SeriCom

Introduction

• Rust-based sender and receiver for efficient file transfers using serial ports. Handles errors such as

  • when the sender transmits data before the receiver starts,
  • or when the serial port is already in use.

• Designed for continuous operation, the sender and receiver can run indefinitely, allowing users to simply copy files into a designated directory for transfer.

Tip

Ideal for secure environments where internet access is restricted/closed to protect systems.

Features

• Rust-based implementation.
• Supports sending and receiving any type of file.
• Cross-platform compatibility.

Installation

• Rquires Rust for building both the sender and receiver components.
• serialport crate for the sender,
• mio-serial crate for the receiver,
• docker and cross-rs for cross-compiling.

Prerequisites

• Rust: Install Rust via rustup by running:

  curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

  After installation, check:

  rustc --version
  cargo --version

Note

docker and cross-rs are required only for cross-compiling.

• Docker: Cross-compiling with cross-rs requires Docker to be installed and running. Install Docker from Docker's official site.

  Check:

  docker --version

• cross-rs: for cross compiling

  cargo install cross --git https://github.com/cross-rs/cross

Sender & Receiver binaries

Compiling for the current host

# This will generate an executable with the name sender/sender.exe
# in ./target/release folder based on the current OS.
git clone https://github.com/VikasShavi/SeriCom.git
cd SeriCom/sender
cargo build --release

# This will generate an executable with the name receiver/receiver.exe
# in ./target/release folder based on the current OS.
cd SeriCom/receiver
cargo build --release

Cross-Compiling

Warning

Wont work if docker daemon is not running

• For windows(x86-64)

  cross build --target x86_64-pc-windows-gnu

• For linux(x86-64 dynamically linked)

  cross build --target x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu

• For linux(x86-64 statically linked)

  cross build --target x86_64-unknown-linux-musl

Usage

Note

• Always start the receiver first
• Get the port name from
  • Windows: Device Manager --> Ports(COM & LPT)
  • Linux: ls /dev/tty.*

1. Windows

   Receiver

   .\receiver.exe <PORT> <BAUD_RATE>
   
   -- Example
   .\receiver.exe COM3 230400

   Sender

   .\sender.exe <PORT> <BAUD_RATE> <SLEEP_TIME_IN_SEC> <FOLDER_LOCATION:ALL_FILES_FROM_A_FOLDER_TO_SEND>
   
   -- Example
   .\sender.exe COM5 230400 5 c:\windows\temp

2. Linux

   Receiver

   ./receiver <PORT> <BAUD_RATE>
   
   -- Example
   ./receiver /dev/tty.usbserial-110 230400

   Sender

   ./sender <PORT> <BAUD_RATE> <SLEEP_TIME_IN_SEC> <FOLDER_LOCATION:ALL_FILES_FROM_A_FOLDER_TO_SEND>
   
   -- Example
   ./sender /dev/tty.usbserial-130 230400 5 /tmp

3. Example

demo.mp4

Technical Details

• Serial Communication Libraries:

  • Sending: The project uses the serialport crate for sending data over the serial connection.
  • Receiving: For receiving data, the mio-serial crate is used instead of serialport due to baud rate mismatch between the two ends of the serial cable.

• Reason for Choosing mio-serial for Receiving During testing, I encountered a speed issue when attempting to use serialport for both sending and receiving. The two ends of the serial cable supported different baud rates, causing asynchronous communication problems when using serialport for receiving. The mio-serial crate, which offers better handling of asynchronous IO, was chosen to address this mismatch and ensure stable communication across devices with varying baud rate support.

Troubleshooting

• Files are not received by the receiver: This can happen if any of the serial ports are ==Transmit-Only or Receive-Only Devices==. So just interchange the ports for the tools, then run and check once again.

How to Contribute

Thank you for considering contributing to this project! Contributions, whether they be bug fixes, feature improvements, or new ideas, are welcome.

• Fork the repository: Click the "Fork" button at the top right of this repository to create a personal copy.
• Clone the repository: Clone your fork locally with:

  git clone https://github.com/VikasShavi/SeriCom.git

• Create a new branch: Always work on a new branch to keep your changes isolated.

  git checkout -b feature-or-bugfix-name

• Commit your changes: Keep your commits small and clear. Write descriptive commit messages:

  git commit -m "Add feature/fix bug for..."

• Push your branch:

  git push origin feature-or-bugfix-name

• Create a pull request (PR): Open a pull request from your branch to the main repository. Add a clear description of what changes were made and why.

License

• GPLv3

Contact

• Email: [email protected]