ComStudio - Serial Terminal & Data Plotter

Qt6/C++17 serial terminal with modular protocol parsing, real-time plotting (QCustomPlot), and a clean layered architecture. Built for embedded development, PCB debugging, and sensor data visualization.

Highlights

• Multi-protocol support via pluggable strategies (ASCII, Hex, VOFA-Link, custom)
• Real-time plotting with QCustomPlot
• High-performance, zero-allocation line parser using QStringView
• Thread-safe serial I/O with connection state signals
• Dark Catppuccin-inspired UI theme

Requirements

• Qt 6.x (tested with Qt 6.10.0)
• CMake 3.16+
• C++17 compiler (MinGW, MSVC, GCC, Clang)

Build

Qt Creator

1. Open CMakeLists.txt in Qt Creator.
2. Configure with your Qt kit.
3. Build and run.

Command Line

mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. -G "Ninja" -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=/path/to/Qt/6.x.x/mingw_64
cmake --build .

(Use -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=/path/to/Qt/6.x.x/gcc_64 for GCC/Clang toolchains.)

Usage Tips

1. View menu toggles docks: Parser Config Panel and Serial Settings Panel (both closable/floatable).
2. Parser Config:
   • Choose delimiter (space/comma/tab/semicolon/custom).
   • Select fields (0–15) to plot as channels.
   • Optional ID filter: enable, set ID field index, and Accept ID.
   • Strip labels when tokens look like X:123.
   • X-axis source: timestamp, counter, or field.
   • Presets: CSV/Space/Tab/Hall/Labeled.
   • Test Parse shows success/error using the last received line.
3. Terminal view supports raw/hex/parsed display and a send box with ASCII/hex auto-detect.

Architecture

SerialManager -> ProtocolHandler -> LineParser -> DataBuffer -> Terminal/Plotter

• SerialManager: threaded QSerialPort wrapper emitting raw bytes and connection signals.
• ProtocolHandler + LineParser: strategy-based parsing, configurable at runtime.
• DataBuffer: ring buffer for parsed history.
• Widgets: Terminal, Plotter, Serial Settings, Parser Config.

Adding Custom Protocols

1. Derive from BaseProtocol.
2. Implement parse(), name(), description(), and reset().
3. Register via ProtocolHandler::registerProtocol().

Example:

class MyProtocol : public BaseProtocol {
    Q_OBJECT
public:
    void parse(const QByteArray &data) override {
        // Parse data and emit dataParsed()
    }
    QString name() const override { return "My Protocol"; }
    QString description() const override { return "Custom protocol"; }
    void reset() override { /* Clear buffers */ }
};

Project Structure

ComStudio/
├── src/
│   ├── core/          # SerialManager, ProtocolHandler, LineParser
│   ├── ui/            # MainWindow, Widgets
│   ├── models/        # DataBuffer
│   └── main.cpp
├── include/           # Headers
│   ├── core/
│   ├── ui/
│   └── models/
├── assets/
│   ├── styles/        # QSS stylesheets
│   └── icons/         # Application icons
├── third_party/
│   └── QCustomPlot/   # Plotting library
└── CMakeLists.txt

License

Uses QCustomPlot, licensed under GPL v3.

Contributing

• Classes: PascalCase
• Methods: camelCase
• Member variables: m_variableName
• Prefer Doxygen comments
• Never block the UI thread

Todo

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