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Control Arduino using PHP

by rhbvkleef on June 10, 2014

Table of Contents

Control Arduino using PHP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Intro: Control Arduino using PHP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Step 1: Install a -AMP webserver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Step 2: (Debian only) Add permissions for serial port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Step 3: Get PhpSerial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Step 4: Finally! Write your arduino code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Step 5: Creating your webpage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

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Advertisements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

http://www.instructables.com/id/Control-Arduino-using-PHP/
Intro: Control Arduino using PHP
I have recently seen a lot of problems regarding PHP and Arduino. Many people don't know about facts like that an arduino needs a 2 second (!!!) delay before it can
receive any messages through serial. There are a few other facts you need to pay attention to, I will be going over them in this instructable.

Step 1: Install a -AMP webserver

It is important you have a webserver with PHP 5.3 or higher. My recommendation is to use LAMP for linux, WAMP for windows and XAMP for osx (though I don't know if
it works on osx).

To install LAMP on debian (Ubuntu, turnkey, RPI, etc.) you want to execute the following command:

sudo apt-get install lamp-server^ Don't forget the ^ here!

On windows you just have to go to http://www.wampserver.com/

Check if the webserver is working by going to "localhost". If not:

You might have skype installed, check its documentation on how to disable it on port 80

Step 2: (Debian only) Add permissions for serial port

By executing the following command, you grant PHP to use the serial port (USB)

If you are not running Linux you don't have to run this command, in fact, you can't.

For other linux distributions you are going to have to check its documentation (same for osx).

Step 3: Get PhpSerial

Now, you are going to have to download PhpSerial, which is a cross-platform solution for controlling serial ports. We will be using this to send our messages to our
arduino.

Go to https://github.com/Xowap/PHP-Serial and download zip (on the right side)

Extract the zip and get copy the file src/PhpSerial.php to your %SERVERROOT%/www/ directory

Step 4: Finally! Write your arduino code

Now you are going to have to write some code for your arduino. I have an example below:

#include "USBSerial_main.h"

int incomingByte = 0; int pin = 2;

void setup() {

Serial.begin(9600); //Starts the serial connection

pinMode(2, OUTPUT); //Sets pin 2 to be output

void loop() {

http://www.instructables.com/id/Control-Arduino-using-PHP/
if(Serial.available() > 0){

Serial.read(); /Removes the message from the serial cache

digitalWrite(2, true); //Enables the led on pin 2

delay(100); //Waits 100 ms

digitalWrite(2, false); //Disables the led on pin 2

Step 5: Creating your webpage

I have created an example page that uses the PhpSerial library.

This is easier when you are on unix-based systems, then you can just use fopen (check the php docs on that)

Upload the file with your code to %SERVERROOT%/www and go to localhost.

Here's the code:

<?php

$comPort = "/dev/ttyACM0"; //The com port address. This is a debian address

$msg = '';

if(isset($_POST["hi"])){

$serial = new phpSerial;

$serial->deviceSet($comPort);

$serial->confBaudRate(9600);

$serial->confParity("none");

$serial->confCharacterLength(8);

$serial->confStopBits(1);

$serial->deviceOpen();

sleep(2); //Unfortunately this is nessesary, arduino requires a 2 second delay in order to receive the message

$serial->sendMessage("Well hello!");

$serial->deviceClose();

$msg = "You message has been sent! WOHOO!";

?>

<html>

<head>

<title>Arduino control</title>

</head>

<body>

<form method="POST">

<input type="submit" value="Send" name="hi">

</form><br>

<?=$msg?>

</body>

</html>

http://www.instructables.com/id/Control-Arduino-using-PHP/
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Comments
2 comments Add Comment

DCengineer says: Jun 10, 2014. 9:25 PM REPLY

One question: what benefit does being able to program in PHP provide?
NOTE: I don't know PHP, but I do know C++ and Python, JavaScript shouldn't be hard to learn.

Danger is my middle name says: Jun 10, 2014. 4:33 PM REPLY

Good info, thanks for posting!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Control-Arduino-using-PHP/