C# – Mapping USB device name to com port in C#

cnetusbwindows

I have a USB device that provides a virtual com port. However this device does not identify itself by a COM port "friendly name" (in windows unit manager for instance).

Unit manager

However it does provide a proper name for the USB device. Which in turn lists the associated com port as follows:

USB device

I'd like to be able to identify the device by name ("Prologix GPIB…") and get the com port number from that name. How can i do this in C# / .NET?

The only code i was able to find only searched by the COM port friendly name, not the USB device name.

Thanks for your time!

Best Answer

I don't have virtual COM port set up, so can't check this, but one of the answers in this article seems to fit your requirement:

  using System;
  using System.Collections.Generic;
  using System.Management; // need to add System.Management to your project references.

  class Program
  {
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      var usbDevices = GetUSBDevices();

      foreach (var usbDevice in usbDevices)
      {
        Console.WriteLine("Device ID: {0}, PNP Device ID: {1}, Description: {2}",
            usbDevice.DeviceID, usbDevice.PnpDeviceID, usbDevice.Description);
      }

      Console.Read();
    }

    static List<USBDeviceInfo> GetUSBDevices()
    {
      List<USBDeviceInfo> devices = new List<USBDeviceInfo>();

      ManagementObjectCollection collection;
      using (var searcher = new ManagementObjectSearcher(@"Select * From Win32_USBHub"))
        collection = searcher.Get();      

      foreach (var device in collection)
      {
        devices.Add(new USBDeviceInfo(
        (string)device.GetPropertyValue("DeviceID"),
        (string)device.GetPropertyValue("PNPDeviceID"),
        (string)device.GetPropertyValue("Description")
        ));
      }

      collection.Dispose();
      return devices;
    }
  }

  class USBDeviceInfo
  {
    public USBDeviceInfo(string deviceID, string pnpDeviceID, string description)
    {
      this.DeviceID = deviceID;
      this.PnpDeviceID = pnpDeviceID;
      this.Description = description;
    }
    public string DeviceID { get; private set; }
    public string PnpDeviceID { get; private set; }
    public string Description { get; private set; }
  }

This works fine for listing my devices. You may need to experiment with additional PropertyValue fields in GetUSBDevices to find virtual COM port names.

Related Topic