Unity Serial Port Plugin

Have is this. This is the Key for my ability to go further with your plugin. Uno has only one serial port but, other board has many serial port.

Hey @ I'm looking to connect an to a Samsung Galaxy S7. As I understand, the Pico is a standard CDC USB device. I have an OTG adapter connected to the phone with the Pico attached to the adapter. I'm having trouble with Unity recognizing the Pico. I downloaded the unitypackage that you provided in your latest Dropbox link.

I made a build consisting of your example scene and ran it on my Galaxy S7 phone. I connected the Pico to my phone and pressed 'Refresh Device List' and nothing happened. I connected the phone to adb and used logcat to see the debug output. When I pressed 'Refresh Device List' again, logcat output the string '#### Device List' but nothing along with it. When I pressed 'Connect to Device0', the text within Unity told me that the connection failed.

Is there a step I was missing when setting up your unitypackage's code in Unity? Would there be problem with it being a newer Samsung phone? Or do you think it's the Pico? Thanks in advance, -Eric. Hey @ I'm looking to connect an to a Samsung Galaxy S7. As I understand, the Pico is a standard CDC USB device.

I have an OTG adapter connected to the phone with the Pico attached to the adapter. I'm having trouble with Unity recognizing the Pico. I downloaded the unitypackage that you provided in your latest Dropbox link. I made a build consisting of your example scene and ran it on my Galaxy S7 phone.

I connected the Pico to my phone and pressed 'Refresh Device List' and nothing happened. I connected the phone to adb and used logcat to see the debug output. When I pressed 'Refresh Device List' again, logcat output the string '#### Device List' but nothing along with it. When I pressed 'Connect to Device0', the text within Unity told me that the connection failed.

Kamba ramayanam story in tamil. Is there a step I was missing when setting up your unitypackage's code in Unity? Would there be problem with it being a newer Samsung phone? Or do you think it's the Pico? Thanks in advance, -Eric.

In this tutorial you will learn how Unity and Arduino can communicate using the serial port. This tutorial requires both C# and Arduino scripts; the labels Unity and Arduino will be used to avoid confusion. Step 0:. Step 1:.

Step 2:. Step 3:. Step 4:.

You can download the final scripts here:. Step 0: Configuring The communication between Arduino and the PC is mediated using the serial port. This method is the default one to upload sketches, so we’ll be using it also to exchange messages with Unity. If this is the first time you are doing it, you’ll need to follow these extra steps. Unity The class SerialPort is the one that mediates such communication in C#.

However, Unity doesn’t usually include the necessary libraries to use it. To compensate for this, we need to force Unity to include the full.NET 2.0 library in its executables:. Go on Edit Player Settings to open the PlayerSettings in the inspector;. From Optimization, look for Api Compatibility Level and select.NET 2.0. Arduino Arduino doesn’t come with a sophisticated library for the serial port. While C# has all the expected functions to send strings, Arduino simply doesn’t. This is very frustrating and is often a strong limitation for beginners. To compensate this, I’ll be using ‘s library. Follow these steps to install it:.

Download the entire repository by clicking “” from its GIT page;. Extract the ZIP file and place its content in C: Users Documents Arduino SerialCommand (make sure that folder contains the SerialCommand.cpp file);.

Restart the Arduino IDE. Step 1: Opening Unity To initialise the serial port in C#, we need its address (or port) and speed (also called baud rate). Open ( ); While the baud rate is determined by the Arduino code, we cannot chose the name for the serial port. It is automatically assigned by the OS depending on which device and port you are using. Arduino Now that SerialCommand has been installed, we can use it in our sketch. The library allows to specify commands that can be received on the serial port.

For this toy example, we want to define a command called “PING”. When we receive such string from Unity, we’ll send a “PONG” back. Let’s start by defining the command; its code will be stored in the pingHandler function. We can use the function next to get the next argument provided on the serial command. For instance, if we send from Unity “ECHO message”, “message” will be the first parameter. If next returns NULL, it means there are no more parameters.

