Detect serial port insertion/removal

Question

I am interfacing with a USB-to-serial port that can be inserted or removed at any time. I've found that I can use WMI (particularly with the use of WMI Code Creator) to query for device changes in the PC.

In the generated snippet below, the Win32_DeviceChangeEvent is subscribed to. However, this event doesn't reveal which device (e.g. USB, serial port, etc) caused the event. Is there a way to only receive notifications when serial ports are inserted or removed?

To clarify, the point of the code is not to detect opening/closing of serial ports, it is to detect whether a new port has been added to the machine or a previous port was removed.

using System;
using System.Management;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace WMISample
{
    public class WMIReceiveEvent
    {
        public WMIReceiveEvent()
        {
            try
            {
                WqlEventQuery query = new WqlEventQuery(
                    "SELECT * FROM Win32_DeviceChangeEvent");

                ManagementEventWatcher watcher = new ManagementEventWatcher(query);
                Console.WriteLine("Waiting for an event...");

                watcher.EventArrived += 
                    new EventArrivedEventHandler(
                    HandleEvent);

                // Start listening for events
                watcher.Start();

                // Do something while waiting for events
                System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(10000);

                // Stop listening for events
                watcher.Stop();
                return;
            }
            catch(ManagementException err)
            {
                MessageBox.Show("An error occurred while trying to receive an event: " + err.Message);
            }
        }

        private void HandleEvent(object sender,
            EventArrivedEventArgs e)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Win32_DeviceChangeEvent event occurred.");
        }

        public static void Main()
        {
            WMIReceiveEvent receiveEvent = new WMIReceiveEvent();
            return;
        }

    }
}

Answer 1

No. Go find out what happened to SerialPort.GetPortNames(). Listening for the WM_DEVICECHANGE message in a window can give you better info.

Answer 2

Your device change event can be used with the WMI - PNP Entity. The following will return device details - in the code below it shows the device name.

Dim moReturn As Management.ManagementObjectCollection
Dim moSearch As Management.ManagementObjectSearcher
Dim mo As Management.ManagementObject
moSearch = New Management.ManagementObjectSearcher("Select * from Win32_PnPEntity")
moReturn = moSearch.Get

For Each mo In moReturn
If CStr(mo.Properties.Item("Name").Value).Contains("Prolific") Then
    returns something like: "Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port (COM17)"
    txtStatus.Text &= CStr(mo.Properties.Item("Name").Value) & vbCrLf
End If
Next

Also see code to access other PNP properties that could be used to filtered or monitored for change:

On Error Resume Next
strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select * from Win32_PnPEntity",,48)
For Each objItem in colItems
    "Availability: " & objItem.Availability
    "Caption: " & objItem.Caption
    "ClassGuid: " & objItem.ClassGuid
    "ConfigManagerErrorCode: " & objItem.ConfigManagerErrorCode
    "ConfigManagerUserConfig: " & objItem.ConfigManagerUserConfig
    "CreationClassName: " & objItem.CreationClassName
    "Description: " & objItem.Description
    "DeviceID: " & objItem.DeviceID
    "ErrorCleared: " & objItem.ErrorCleared
    "ErrorDescription: " & objItem.ErrorDescription
    "InstallDate: " & objItem.InstallDate
    "LastErrorCode: " & objItem.LastErrorCode
    "Manufacturer: " & objItem.Manufacturer
    "Name: " & objItem.Name
    "PNPDeviceID: " & objItem.PNPDeviceID
    "PowerManagementCapabilities: " & objItem.PowerManagementCapabilities
    "PowerManagementSupported: " & objItem.PowerManagementSupported
    "Service: " & objItem.Service
    "Status: " & objItem.Status
    "StatusInfo: " & objItem.StatusInfo
    "SystemCreationClassName: " & objItem.SystemCreationClassName
    "SystemName: " & objItem.SystemName
Next

