Serial Port Communication

Basic serial port communication is simple. Use CreateFile() to open the port, SetCommState() to configure it (baud rate, data size, stop bits, flow control, etc), and ReadFile() and WriteFile() for IO operations. See the above functions in the MSDN and Communications Functions[^].

But serial IO is usually asynchronous and transferring larger amounts of data with slow connections would block your program. Therefore, serial IO should be performed by worker threads using overlapped IO. Similar handling is used with network socket programming. So you might have some knowledge already.

I suggest to use the simple method first to ensure that the communication with your device is working. Then implement overlapped IO and worker threads if necessary. What and how to implement depends on your device (baud rate, amount of data, when data are send and received).

There are even a couple of good articles here on CodeProject, for example:
Win32 SDK Serail Comm Made Easy[^]
Just search for serial port. The code in the above article may be of help.

Thanks a lot everyone for replying so soon!

@parths - Yes sir, I shall definitely proceed as you say and read up + learn about Serial Port comm on my own, but I have to submit the program in a few days. So as you said, I shall also post my errors and query on the forum where I found that soln. Thnks.

@Jochen Arndt - Thanks a lot for the reply Sir. Unfortunately, I do not know too much socket programming, so I guess I shall take that up after I finish this project.

@nv - I just had a look at the aforementioned link. I see my path cut out for me. Thanks Sir.