Step 4: Communicating Now that all the pieces are here, you just have to implement your own communication protocol. Arduinos are usually used as sensors, constantly sending updates to Unity. If this is your case, you should not make the mistake of doing something like this. Is very likely that this will overflow the serial port buffer, causing either a crash or a severe lag. What you should do instead is creating a protocol in which Arduino is sending data only when is queried by a “PING” from Unity. This ensures data is always fresh and minimises lags. Conclusion Last year at GDC a guy approached me and asked my opinion about, an extension to connect Arduino with Unity.

It was only after I said something on the line of “ I would never pay so much to use it” that he introduced himself as. Despite this not-so-great start, our conversation highlighted an important issue when it comes to development: how much time are you willing to invest into something?

Many software developers have little to no experience with hardware, and they rather spend €32 than a week of headaches to connect Unity to Arduino. To misquote during his talk at Develop Brighton a couple of years ago, some developers have “ more money than time“, If you are going to use an Arduino for your project, you definitely need to invest some money in it. But if you think paying for an extension is out of your budget, this tutorial is definitely here to help. Despite not providing the full range of functions of UNIDUINO, it is surely a good starting point which will suit the majority of applications. How to start with Arduino The most annoying part of working with hardware is that you’ll constantly need new components to build things. If you are new to Arduino, my advice is to start with the. It has a lot (I mean a lot!) of components and it comes with some great instructions.

If you have a little bit more experience, you might want to buy the components you need separately. In this case, the is the “default” option you should go for. If you have already experience with hardware, I advise you to start using instead. It’s a micro-controller fully compatible with the Arduino IDE. It’s compact and more powerful, although it usually doesn’t come with pins. There’s also a which comes with a very bright Color LCD screen.

I also suggest a book I particularly liked:. I got it few years ago and it helped me to understand how to use all the most common components. Hey, with your code i have problem in unity 3d and arduino, and i dont know how could i resolve them?? I am using the code that you gave us for download in both and I change de port for COM4, bacause in my pc it is the port that use arduino. Unity problem: default parameter specifiers are not permited. Arduino problem: Arduino: 1.6.5 (Windows 8.1), Board: “Arduino/Genuino Uno” In file included from UnityConnector.ino:1:0: C: Users Sebastian Documents Arduino libraries ArduinoSerialCommand-master/SerialCommand.h:60:30: fatal error: SoftwareSerial.h: No such file or directory #include ^ compilation terminated.

Error compiling. Hi, Alan: Glad to have your reply! I had put the ArduinoSerialCommand library under the normal library path, and its example code can be correctly executed, thus I think the library part should be no problem.

In Unity, I have change to.NET 2.0. Some stream commend such as stream.timeout, stream.open can be corrected interpret, but only stream.WriteLine(message), stream.BaseStream.Flush, stream.ReadLine can’t. I check the error message in google, no explicit answer but point to security protection. Any idea on it? This was great, Thank you! However there is one thing that I can’t get to work. I’m only going to use this to have Unity send information to the arduino, so I only did the writing part.

And it seems to work fine except for that there seems to be a collision when I want both Arduino and Unity to use the same COM port? Is the COM port in Unity supposed to be the same as the COM port that we select in Arduino Sketch? Because if I do that I get an error in which ever software that I try to have use the port last, telling me that the COM port is occupied.

If I choose another COM port then nothing happens when I do the WriteToArduino (“PING”) thing. In this tutorial you write that we cannot chose the name of our COM port in our Unity script, and I don’t quite understand that? In you example it still looks to me like you chose COM4 when you write: stream = new SerialPort(“COM4”, 9600); Also you write that the COM port will be chosen automatically, which I’m not experiencing that it does.

Maybe I’m doing something wrong I don’t know. I would very much appreciate some guidance here 🙂 Thanks for the effort put into this! Sorry if there has been any part that was not super clear. When you plug a device, it is automatically assigned a COM port.

You cannot decide directly whether that is going be COM1, COM2 or COM10. This is what I meant.

Once the device is connected and you know it’s on (let’s say) COM4, then you can safely write COM4. The serial port, in your example, becomes a shared resource. It’s important that you architect your communication protocol so that every time there is a WRITE on one end, there is a READ on the other. If BOTH Arduino and Unity are waiting on a read operation, they’ll both get stuck in a deadlock. Asynchronous communications like those ones are tricky. Is best to have the communication ONE way. For instance Unity sends commands to Arduino.