Answer 3

I ended up using WMI and @Hans' advice to check what serial ports are new/missing.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Diagnostics.Contracts;
using System.IO.Ports;
using System.Management;

public static class SerialPortService
{
    private static SerialPort _serialPort;

    private static string[] _serialPorts;

    private static ManagementEventWatcher arrival;

    private static ManagementEventWatcher removal;

    static SerialPortService()
    {
        _serialPorts = GetAvailableSerialPorts();
        MonitorDeviceChanges();
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// If this method isn't called, an InvalidComObjectException will be thrown (like below):
    /// System.Runtime.InteropServices.InvalidComObjectException was unhandled
    ///Message=COM object that has been separated from its underlying RCW cannot be used.
    ///Source=mscorlib
    ///StackTrace:
    ///     at System.StubHelpers.StubHelpers.StubRegisterRCW(Object pThis, IntPtr pThread)
    ///     at System.Management.IWbemServices.CancelAsyncCall_(IWbemObjectSink pSink)
    ///     at System.Management.SinkForEventQuery.Cancel()
    ///     at System.Management.ManagementEventWatcher.Stop()
    ///     at System.Management.ManagementEventWatcher.Finalize()
    ///InnerException: 
    /// </summary>
    public static void CleanUp()
    {
        arrival.Stop();
        removal.Stop();
    }

    public static event EventHandler<PortsChangedArgs> PortsChanged;

    private static void MonitorDeviceChanges()
    {
        try
        {
            var deviceArrivalQuery = new WqlEventQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_DeviceChangeEvent WHERE EventType = 2");
            var deviceRemovalQuery = new WqlEventQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_DeviceChangeEvent WHERE EventType = 3");

            arrival = new ManagementEventWatcher(deviceArrivalQuery);
            removal = new ManagementEventWatcher(deviceRemovalQuery);

            arrival.EventArrived += (o, args) => RaisePortsChangedIfNecessary(EventType.Insertion);
            removal.EventArrived += (sender, eventArgs) => RaisePortsChangedIfNecessary(EventType.Removal);

            // Start listening for events
            arrival.Start();
            removal.Start();
        }
        catch (ManagementException err)
        {

        }
    }

    private static void RaisePortsChangedIfNecessary(EventType eventType)
    {
        lock (_serialPorts)
        {
            var availableSerialPorts = GetAvailableSerialPorts();
            if (!_serialPorts.SequenceEqual(availableSerialPorts))
            {
                _serialPorts = availableSerialPorts;
                PortsChanged.Raise(null, new PortsChangedArgs(eventType, _serialPorts));
            }
        }
    }

    public static string[] GetAvailableSerialPorts()
    {
        return SerialPort.GetPortNames();
    }
}

public enum EventType
{
    Insertion,
    Removal,
}

public class PortsChangedArgs : EventArgs
{
    private readonly EventType _eventType;

    private readonly string[] _serialPorts;

    public PortsChangedArgs(EventType eventType, string[] serialPorts)
    {
        _eventType = eventType;
        _serialPorts = serialPorts;
    }

    public string[] SerialPorts
    {
        get
        {
            return _serialPorts;
        }
    }

    public EventType EventType
    {
        get
        {
            return _eventType;
        }
    }
}

The MonitorDeviceChanges method actually sees all device changes (like Device Manager), but checking the serial ports allows us to only raise an event when those have changed.

To use the code, simply subscribe to the PortsChanged event, e.g. SerialPortService.PortsChanged += (sender1, changedArgs) => DoSomethingSerial(changedArgs.SerialPorts);

Oh, and the .Raise method is just an extension method I picked up somewhere:

/// <summary>
/// Tell subscribers, if any, that this event has been raised.
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>
/// <param name="handler">The generic event handler</param>
/// <param name="sender">this or null, usually</param>
/// <param name="args">Whatever you want sent</param>
public static void Raise<T>(this EventHandler<T> handler, object sender, T args) where T : EventArgs
{
    // Copy to temp var to be thread-safe (taken from C# 3.0 Cookbook - don't know if it's true)
    EventHandler<T> copy = handler;
    if (copy != null)
    {
        copy(sender, args);
    }
}

Answer 4

NB: I tried to post this as a comment on @Pat's answer, but don't have enough reputation to do that.

