# Is it possible to open a local serial device from Perspective? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ignition\ **Tags:** perspective\ **Created:** [April 15, 2025, 11:28pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/is-it-possible-to-open-a-local-serial-device-from-perspective/105148 "2025-04-15T23:28:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spencer\_Lommel1](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/spencer_lommel1/32/78679_2.png) [@Spencer\_Lommel1](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Spencer_Lommel1)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2025, 11:28pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/is-it-possible-to-open-a-local-serial-device-from-perspective/105148/1 "2025-04-15T23:28:28Z")
I want to have a perspective project for configuring some devices over serial. I want the user to be able to: - open the perspective webpage on their computer - plug a serial device into their computer - See it in the perspective session and be able to configure it somehow and send data back and forth to the device. I tried using `system.serial` within a Perspective project and opening the correct COM port I got from Device Manager on Windows but I was not able to get data from the serial device. ---
**Author:** ![Kevin.Herron](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/kevin.herron/32/7259_2.png) [@Kevin.Herron](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Kevin.Herron)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2025, 11:39pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/is-it-possible-to-open-a-local-serial-device-from-perspective/105148/2 "2025-04-15T23:39:21Z")
You need to use Vision for this. Perspective scripting always runs on the Gateway, and Perspective browser sessions do not have access to host hardware. ---
**Author:** ![Spencer\_Lommel1](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/spencer_lommel1/32/78679_2.png) [@Spencer\_Lommel1](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Spencer_Lommel1)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2025, 11:54pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/is-it-possible-to-open-a-local-serial-device-from-perspective/105148/3 "2025-04-15T23:54:28Z")
Sounds good, thank you for the response! ---
**Author:** ![Plantformance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Plantformance](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Plantformance)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2026, 2:07pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/is-it-possible-to-open-a-local-serial-device-from-perspective/105148/4 "2026-09-04T14:07:24Z")
Bit old post but adding a new available solution... can help some here. You may take a look to [Host Agent Module](https://plantformance.com/modules/host-agent-module). It is designed to do exactly what you need 🙂 through a direct connection between your client and the gateway (it works even you have not even started the Perspective session)! ---
**Author:** ![SWoollett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@SWoollett](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/SWoollett)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2026, 4:06am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/is-it-possible-to-open-a-local-serial-device-from-perspective/105148/5 "2026-09-11T04:06:54Z")
I had been looking into this, there is web serial which I wonder if inductive could implement [Read from and write to a serial port | Capabilities | Chrome for Developers](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/capabilities/serial) ---
**Author:** ![bmusson](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/bmusson/32/87530_2.png) [@bmusson](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/bmusson)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2026, 5:22am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/is-it-possible-to-open-a-local-serial-device-from-perspective/105148/6 "2026-09-11T05:22:14Z")
You can do this using Embr Periscope's Client Resource feature. This example shows me connecting to a random ESP32 I found in my desk. [playground\_bmusson\_2026-09-11\_0518.zip](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/uploads/short-url/iFo03h1mianWhrtsZMHAZV10Quf.zip) (20.3 KB) ---
**Author:** ![liam1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e68b1a/32.png) [@liam1](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/liam1)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2026, 6:34am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/is-it-possible-to-open-a-local-serial-device-from-perspective/105148/7 "2026-09-11T06:34:01Z")
Is there plans in the future to give perspective sessions launch from the worksation applicatipm access to the serial comms similar to vision? ---
**Author:** ![liam1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e68b1a/32.png) [@liam1](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/liam1)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2026, 6:36am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/is-it-possible-to-open-a-local-serial-device-from-perspective/105148/8 "2026-09-11T06:36:27Z")
Doesn't the web browser api require you to have a ssl connection before accessing serial or can this be done of local non-secure connection? ---
**Author:** ![bmusson](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/bmusson/32/87530_2.png) [@bmusson](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/bmusson)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2026, 6:49am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/is-it-possible-to-open-a-local-serial-device-from-perspective/105148/9 "2026-09-11T06:49:19Z")
> [@liam1](#): > > require you to have a ssl connection It does require an SSL connection. You 100000% should be using TLS in production, but I can appreciate that it’s an extra step for local development. However, it’s trivial to self-sign certs once you understand the workflow. ---
**Author:** ![Plantformance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Plantformance](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Plantformance)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2026, 6:00am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/is-it-possible-to-open-a-local-serial-device-from-perspective/105148/10 "2026-09-17T06:00:23Z")
Honestly we have been looking (waiting) for years for Web-serial to come, and it was stalled for 5 years+. The topic is very contrasted as now it is available for Chromium based browsers, but this has been rejected both by Mozilla & Apple because of "harmful to web standards". So today I am not sure this guy has a real future; and from an automation perspective I would be also a bit anxious about its reliability on long term (a browser update could just make everything not working). There are not many solutions there : if you need something serious best is still to have serial to network converter, relatively cheap & super reliable on long term as there is no dependency on OS. And anyhow code is run in Gateway with Perspective, not much on clients. ---
**Author:** ![Spencer\_Lommel1](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/spencer_lommel1/32/78679_2.png) [@Spencer\_Lommel1](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Spencer_Lommel1)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2026, 2:10pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/is-it-possible-to-open-a-local-serial-device-from-perspective/105148/11 "2026-09-17T14:10:00Z")
This is what I ended up going with. I needed to develop a tool for configuring embedded devices via serial but luckily it didn't need to be integrated with our SCADA system. So I build a standalone web tool with React that used the Chrome WebUSB API. In the end it turned out pretty well and was much easier than developing a standalone application that every tech needed to install on their laptop and we could easily link to it from an Ignition page. ---
**Author:** ![Plantformance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Plantformance](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Plantformance)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2026, 3:59pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/is-it-possible-to-open-a-local-serial-device-from-perspective/105148/12 "2026-09-29T15:59:55Z")
Awesome, glad you're happy with the setup! 😄 Just as a quick heads-up for any future readers fighting this same battle—we actually developed a custom, rock-solid solution designed specifically for this. We shared it at our booth at ICC this year and the feedback was fantastic. Just wanted to throw that out there as another tool in the toolbox! > **[Host Agent Module for Ignition | Plantformance](https://plantformance.com/modules/host-agent-module)** > > Extend Ignition with Host Agent for OS-level integrations, enabling file access, serial devices, peripherals, and advanced Vision & Perspective capabilities.