🚀 SerialConsole

A powerful cross-platform serial port monitor with interactive TUI interface, auto-reconnect, and hex viewer. Perfect for embedded systems development, Arduino programming, and hardware debugging.

🎉 Now Published on npm! Install globally with npm install -g serialconsole

✨ Features

• 📊 Interactive Port Selection - List and select ports with baud rate configuration
• 🖥️ Responsive TUI Interface - Professional terminal UI with real-time statistics
• 🔄 Auto-Reconnect - Intelligent reconnection with exponential backoff
• 🔍 Hex Viewer - Toggle between ASCII and hex display modes
• ⚡ Multiple Baud Rates - Support for all common rates plus custom values
• 🎮 Nano-style Controls - Familiar keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+Q, Ctrl+I, etc.)
• 📱 Cross-Platform - Works on Windows, macOS, and Linux
• 🎯 Message Filtering - Filter incoming data in real-time
• 📝 Multiple Modes - Read-only, write-only, interactive, and full monitor modes

🚀 Installation

NPM (Recommended - Published Package!)

# Install globally from npm
npm install -g serialconsole

# Alternative with short alias
npm install -g serialconsole && alias sc=serialconsole

# Verify installation
serialconsole --version

Binary Downloads

Download pre-built binaries from Releases:

• Windows: serialconsole-win.exe
• macOS: serialconsole-macos
• Linux: serialconsole-linux

Package Managers

# NPM (Global)
npm install -g serialconsole

# NPX (No installation required)
npx serialconsole list

# Yarn (Global)
yarn global add serialconsole

📖 Quick Start

Interactive Mode (Recommended)

# List ports and select interactively
serialconsole list
# or use short alias
sc list

What this does:

1. 📋 Shows all available serial ports with details
2. 🎯 Let you select a port by number
3. ⚡ Choose baud rate from common options or custom
4. 🚀 Launches the TUI monitor automatically

Direct Commands

# Full TUI monitor
serialconsole monitor /dev/ttyUSB0 -b 115200

# Simple read mode
serialconsole read /dev/ttyACM0

# Send data
serialconsole write /dev/ttyUSB0 "Hello Arduino" --newline

# Interactive chat mode
serialconsole interactive COM3 -b 9600

Usage Examples

# Arduino development workflow
serialconsole list                           # Select Arduino port
serialconsole monitor /dev/ttyACM0 -b 9600   # Monitor Arduino output

# ESP32 debugging
serialconsole monitor COM4 -b 115200         # Monitor ESP32 with auto-reconnect

# Quick data sending
serialconsole write /dev/ttyUSB0 "AT+GMR"    # Send AT command

🎮 TUI Controls

| Key | Action | Description | |-----|--------|-------------| | Ctrl+Q | Exit | Close the application | | Ctrl+I | Send message | Open input dialog to send data | | Ctrl+H | Toggle hex viewer | Switch between ASCII and hex display | | Ctrl+S | Toggle statistics | Show/hide detailed statistics panel | | Ctrl+P | Pause/resume | Pause or resume data logging | | Ctrl+C | Clear screen | Clear all displayed messages | | Ctrl+F | Set filter | Filter messages by text content | | Ctrl+E | Toggle echo | Show/hide sent messages | | Ctrl+L | Line endings | Cycle through LF/CR/CRLF | | Ctrl+R | Auto-reconnect | Toggle automatic reconnection |

🛠️ Use Cases

• 🔧 Arduino Development - Monitor serial output and send commands during coding
• 📡 ESP32/ESP8266 Projects - Debug IoT devices with intelligent auto-reconnect
• ⚙️ Embedded Systems - Professional monitoring for production debugging
• 🧪 Hardware Testing - Validate serial communication protocols
• 📚 Educational - Learn serial communication with visual real-time feedback
• 🥧 Raspberry Pi - Monitor UART communication with sensors and peripherals
• 🏭 Industrial IoT - Monitor industrial devices and sensors
• 🤖 Robotics - Debug robot communication and sensor data

