Hello all,

I had a web server running from a Windows 7 computer and recently moved everything to an Ubuntu server. All is set up and running smoothly. I do have one page that actually interfaces with the serial port. The only thing I do with it is to set the DTR pin to "true" which applies +12v to the pin. This activates a relay. It is very basic and simple. After moving everything to Linux, this page will no longer work. I knew this would happen. I know the page had code in it to call out "Com1" which would change to "ttyS0". It also had "set_serDTR(True);" in the code. I can't figure out how to get PHP to control the DTR pin on a Linux serial port. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks,

Wayne

Not without seeing the code, no. However, it's not just ttyS0...it's /dev/ttyS0. Have you tried that?

Just searching for php serial port class came up with this link. Which should be similar to what you used with windows.
http://www.phpclasses.org/package/36...rial-port.html

You will probably have to adjust the permission level on /dev/ttyS0, as your web server probably does not run as root. To actually control the pins, you might find setSerialSignal useful (from PHP, use 'system()' or whatever PHP provides to launch other programs).
--- rod.

On Windows 7 I had to add the php_ser++.dll file to my PHP folder. The code I put in my web page was:

<?php

$module = 'win_serial';

if (extension_loaded($module))
{

$str = "Module loaded";
}

else

{

$str = "Module $module is not compiled into PHP";

die("Module $module is not compiled into PHP");

}

ser_open( "COM1", 115200, 8, "None", "1", "None" );

ser_setDTR( True );

?>

I haven't actually tried the page, because I knew I need to make changes, I just didn't know exactly what I needed to do. I will look into your suggestions.

Thanks for all the help.

Ok, I think I have a game plan for when I get to work on it again.

First: I need to allow everyone permissions on /dev/ttyS0

Second: I need to compile setSerialSignal.c

Third: I need to add the php code to my web page.

<?php

exec("setSerialSignal /dev/ttyS0 1 0");

?>

I am guessing that 0 0 sets the DTR pin one way and 1 0 sets it the other. (+ and -)

This is too easy. I have to be missing something. Does this look like it will work?

Thanks for pointing me to the setSerialSignal theNbomr.

Just by scanning the embedded strings for usage messages, I think the arguments to setSerialSignal are the states of DTR and RTS, respectively. 1 == ON, 0 = OFF.

As far as I can tell, the rest of your plan looks solid. BTW, I tried building setSerialSignal, and to get a clean build, I had to add
--- rod.

Success!

I followed the plan and all is well. Well, almost.

I shut my server down and moved it to it's permanent location. When I restarted it, it no longer worked. After chasing wires for a while, I remembered the permissions on the serial port. I logged into it and did a "sudo chmod 777 /dev/ttyS0" and it was up and running again. Now, how do I make the serial port permissions permanent?

Thanks to all for your help. Especially you, Rod.

edit udev rules, maybe?

Setting the appropriate udev rules would be the definitive solution. A cheesy alternative would be adding a 'chmod ' line to /etc/rc.local
--- rod.

Thank you all. I will look into the "udev rules" to solve my permissions problem. Other than that everything works as it is supposed to work.