title: How to read data from serial port SICK LMS200?
body: <p>I would like to read data from SICK LMS200 Lidar scanner through serial port. I can see the serial port as /dev/ttyUSB0. I just do not know how to get data out of it.</p>
  
  <p>I've tried to install <a href="http://sicktoolbox.sourceforge.net/" rel="nofollow">The Sick LIDAR Matlab/C++ Toolbox</a> under Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS using the manual installation as shown in toolbox manual. </p>
  
  <p>I untar the file:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$tar -xzvf sicktoolbox-1.0.1.tar.gz
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>That's what I get after running ./configure (not sure if it's helpfull)</p>
  
  <pre><code>me@MyPC:~/smetiste/Sick/sicktoolbox-1.0.1$ ./configure 
  checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
  checking whether build environment is sane... yes
  checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p
  checking for gawk... gawk
  checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
  checking for g++... g++
  checking for C++ compiler default output file name... a.out
  checking whether the C++ compiler works... yes
  checking whether we are cross compiling... no
  checking for suffix of executables... 
  checking for suffix of object files... o
  checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... yes
  checking whether g++ accepts -g... yes
  checking for style of include used by make... GNU
  checking dependency style of g++... gcc3
  checking for gcc... gcc
  checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
  checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
  checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed
  checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3
  checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
  checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
  checking whether ln -s works... yes
  checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... (cached) yes
  checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
  checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
  checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /bin/sed
  checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /bin/grep
  checking for egrep... /bin/grep -E
  checking for ld used by gcc... /usr/bin/ld
  checking if the linker (/usr/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes
  checking for /usr/bin/ld option to reload object files... -r
  checking for BSD-compatible nm... /usr/bin/nm -B
  checking how to recognise dependent libraries... pass_all
  checking for ANSI C header files... yes
  checking for sys/types.h... yes
  checking for sys/stat.h... yes
  checking for stdlib.h... yes
  checking for string.h... yes
  checking for memory.h... yes
  checking for strings.h... yes
  checking for inttypes.h... yes
  checking for stdint.h... yes
  checking for unistd.h... yes
  checking dlfcn.h usability... yes
  checking dlfcn.h presence... yes
  checking for dlfcn.h... yes
  checking how to run the C++ preprocessor... g++ -E
  checking for g77... no
  checking for xlf... no
  checking for f77... no
  checking for frt... no
  checking for pgf77... no
  checking for cf77... no
  checking for fort77... no
  checking for fl32... no
  checking for af77... no
  checking for xlf90... no
  checking for f90... no
  checking for pgf90... no
  checking for pghpf... no
  checking for epcf90... no
  checking for gfortran... no
  checking for g95... no
  checking for xlf95... no
  checking for f95... no
  checking for fort... no
  checking for ifort... no
  checking for ifc... no
  checking for efc... no
  checking for pgf95... no
  checking for lf95... no
  checking for ftn... no
  checking whether we are using the GNU Fortran 77 compiler... no
  checking whether  accepts -g... no
  checking the maximum length of command line arguments... 32768
  checking command to parse /usr/bin/nm -B output from gcc object... ok
  checking for objdir... .libs
  checking for ar... ar
  checking for ranlib... ranlib
  checking for strip... strip
  checking if gcc supports -fno-rtti -fno-exceptions... no
  checking for gcc option to produce PIC... -fPIC
  checking if gcc PIC flag -fPIC works... yes
  checking if gcc static flag -static works... yes
  checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... yes
  checking whether the gcc linker (/usr/bin/ld) supports shared libraries... yes
  checking whether -lc should be explicitly linked in... no
  checking dynamic linker characteristics... GNU/Linux ld.so
  checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate
  checking whether stripping libraries is possible... yes
  checking if libtool supports shared libraries... yes
  checking whether to build shared libraries... yes
  checking whether to build static libraries... yes
  configure: creating libtool
  appending configuration tag "CXX" to libtool
  checking for ld used by g++... /usr/bin/ld
  checking if the linker (/usr/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes
  checking whether the g++ linker (/usr/bin/ld) supports shared libraries... yes
  checking for g++ option to produce PIC... -fPIC
  checking if g++ PIC flag -fPIC works... yes
  checking if g++ static flag -static works... yes
  checking if g++ supports -c -o file.o... yes
  checking whether the g++ linker (/usr/bin/ld) supports shared libraries... yes
  checking dynamic linker characteristics... GNU/Linux ld.so
  checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate
  appending configuration tag "F77" to libtool
  checking for gnuplot... no
  configure: WARNING: *** gnuplot not found, some examples will not be built.
