embedded_serialport

embedded_serialport is a Flutter package for serial port communication, it uses Dart FFI (Foreign Function Interface) to interact with Rust and C shareable libraries. This package provides a simple API to list available serial ports and perform read/write operations. Check out this article and the example demo.

Platform Support

  • Linux

Features

  • List available serial ports
  • Open and configure serial ports
  • Read from and write to serial ports
  • Set timeouts for serial communication

Installation

To install embedded_serialport, use flutter pub add:

Flutter

flutter pub add embedded_serialport

Dependencies

For GNU/Linux pkg-config headers are required:

  • Ubuntu: sudo apt install pkg-config
  • Fedora: sudo dnf install pkgconf-pkg-config

For other distros they may provide pkg-config through the pkgconf package instead.

For GNU/Linux libudev headers are required as well (unless you disable the default libudev feature):

  • Ubuntu: sudo apt install libudev-dev
  • Fedora: sudo dnf install systemd-devel

Check for Permissions:

  • Linux: Ensure your user is part of the dialout group or equivalent.

    sudo usermod -aG dialout $USER

    Then log out and log back in.

Without setting your user to be part of the dialout, you will receive this error: SerialErrorCode.serialErrorOpen

NB: Prepare Linux apps for distribution

To build flutter applciation as release run the following command:

flutter build linux --release

After that, go to build/linux/release/bundle/ and run the application using the following command:

./projectname

"By runnung the application in the directory, a file will be automatically copied to lib folder with the following directory src/rust_native/librust_serialport.so. This file is responsible for this library to work in your application."

Usage

Import the package in your Dart code:

import 'package:embedded_serialport/embedded_serialport.dart';

Example 1: Listing Available Serial Ports

import 'package:embedded_serialport/embedded_serialport.dart';

void main() {
  List<String> ports = Serial.getPorts();
  // print(ports.where((x) => x.endsWith("USB0")));
  print(ports);
  for (int i = 0; i < ports.length; i++) {
    print(ports[i]);
  }
}

Example 2: Communicating with a Serial Device

import 'package:embedded_serialport/embedded_serialport.dart';

void main() {
  List<String> ports = Serial.getPorts();
  // print(ports);

  // '/dev/ttyUSB0'
  var s = Serial(ports.first, Baudrate.b115200);
  s.timeout(2);

  try {
    s.writeString('led,0');
    var event = s.read(20);
    print(event.toString());
    s.writeString('led');
    var eventt = s.read(20);
    print(eventt.toString());
  } finally {
    s.dispose();
  }
}

API

Serial

Static Methods

  • List<String> getPorts()
    • Returns a list of available serial ports.

Constructor

  • Serial(String port, Baudrate baudrate)
    • Creates a new instance of Serial for the specified port and baud rate.

Methods

  • void timeout(int seconds)
    • Sets a timeout for read/write operations.
  • void writeString(String data)
    • Writes a string to the serial port.
  • Uint8List read(int length)
    • Reads a specified number of bytes from the serial port.
  • void dispose()
    • Closes the serial port and releases resources.

Baudrate

Enumeration of common baud rates:

  • Baudrate.b9600
  • Baudrate.b19200
  • Baudrate.b38400
  • Baudrate.b57600
  • Baudrate.b115200
  • And more...

Author

Zacchaeus Oluwole

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zacchaeus-oluwole/

X: x.com/ZTechPlus

Email: zacchaeusoluwole@gmail.com

Github: github.com/Zacchaeus-Oluwole

Credit

Peter Sauer flutterdev.at/dart_periphery/

Libraries

embedded_serialport