arducomm 0.1.0

A library to enable robust communication between an Arduino and a host via serial

Host-side ArduComm python library and examples

This is the host-side library implementation of ArduComm, written in Python. In addition to the library's source code, different examples and tests are provided in examples and test.

Installation

PYPI installation

The easiest way to install the package is using pip:

python3 -m pip install arducomm

Manual installation

Alternatively, this package can also be manually installed using Python's build module and pip.

First, install the build package if this hasn't been done before:

python3 -m pip install build

Then, build the package and install it with pip:

python3 -m build
python3 -m pip install dist/arducomm-*.whl --force-reinstall

How to use

The class ArduComm is provided in the package and can be used to send and receive data. A callback function must be provided to process the received messages. Note that this implementation handles the incoming messages in a different thread, so there are no reading methods. The provided callback will be called when a new message is available.

from arducomm import ArduComm

def recv_callback(command, payload):
    print(F"Command received: {command}")
    print(F"Payload:\n{payload}")

comms = ArduComm(recv_callback, port='/dev/ttyUSB0', baudrate=57600)
comms.start() # Open the serial port
# Use comms object...
comms.stop() # Close the serial port

How to send data

The function send(command, payload) can be used to send a message with the given command and payload. The payload must be a list of integers, a bytearray, or a bytes object.

comms.send(0x07) # Send command 0x07 with no payload
comms.send(0x03, [55, 50]) # Send command 0x03 with payload bytes [55, 50]

Serialization

In order to work with payloads containing other types than pure bytes (aka uint8_t, aka unsigned char), these types must be serialized (converted to bytes) before being transmitted. Similarly, the array of bytes that is received in the payload must be parsed (deserialized) to reconstruct these types.

To this end, a serialization module is also included in this library, following the implementation of the Arduino library, with support for basic types (char, str, uint8_t, int8_t, uint16_t, int16_t, uint32_t, int32_t, and float). Additional "complex" types are also defined in the types directory to provide more options with types such as 2D and 3D vectors, quaternions, or 2D/3D poses.

You can find the full list of supported types and how to serialize/parse them in serialization_test and parser_test.

Finally, you can also define your own types and use the provided serialization functions as it is done in the custom_type example.