  checking for doxygen... no
  configure: WARNING: doxygen not found - will not generate any doxygen documentation
  checking for perl... /usr/bin/perl
  checking for the pthreads library -lpthreads... no
  checking whether pthreads work without any flags... no
  checking whether pthreads work with -Kthread... no
  checking whether pthreads work with -kthread... no
  checking for the pthreads library -llthread... no
  checking whether pthreads work with -pthread... yes
  checking for joinable pthread attribute... PTHREAD_CREATE_JOINABLE
  checking if more special flags are required for pthreads... no
  checking for ANSI C header files... (cached) yes
  checking arpa/inet.h usability... yes
  checking arpa/inet.h presence... yes
  checking for arpa/inet.h... yes
  checking fcntl.h usability... yes
  checking fcntl.h presence... yes
  checking for fcntl.h... yes
  checking netinet/in.h usability... yes
  checking netinet/in.h presence... yes
  checking for netinet/in.h... yes
  checking for string.h... (cached) yes
  checking sys/ioctl.h usability... yes
  checking sys/ioctl.h presence... yes
  checking for sys/ioctl.h... yes
  checking sys/socket.h usability... yes
  checking sys/socket.h presence... yes
  checking for sys/socket.h... yes
  checking sys/time.h usability... yes
  checking sys/time.h presence... yes
  checking for sys/time.h... yes
  checking termios.h usability... yes
  checking termios.h presence... yes
  checking for termios.h... yes
  checking for unistd.h... (cached) yes
  checking linux/serial.h usability... yes
  checking linux/serial.h presence... yes
  checking for linux/serial.h... yes
  checking for stdbool.h that conforms to C99... yes
  checking for _Bool... yes
  checking for an ANSI C-conforming const... yes
  checking for inline... inline
  checking whether byte ordering is bigendian... no
  checking whether time.h and sys/time.h may both be included... yes
  checking for int16_t... yes
  checking for uint16_t... yes
  checking for uint32_t... yes
  checking for uint8_t... yes
  checking whether gcc needs -traditional... no
  checking sys/select.h usability... yes
  checking sys/select.h presence... yes
  checking for sys/select.h... yes
  checking for sys/socket.h... (cached) yes
  checking types of arguments for select... int,fd_set *,struct timeval *
  checking return type of signal handlers... void
  checking for gettimeofday... yes
  checking for memset... yes
  checking for select... yes
  checking for socket... yes
  checking for strcasecmp... yes
  configure: creating ./config.status
  config.status: creating Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/examples/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/examples/ld/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/examples/ld/ld_config/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/examples/ld/ld_config/src/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/examples/ld/ld_more_config/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/examples/ld/ld_more_config/src/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/examples/ld/ld_multi_sector/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/examples/ld/ld_multi_sector/src/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/examples/ld/ld_single_sector/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/examples/ld/ld_single_sector/src/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/examples/lms/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/examples/lms/lms_config/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/examples/lms/lms_config/src/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/examples/lms/lms_mean_values/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/examples/lms/lms_mean_values/src/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/examples/lms/lms_partial_scan/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/examples/lms/lms_partial_scan/src/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/examples/lms/lms_plot_values/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/examples/lms/lms_plot_values/src/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/examples/lms/lms_real_time_indices/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/examples/lms/lms_real_time_indices/src/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/examples/lms/lms_set_variant/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/examples/lms/lms_set_variant/src/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/examples/lms/lms_simple_app/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/examples/lms/lms_simple_app/src/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/examples/lms/lms_stream_range_and_reflect/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/examples/lms/lms_stream_range_and_reflect/src/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/examples/lms/lms_subrange/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/examples/lms/lms_subrange/src/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/drivers/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/drivers/ld/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/drivers/ld/sickld-1.0/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/drivers/lms/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/drivers/lms/sicklms-1.0/Makefile
  config.status: creating c++/drivers/base/src/SickConfig.hh
  config.status: executing depfiles commands
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>After running <code>$make</code> I get this error:</p>
  
  <pre><code>me@ MyPC:~/smetiste/Sick/sicktoolbox-1.0.1$ make
  Making all in c++
