'Ports' is not a member of 'MyComputer'

Question

Hi everyone,

I feel this is a very trivial question, but unfortunately I've not been able to find a solution anywhere on the net.

I am doing basic things with serial ports, so I imported System.IO.Ports in order to obtain the basic classes and defining the needed variables.

However, when I try to initialize a SerialPort object assigning it something like

My.Computer.Ports.OpenSerialPort("COM1")

I get the error message

" 'Ports' is not a member of 'MyComputer' "

and indeed, if I type My.Computer. and scroll through the options, I see every other voice (Mouse, Keyboard, Network, etc.) but not Ports.

Is there any component I may install in the solution, in order to have 'Ports' appear under My.Computer?

I am programming a Windows App under .NET 5.0 framework, using Visual Basic.

Thank you in advance for your help

Answer 1

As you said you use .NET 5 (which is NET Core, not .NET Framework), you cannot use My.Computer.Ports
You add the Nuget Package System.IO.Ports 6.0.0
Then you can test :

    Dim serialPort As IO.Ports.SerialPort = New IO.Ports.SerialPort()
    serialPort.PortName = "COM1"
    serialPort.Open()
    Dim bOpen = serialPort.IsOpen
    Dim nBaudRate = serialPort.BaudRate
    Debug.WriteLine(String.Format("Baud Rate : {0}", nBaudRate.ToString()))
    ' etc...

Answer 2

Hi @Francesco Bernardini ,
I tested based on .net framework4.8, .net 5, .net 6.
Only .net framework supports My.Computer.Ports Object.
You can choose to use the System.IO.Ports.SerialPort Class instead.
Best Regards.
Jiachen Li

----------

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.
Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Answer 3

I'm not using .Net 5.0 but in a recent project I used

        For Each sp As String In My.Computer.Ports.SerialPortNames
            If UCase(sp) = UCase(sPort.PortName) Then
                If Not sPort.IsOpen Then
                    sPort.Open()
                End If
            End If
        Next

sPort.PortName was setup / defined elsewhere in app.config