Hello list,

Just shooting out a quick update.  I wrote a simple wrapper for pyserial to
provide a serial port block for use with GNU Radio/GRC.  The objective here
was to support a legacy command generation program that would typically
output to an external, hardware-based transmitter via RS-232.   The user
wanted to move the radio functionality into GNU Radio/USRP, but re-use the
legacy application and interface to save a little work.  This block,
combined with a socat generated virtual serial port permitted this
migration of functionality.

This block uses grextras and message passing:

https://github.com/buoyboy/gr-pyserial/

Some possible use cases for this block:

   1. Interfacing to legacy programs.  For example, you could use this
   block to interface with older amateur radio programs that talked to
   external TNCs on a serial port.  You can also connect to AX25-tools with
   this block [may require a KISS emulator block].  May be  a way to engage
   the amateur radio community in PHY evolution while keeping them in touch
   with familiar portions of their typical radio chain.
   2. Outputting USRP GPSDO sensor data to mapping applications that
   typically use a serial port.  This would require some manipulation to
   generate standard NMEA commands - I plan on doing this here soon.
   3. Deploying novel modems (i.e. in place of something like a MaxStream
   900 MHz or xBee) with an RS-232 interface to other devices like Arduino's,
   etc. -  - perhaps with the E100?

I'm on the road and do not have hardware to test it thoroughly.  I've only
done some cursory testing with virtual ports created with socat.

Cheers,
John Malsbury
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