Mapping USB device name to com port in C#?

Question

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!

You can use System.Management to query Win32_SerialPort. The iceberg that invariably sinks that Titanic is you having no idea what the name of the USB device vendor might be on another machine. You'll need to provide the user with a list to pick from. — Hans Passant

Chris Ballard Chris Ballard · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-18T10:35:33

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.

Mapping USB device name to com port in C#?

1 Answers