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Using Java to talk to an embedded system

A longtime customer has asked me to build a PC-hosted GUI to control an existing system I designed for him a long time ago. Actually the system was designed to control a vending machine, but he now wants to use the same hardware as a sort of poor man's PLC, to operate various other machinery in his facility.

I don't like wasting effort on Windows-specific code if I don't have to, so I was thinking of writing the GUI in Java.

Can anyone who has been down this path (i.e. talking to an embedded system over serial from a PC running a JVM) give any tips on the pros and cons of using something like javacomm vs. JNI? (I figure the JNI DLL would be

Reply to
larwe
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Hi Lewin,

This no doubt is not particularly helpful but I use a java telnet applet to talk to an embedded system which is online here:

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The embedded controller talks over RS-232 to a terminal server which is accessed by the telnet applet.

Embedded in the web page, the opportunity for GUI window dressing presents itself; I also use VT-100 graphics in the telnet session for GUI-like features (not particularly evident in my example yet).

Regards,

Michael

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msg

Reply to
Paul Taylor

Oh, I can write the JNI stuff. That's no problem. Actually, I will do the development in MacOS anyway :) My question is, asking someone who's already tried to do something of this sort, whether it is a better prospect to look for native Java solutions or just go the simple route with JNI.

Reply to
larwe

Well I have always gone the JNI route, and found it to work as expected. But as in my previous post, next time I will try javacomm + groovy, because it means I can write the sorts of simple apps I write using a scripting language + existing library, then drop the c compiler + makefile. I _suspect_ javacomm also works as expected. I will look with interest to see if anyone posts to your original question anything that puts me off ;-)

Regards,

Paul.

Reply to
Paul Taylor

Well, I was pointed to this:

which is extremely interesting. I'll experiment with that this weekend.

Yay Intarwebs.

Reply to
larwe

I had a lot of luck with using a JNI interface to a USB DLL. With something as straight forward as serial communications, it should be a snap.

Reply to
b01011010

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