Debug COM port read/write using software/virtual COM port and console/terminal on the other end

Question

I have a Delphi application that reads/writes to a COM port connected to a large hardware device, so I don't usually have the hardware available during development. That said, the communication protocol is fairly simple, so I can generally do the development and have someone onsite test it, and it usually works. Occasionally I run into a harder problem, though. To solve this, I'd like to setup a virtual COM port where one side of the COM port is my application and the other side is a very simple COM port debug console (similar to the old modem terminal programs), where ASCII commands my app sends are logged onscreen and I can type in some ASCII command to send back to my application to simulate the hardware device. I've been unable to find any tools that provide a virtual/software COM port and a console/terminal to debug with. Does anyone have software suggestions and steps to set something like this up?

The software/virtual COM port and terminal need to support Windows 7 64-bit (or Vista 32 if necessary).

Answer 1

I'm using Advanced Virtual COM Port and I'm quite happy with it. Not free, but works like a charm - even with Win7-x64.

Answer 2

I'm doing something similar with paired virtual COM ports created by http://com0com.sourceforge.net/

Answer 3

Can't you just insert a redirector at the lowest level of your application which will pop up a console instead of writing data to COM? Should not take long.

Answer 4

I can't vouch for it, but sounds like something like this is what you're looking for. http://www.windows7download.com/win7-free-virtual-serial-ports-emulator/yarqmowu.html

Answer 5

I have used Eterlogic's Virtual Serial Ports Emulator successfully for exactly this on a laptop with no serial ports. It's a bit easier to set up than Com0Com, which I have also used. It's also useful for serial port spying if you need to reverse engineer any communications The 32-bit version is free, the 64-bit version is currently $25. Try it out on Vista32 to see if it does what you need.

Answer 6

I use Com0Com for this purpose, but I don't know whether it works with anything more recent than Windows XP.