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Show HN: Web Serial Controller – Web App for USB Serial Communication

9 points by tanepiper 6y ago

tanepiper 6y ago
Hi Hacker News! I've just launched the Web Serial App controller into Beta - a web app that uses the new Web Serial API that allows communication between browsers (Chrome and Edge) and serial devices such as Arduino or RaspberryPi. The interface is inspired by Windows XP (using XP.css) - when working on the app, I was reminded of some of the software I used in the 00's when connecting to serial devices. Currently there are no user features, but otherwise it's reasonably feature complete in being able to connect to devices and communicate with them. I'm currently investigating some options to support user-based features such as saving device information and saving snippets for devices. I'm also investigating the gRCP API for the Arduino API which would allow for compiling of code to be sent to devices. It's fully open source and feedback is welcome.
maxbaines 6y ago
Extra points for the BSOD on mobile.
- luckman212 6y ago
  That's not a BSOD! It's a Guru Meditation[0] Error (Amiga fans know what this is!) [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru_Meditation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru_Meditation
GekkePrutser 6y ago
Too bad it's Chromium only :( Not coming to Firefox? Or does it lack the api?
- lioeters 6y ago
  I dug around and found that Mozilla considers Web Serial API to be "harmful" to the web. > Mozilla's Position - Devices that offer serial interfaces often expose powerful, low-level functions over the interface with little or no authentication. Exposing that sort of capability to the web without adequate safeguards presents a significant threat to those devices. From https://mozilla.github.io/standards-positions/#webserial https://mozilla.github.io/standards-positions/#webserial --- They've marked it as WONTFIX, as of 9 months ago. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=926940 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=926940 Discussion: https://github.com/mozilla/standards-positions/issues/336 https://github.com/mozilla/standards-positions/issues/336 It seems unlikely to be implemented in Firefox, unless they change their mind or the standard is updated to address security concerns.
  - GekkePrutser 6y ago
    Ah that's a shame, I understand their concerns to be honest, but they could just hide it under an about:config flag so only people who really need it can use it.
- tanepiper 6y ago
  Yep only in the Chromium based browsers I'm afraid (https://caniuse.com/?search=Web%20serial https://caniuse.com/?search=Web%20serial) and knowing Apple will probably never make it Safari in the next 10 years.

9 points by tanepiper 6y ago

Hi Hacker News! I've just launched the Web Serial App controller into Beta - a web app that uses the new Web Serial API that allows communication between browsers (Chrome and Edge) and serial devices such as Arduino or RaspberryPi. The interface is inspired by Windows XP (using XP.css) - when working on the app, I was reminded of some of the software I used in the 00's when connecting to serial devices. Currently there are no user features, but otherwise it's reasonably feature complete in being able to connect to devices and communicate with them. I'm currently investigating some options to support user-based features such as saving device information and saving snippets for devices. I'm also investigating the gRCP API for the Arduino API which would allow for compiling of code to be sent to devices. It's fully open source and feedback is welcome.

maxbaines 6y ago

Extra points for the BSOD on mobile.

luckman212 6y ago
That's not a BSOD! It's a Guru Meditation[0] Error (Amiga fans know what this is!) [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru_Meditation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru_Meditation

GekkePrutser 6y ago

Too bad it's Chromium only :( Not coming to Firefox? Or does it lack the api?

lioeters 6y ago
I dug around and found that Mozilla considers Web Serial API to be "harmful" to the web. > Mozilla's Position - Devices that offer serial interfaces often expose powerful, low-level functions over the interface with little or no authentication. Exposing that sort of capability to the web without adequate safeguards presents a significant threat to those devices. From https://mozilla.github.io/standards-positions/#webserial https://mozilla.github.io/standards-positions/#webserial --- They've marked it as WONTFIX, as of 9 months ago. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=926940 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=926940 Discussion: https://github.com/mozilla/standards-positions/issues/336 https://github.com/mozilla/standards-positions/issues/336 It seems unlikely to be implemented in Firefox, unless they change their mind or the standard is updated to address security concerns.
- GekkePrutser 6y ago
  Ah that's a shame, I understand their concerns to be honest, but they could just hide it under an about:config flag so only people who really need it can use it.
tanepiper 6y ago
Yep only in the Chromium based browsers I'm afraid (https://caniuse.com/?search=Web%20serial https://caniuse.com/?search=Web%20serial) and knowing Apple will probably never make it Safari in the next 10 years.