Controlling microcontrollers over USB with the Web Serial API

Under Control

© Photo by Johnny Briggs on Unsplash

© Photo by Johnny Briggs on Unsplash

Article from Issue 276/2023
Author(s):

Upgrade your computer with LEDs, buttons, or sensors to control a microcontroller board over USB from your web browser.

Microcontroller boards such as Arduino, Raspberry Pi Pico, and ESP32 can be connected to various LEDs, buttons, and sensors. Many of these boards have a built-in WiFi chip, which allows for remote control. However, sometimes WiFi is not possible, too complicated, or simply unnecessary.

Fortunately, most microcontroller boards for makers are equipped with a universal serial bus (USB) connection, which can often be used to send commands to the microcontroller from your computer or to receive sensor data. In this article, I explore what you need to establish two-way communication over USB, and I guide you through writing the necessary code for both the microcontroller and the computer.

USB CDC

To enable communication between the microcontroller and computer, this project uses USB communications device class (CDC). When you connect a USB CDC device to your computer, this interface appears in your Linux system as a device, like /dev/ttyACM0. With this device file, software on your computer can communicate with the microcontroller.

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