Arduino NEVER initiates a communication itself. If you want Arduino to send some data, Unity can query it periodically. Then Arduino will have to reply THIS IS THE DATA or NO THERE IS NO DATA. This might not be the most efficient protocol, but is guaranteed you’ll never get stuck in a deadlock. Hey Allen, Thanks for the Tutorial. I’m just diving into Unity and C# coding, though, I’ve done a bit of Arduino/C in the past. Super beginner question: how do I use the ArduinoConnector.cs code in unity?

Do I attach it as a script to an object? Do I use another script to call it? For what it’s worth I have a super basic read protocol that simply calls sp.readline from an Object’s Update function and parses the line into variables – but for reasons you pointed it out there are big flaws. I would like to try your code, but I’m not sure how/where to use it in unity Thanks for your tutorial and for your patience. Okay, so now I call Open; in my Start function before StartCoroutine(.). Now when I run game, I get only a single Error to the console: ” Error! UnityEngine.Debug:LogError(Object) ArduinoConnector:m1 (at Assets/Scripts/ArduinoConnector.cs:27) cIterator0:MoveNext (at Assets/Scripts/ArduinoConnector.cs:102) UnityEngine.SetupCoroutine:InvokeMoveNext(IEnumerator, IntPtr) ” I tried calling ReadFromArduino in my Update function.

But I just get a string of errors on each call to Update: ArgumentOutOfRangeException: Argument is out of range. Parameter name: value at System.IO.Ports.SerialPort.setReadTimeout (Int32 value) 0x00000 in:0 at (wrapper remoting-invoke-with-check) System.IO.Ports.SerialPort:setReadTimeout (int) at ArduinoConnector.ReadFromArduino (Int32 timeout) 0x00008 in C: Users Lewis Documents Unity Roll a Ball Assets Scripts ArduinoConnector.cs:57 at ArduinoConnector.Update 0x00003 in C: Users Lewis Documents Unity Roll a Ball Assets Scripts ArduinoConnector.cs:35 Any guidance really appreciated. Perhaps a zipped file of a unity project/scene that correctly uses the ArduinoConnector.cs file. Thanks again for your patience. I’m going to second Lewis’s question.

Your code is extremely readable (thank you for that), but it’s unclear how I’m supposed to call your Open, WriteToArduino, Close functions. Do I call it from another script? Attach it to an object? When I try to create an ArduinoConnector in another script (where I intend to send different messages based on different conditionals), I too get the “NullReferenceException.” How do I reference ArduinoConnector in another script? Right now, in a separate script, I create a “public ArduinoConnector connector;” Then in Update, under certain conditions, I call connector.Open, connector.WriteToArduino(“specific condition trigger”), connector.Close.

Thank you for your help! Apologies if this tutorial has not been very clear! It was intended for relatively experienced devs. I might re-view it soon, to make sure is still accessible to most developers! Yes, what you are doing is indeed correct.

You should create a separate script that runs the logic of your game. The “connector” variable is ok. But obviously you will get a “NullReferenceException”, as that is not linked to anything in particular. To make the connection, you have to drag your AdruinoConnector component inside the slot of your “public ArduinoConnector connector”. I hope that makes it clear! Serial communication is very slow, so is no wonder that it slows down your entire game.

Coroutines are tricky because they are NOT executed in parallel. This means that if a coroutine has to wait 500ms for Arduino to reply, it will stop the game for 500ms. This is a big problem, and I have written about this in another tutorial: I have attenuated this problem by running the check in a real thread, which is something that truly runs in parallel to your code! I hope this solves your issue. If not, please feel free to tell me more about it! Webmentions.

March 5, 2018 Hi Alan, Thanks so much! I’ve just left a comment with some questions on over on that post. March 5, 2018 Hi Alan, Thanks so much!

I’ve just left a comment with some questions on over on that post. March 5, 2018 Hi Alan, Thanks so much! I’ve just left a comment with some questions on over on that post. March 5, 2018 Hi Alan, Thanks so much! I’ve just left a comment with some questions on over on that post. March 5, 2018 Hi Alan, Thanks so much!