Serial Killer

A less annoying serial terminal written in Python3

Features

• send and receive data over serial port
• read data from pipe and send over serial, wait for confirmation string
• temporary free up port to upload code by using an external command
• log data to file
• autodetect serial port
• readline history with ↑↓

Introduction

Nobody likes to use the arduino IDE, but it functions well for uploading code to your MCU.
I noticed, while using my favorite editor instead, that having to exit the serial monitor to free the serial port everytime I want to upload code is super annoying.
SerialKiller is a serial monitor that can be externally signaled to free up the serial port.

# This example will free up serial, upload code and connect to serial again.
$ sk -l && arduino --upload my_super_awesome_project.ino && sk -u

Examples

# Try to guess serial port, using default baudrate, 115200
$ sk

# Specify port and baudrate
$ sk -p /dev/ttyUSB0 -b 9600

# Read from STDIN line by line and send over serial.
# Wait for string 'ok' before sending next line.
# This is handy for when you want to send gcode to GRBL CNC firmware.
$ cat test.gcode | sk -S ok -T 5

# Read from STDIN line by line and send over serial.
# wait n seconds before sending next line
$ cat test.gcode | sk -W 5

# Free up (lock) serial port of running sk instance
$ sk -l

# Reconnect (unlock) serial port of running sk instance
$ sk -u

# Log to file, file will be created inside dir ~
$ sk -L -P ~

Vim keybinding

# Add this line to your .vimrc file to compile and upload current file using arduino IDE
nnoremap <C-a> :w<CR>:!sk -l ; arduino --upload % ; sk -u<CR>

Help

laptop ~/dev/serialkiller master > sk --help
usage: sk [-h] [-p PORT] [-b RATE] [-U URL] [-t SEC] [-L] [-P DIR] [-l] [-u] [-S STR] [-T SEC] [-W SEC] [-d]

SerialKiller does serial things.

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -p PORT, --port PORT  default: autodetect
  -b RATE, --baudrate RATE
                        default: 115200
  -U URL, --url URL     url eg: socket://host:port
  -t SEC, --timeout SEC
                        default: 0.1
  -L, --log             log data to file
  -P DIR, --log_dir DIR
                        specify log dir
  -l, --lock            free serial port
  -u, --unlock          reconnect to serial
  -S STR, --confirm_str STR
                        wait for this string before sending next message, when listening to STDIN
  -T SEC, --confirm_timeout SEC
                        seconds before timeout when waiting for response, when listening to STDIN
  -W SEC, --confirm_wait SEC
                        wait time before sending next message, when listening to STDIN
  -d, --debug           enable debugging