/home/control/Documents/Controls
ll /dev/ttyO*
$SCRIPTS_BASE_DIR/xpl-serial_port.pl -v -n test /dev/ttyO1 baudrate 9600 databits 8 parity none stopbits 1 handshake none

Open a 2nd terminal window (on any machine with xPL installed) and monitor the xPL protocol:

SCRIPTS_BASE_DIR=/home/control/Documents/Controls
$SCRIPTS_BASE_DIR/xpl-monitor.pl -vf

The monitor should echo the serial port incoming messages.

Open another terminal and send a message to the serial port:

su control
SCRIPTS_BASE_DIR=/home/control/Documents/Controls
$SCRIPTS_BASE_DIR/xpl-send.pl -v -t cmnd -d dspc-serPort.test -c serPort.basic command='hello world'

Launch the xPL serial port device at startup

The xPL serial port device is to be launched after the xPL hub.

If the serial port equipment needs an initialisation command, the xPL device controlling the equipment trough the xPL serial port needs to be launched after the xPL serial port.

Ubuntu

On Ubuntu, the sequencing can base on events.