Further to @2pietjuh2's comment, the RaisePortsChangedIfNecessary() can be changed to the following:

private static void RaisePortsChangedIfNecessary(EventType eventType)
{
    lock (_serialPorts)
    {
        var availableSerialPorts = GetAvailableSerialPorts();
        if (eventType == EventType.Insertion)
        {
            var added = availableSerialPorts.Except(_serialPorts).ToArray();
            _serialPorts = availableSerialPorts;
            PortsChanged.Raise(null, new PortsChangedArgs(eventType, added));
        }
        else if (eventType == EventType.Removal)
        {
            var removed = _serialPorts.Except(availableSerialPorts).ToArray();
            _serialPorts = availableSerialPorts;
            PortsChanged.Raise(null, new PortsChangedArgs(eventType, removed));
        }
    }
}

Raised events then include the serial port inserted/removed, rather than the list of serial ports available after the insertion/removal.

Answer 5

Here is a stripped down version of a DeviceChangeEvents notification class I wrote some time ago, though I never fully completed it. I stripped out everything except the PortArrived event as it's quite fugly otherwise.

using System;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Windows.Forms;

public sealed class PortArrivalEventArgs : EventArgs
{
    public string Name { get; private set; }
    public PortArrivalEventArgs(string name) { Name = name; }
}

public static class DeviceChangeEvents
{
    #region Events

    #region PortArrived
    private static object PortArrivedEvent = new Object();
    public static event EventHandler<PortArrivalEventArgs> PortArrived
    {
        add { AddEvent(PortArrivedEvent, value); }
        remove { RemoveEvent(PortArrivedEvent, value); }
    }
    private static void FirePortArrived(IntPtr lParam)
    {
        EventHandler<PortArrivalEventArgs> handler
            = (EventHandler<PortArrivalEventArgs>)events[PortArrivedEvent];
        if (handler != null)
        {
            string portName = Marshal.PtrToStringAuto((IntPtr)((long)lParam + 12));
            handler(null, new PortArrivalEventArgs(portName));
        }
    }
    #endregion

    #endregion

    #region Internal

    private static EventHandlerList events = new EventHandlerList();
    private static MessageWindow messageWindow = null;

    private static void AddEvent(object key, Delegate value)
    {
        events.AddHandler(key, value);
        if (messageWindow == null)
            messageWindow = new MessageWindow();
    }

    private static void RemoveEvent(object key, Delegate value)
    {
        events.RemoveHandler(key, value);

        // In the more complete version of DeviceChangedEvents, System.ComponentModel.EventHandlerList
        //  is replaced by an identical event storage object which exposes a count of the number of
        //  handlers installed. It also removes empty handler stubs. Both of these are required
        //  to safely destroy the message window when the last handler is removed.

        //if (messageWindow != null && events.Count == 0)
        //    messageWindow.DestroyHandle();
    }

    #endregion

    private sealed class MessageWindow : NativeWindow
    {
        public MessageWindow()
        {
            CreateParams cp = new CreateParams();
            cp.Caption = GetType().FullName;
            // NOTE that you cannot use a "message window" for this broadcast message
            //if (Environment.OSVersion.Platform == PlatformID.Win32NT)
            //  cp.Parent = (IntPtr)(-3); // HWND_MESSAGE
            //Debug.WriteLine("Creating MessageWindow " + cp.Caption);
            CreateHandle(cp);
        }

        const int WM_DESTROY = 0x02;
        const int WM_DEVICECHANGE = 0x219;

        enum DBT
        {
            DEVICEARRIVAL = 0x8000,
        }

        protected override void WndProc(ref Message m)
        {
            if (m.Msg == WM_DESTROY)
            {
                messageWindow = null;
            }
            else if (m.Msg == WM_DEVICECHANGE)
            {
                DBT changeType = (DBT)m.WParam;
                int deviceType = m.LParam == IntPtr.Zero ? 0 : Marshal.ReadInt32(m.LParam, 4);

                Debug.WriteLine(String.Format("WM_DEVICECHANGE changeType = {0}, deviceType = {1}", changeType, deviceType));

                switch (changeType)
                {
                    case DBT.DEVICEARRIVAL:
                        switch (deviceType)
                        {
                            case 3: // DBT_DEVTYP_PORT
                                FirePortArrived(m.LParam);
                                break;
                        }
                        break;
                }
            }

            base.WndProc(ref m);
        }
    }
}