📊 Interface Overview

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ 🚀 ByteStream Monitor - /dev/ttyUSB0                                          │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 📡 Port: /dev/ttyUSB0 @ 115200 | 🟢 Connected | ⏱️ 00:05:23 | 📊 1,247 msgs │
│ 📥 RX: 15.2KB (51.3 B/s) | 📤 TX: 2.1KB (7.1 B/s) | ▶️ | 🔍 | 🔄           │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ [14:30:25.123] ← Temperature: 23.5°C, Humidity: 45%                          │
│ [14:30:26.089] ← Sensor reading complete                                     │
│ [14:30:27.156] → status                                                      │
│ [14:30:27.201] ← System OK - All sensors operational                         │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ^Q Exit     ^I Send Msg   ^H Hex View   ^S Statistics   ^P Pause     ^C Clear│
│ ^F Filter     ^E Echo Mode  ^L Line End   ^R Auto-Reconnect                  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

⚙️ Configuration

Supported Baud Rates

• 9600 (default) - Standard for many devices
• 19200, 38400, 57600 - Legacy systems
• 115200 - Arduino Uno/Nano standard
• 230400, 460800, 921600 - High-speed communication
• Custom rates - Any valid baud rate supported

Line Ending Options

• LF (\n) - Linux/macOS standard
• CR (\r) - Classic Mac format
• CRLF (\r\n) - Windows standard

Advanced Features

• 🎯 Real-time Filtering - Show only messages containing specific text
• 🔄 Smart Auto-Reconnect - Handles device resets and power cycles
• 📊 Live Statistics - Bytes sent/received, message count, uptime
• 🔍 Hex Display - View raw data in hexadecimal format
• ⏸️ Pause/Resume - Pause logging without disconnecting

🔧 Advanced Usage

Filtering Messages

# Start monitoring, then press Ctrl+F
# Enter "error" to show only error messages
# Enter "temp" to show only temperature readings
# Leave empty to disable filtering

Auto-Reconnect Workflow

Perfect for development where devices reset frequently:

• ✅ Automatically detects disconnections
• ⏱️ Exponential backoff prevents connection spam
• 🔄 Visual countdown shows next reconnection attempt
• 🛡️ Gracefully handles permission errors
• 🎯 Continues where you left off

Hex Viewer Usage

ASCII View:                    Hex View:
← Temperature: 23.5°C         ← [14:30:25] 54 65 6D 70 65 72 61 74 75 72 65 3A 20 32 33 2E 35 C2 B0 43
← Sensor OK                   ← [14:30:26] 53 65 6E 73 6F 72 20 4F 4B

🚧 Development

Building from Source

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/Sigmakib2/serialconsole.git
cd serialconsole

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Run directly
node index.js list

# Test all commands
npm test

Building Binaries

# Build for all platforms
npm run build:all

# Build for specific platform
npx pkg . --targets node18-win-x64 --compress GZip
npx pkg . --targets node18-linux-x64 --compress GZip
npx pkg . --targets node18-macos-x64 --compress GZip

# Outputs to dist/ directory
ls dist/

Project Structure

serialconsole/
├── index.js          # Main application
├── package.json      # Package configuration
├── README.md         # Documentation
├── LICENSE           # MIT license
├── CHANGELOG.md      # Version history
└── dist/            # Built binaries (after build)
    ├── serialconsole-win.exe
    ├── serialconsole-linux
    └── serialconsole-macos

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! Here's how to get started:

1. 🍴 Fork the repository
2. 🌿 Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feature-awesome-addition
3. 💻 Make your changes with tests
4. ✅ Commit changes: git commit -am 'feat: add awesome feature'
5. 🚀 Push to branch: git push origin feature-awesome-addition
6. 📝 Submit a Pull Request

Development Guidelines

• Follow existing code style and patterns
• Add tests for new features
• Update documentation as needed
• Use conventional commit messages

📦 Package Information

• 📋 Package Name: serialconsole
• 🏷️ Current Version: 1.0.0
• 📄 License: MIT
• 🔧 Node.js: >= 18.0.0
• 💻 Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux (x64, ARM64)

📝 License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

🙏 Acknowledgments

• SerialPort - Cross-platform serial communication
• Blessed - Terminal UI framework
• Commander.js - CLI argument parsing
• Chalk - Terminal color styling

🐛 Issues & Support

• 🐛 Report Bugs
• 💡 Feature Requests
• 📚 Documentation
• 💬 Discussions

📈 Statistics

Check out the package stats:

• 📦 npm Package - Downloads and version info
• 📊 npm Trends - Usage statistics
• ⭐ GitHub Stats - Stars and forks

⭐ Star this repository if SerialConsole helps with your projects!

🚀 Install now: npm install -g serialconsole