C# serial communication with u-blox gps

Question

I have a GPS from u-blox.com with a USB-connection and driver. The driver installs a virual COM port that pops up when you plug the USB in. Using a hyperterminal I can then

Answer 1

I have used the following code to communicate over USB to an Arduino, it send and receives a byte from the Arduino. It's simple, and isn't talking to a GPS, but hopefully it will help somehow!

    public static byte ReadByte()
    {
        byte byteRead = new byte();
        SerialPort port = new SerialPort("COM3", 9600, Parity.None, 8, StopBits.One);
        port.Open();
        int byteValue = port.ReadByte();
        port.Close();

        byteRead = Convert.ToByte(byteValue);

        return byteRead;
    }

    public static void SendByte(byte packet)
    {
        SerialPort port = new SerialPort("COM3", 9600, Parity.None, 8, StopBits.One);
        port.Open();
        byte[] writeByte = new byte[1];
        writeByte[0] = packet;
        port.Write(writeByte, 0, 1);
        port.Close();
    }

Answer 2

I ran into a similar problem in an application I was writing and the problem turned out to be that I was trying to us SerialPort.WriteLine which sends a \r\n to end the line when I really needed to just send \n. When I switched to SerialPort.Write with a \n appended to the end, everything worked as in HyperTerminal.

Answer 3

Try using handshakes/flow-control. They are also useful when employing a usb-serial adapter.