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Reading and Writing to a SERIAL port w/ PHP (was USB port)
Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 6:03 am
by robster
Can this be done?
I've actually learned to programme on other languages YEARS ago and left them behind as I only use web applications now and use the browser for display.
I now have a need to access a port to send and receive data and was wondering if we can do this with PHP?
I'm running OSX if that makes ANY difference at all (doubt it eh

).
Pretty interesting this one I think. Really looking forward to hearing what people have to say.
Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 7:21 am
by Maugrim_The_Reaper
Have you looked at using PHP sockets?
Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 8:58 am
by feyd
what does sockets have to do with USB ports?
Depending on the device, it's fairly easy. A USB drive for instance, will automatically mount to the system when it's attached. Other devices are more complicated, but still possible. I don't remember how the new Mac system hardware access works, but under unix, if the device can be mounted to a device slot eg. /dev/hda1 then it can be accessed. How easily, depends on the device and the OS making nice with PHP about it.
If you can find a command line tool that does it already, I'd suggest going through that, as writing your own may be far more headache than you want to afford it.
Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 7:24 pm
by robster
Thanks for that reply
What I'm after though is not actually access to a USB drive, but the port itself. I have an application where I need to send signals to some LED's and although I would have attempted this via the com port, looking at the back of this mac it seem I have none.
So I have firewire and USB to play with.
I need to actually send data out of that USB port (and have a circuit that turns this into an LED flash, but that's another story) and I need to read data coming from the USB port (again, via a circuit, another story, etc

).
I really want to use PHP, as, I really want this to work over the web, remotely and I love using the language.
Thanks again, I look forward to any advice.
Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 10:04 pm
by robster
turns out it may actually need to be for a SERIAL port, not a USB port.
This could make things easier (not?)
Any ideas there?
Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 10:14 pm
by feyd
From what I remember, Macs with OS X will have the /dev/* stuff.. I'd look into a compiled program that has access to the device and can provide a simple interface for you to communicate with it, then just make calls to it via shell_exec() or its siblings.