  make[1]: Entering directory `/home/me/smetiste/Sick/sicktoolbox-1.0.1/c++'
  Making all in drivers
  make[2]: Entering directory `/home/me/smetiste/Sick/sicktoolbox-1.0.1/c++/drivers'
  Making all in ld
  make[3]: Entering directory `/home/me/smetiste/Sick/sicktoolbox-1.0.1/c++/drivers/ld'
  Making all in sickld-1.0
  make[4]: Entering directory `/home/me/smetiste/Sick/sicktoolbox-1.0.1/c++/drivers/ld/sickld-1.0'
  /bin/sh ../../../../libtool --tag=CXX   --mode=compile g++ -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I../../../../c++/drivers/base/src  -I../../../../c++/drivers/base/src   -g -O2 -MT SickLD.lo -MD -MP -MF .deps/SickLD.Tpo -c -o SickLD.lo SickLD.cc
  mkdir .libs
   g++ -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I../../../../c++/drivers/base/src -I../../../../c++/drivers/base/src -g -O2 -MT SickLD.lo -MD -MP -MF .deps/SickLD.Tpo -c SickLD.cc  -fPIC -DPIC -o .libs/SickLD.o
  SickLD.cc: In member function 'void SickToolbox::SickLD::_flushTCPRecvBuffer()':
  SickLD.cc:4137:35: warning: ignoring return value of 'ssize_t read(int, void*, size_t)', declared with attribute warn_unused_result [-Wunused-result]
          read(_sick_fd,&amp;null_byte,1);
                                     ^
   g++ -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I../../../../c++/drivers/base/src -I../../../../c++/drivers/base/src -g -O2 -MT SickLD.lo -MD -MP -MF .deps/SickLD.Tpo -c SickLD.cc -o SickLD.o &gt;/dev/null 2&gt;&amp;1
  mv -f .deps/SickLD.Tpo .deps/SickLD.Plo
  /bin/sh ../../../../libtool --tag=CXX   --mode=compile g++ -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I../../../../c++/drivers/base/src  -I../../../../c++/drivers/base/src   -g -O2 -MT SickLDMessage.lo -MD -MP -MF .deps/SickLDMessage.Tpo -c -o SickLDMessage.lo SickLDMessage.cc
   g++ -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I../../../../c++/drivers/base/src -I../../../../c++/drivers/base/src -g -O2 -MT SickLDMessage.lo -MD -MP -MF .deps/SickLDMessage.Tpo -c SickLDMessage.cc  -fPIC -DPIC -o .libs/SickLDMessage.o
   g++ -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I../../../../c++/drivers/base/src -I../../../../c++/drivers/base/src -g -O2 -MT SickLDMessage.lo -MD -MP -MF .deps/SickLDMessage.Tpo -c SickLDMessage.cc -o SickLDMessage.o &gt;/dev/null 2&gt;&amp;1
  mv -f .deps/SickLDMessage.Tpo .deps/SickLDMessage.Plo
  /bin/sh ../../../../libtool --tag=CXX   --mode=compile g++ -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I../../../../c++/drivers/base/src  -I../../../../c++/drivers/base/src   -g -O2 -MT SickLDBufferMonitor.lo -MD -MP -MF .deps/SickLDBufferMonitor.Tpo -c -o SickLDBufferMonitor.lo SickLDBufferMonitor.cc
   g++ -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I../../../../c++/drivers/base/src -I../../../../c++/drivers/base/src -g -O2 -MT SickLDBufferMonitor.lo -MD -MP -MF .deps/SickLDBufferMonitor.Tpo -c SickLDBufferMonitor.cc  -fPIC -DPIC -o .libs/SickLDBufferMonitor.o
  In file included from SickLDBufferMonitor.hh:24:0,
                   from SickLDBufferMonitor.cc:24:
  ../../../../c++/drivers/base/src/SickBufferMonitor.hh: In member function 'void SickToolbox::SickBufferMonitor&lt;SICK_MONITOR_CLASS, SICK_MSG_CLASS&gt;::_readBytes(uint8_t*, int, unsigned int) const':
  ../../../../c++/drivers/base/src/SickBufferMonitor.hh:356:47: error: there are no arguments to 'getdtablesize' that depend on a template parameter, so a declaration of 'getdtablesize' must be available [-fpermissive]
         num_active_files = select(getdtablesize(),&amp;file_desc_set,0,0,(timeout_value &gt; 0) ? &amp;timeout_val : 0);
                                                 ^
  ../../../../c++/drivers/base/src/SickBufferMonitor.hh:356:47: note: (if you use '-fpermissive', G++ will accept your code, but allowing the use of an undeclared name is deprecated)
  ../../../../c++/drivers/base/src/SickBufferMonitor.hh:370:73: error: there are no arguments to 'read' that depend on a template parameter, so a declaration of 'read' must be available [-fpermissive]
        num_bytes_read = read(_sick_fd,&amp;dest_buffer[total_num_bytes_read],1);
                                                                           ^
  ../../../../c++/drivers/base/src/SickBufferMonitor.hh: In static member function 'static void* SickToolbox::SickBufferMonitor&lt;SICK_MONITOR_CLASS, SICK_MSG_CLASS&gt;::_bufferMonitorThread(void*)':
  ../../../../c++/drivers/base/src/SickBufferMonitor.hh:456:18: error: there are no arguments to 'usleep' that depend on a template parameter, so a declaration of 'usleep' must be available [-fpermissive]
         usleep(1000);
                    ^
  ../../../../c++/drivers/base/src/SickBufferMonitor.hh: In instantiation of 'void SickToolbox::SickBufferMonitor&lt;SICK_MONITOR_CLASS, SICK_MSG_CLASS&gt;::_readBytes(uint8_t*, int, unsigned int) const [with SICK_MONITOR_CLASS = SickToolbox::SickLDBufferMonitor; SICK_MSG_CLASS = SickToolbox::SickLDMessage; uint8_t = unsigned char]':
  SickLDBufferMonitor.cc:59:2:   required from here
  ../../../../c++/drivers/base/src/SickBufferMonitor.hh:356:47: error: 'getdtablesize' was not declared in this scope
         num_active_files = select(getdtablesize(),&amp;file_desc_set,0,0,(timeout_value &gt; 0) ? &amp;timeout_val : 0);
                                                 ^
  ../../../../c++/drivers/base/src/SickBufferMonitor.hh:370:73: error: 'read' was not declared in this scope
        num_bytes_read = read(_sick_fd,&amp;dest_buffer[total_num_bytes_read],1);
                                                                           ^
  make[4]: *** [SickLDBufferMonitor.lo] Error 1
  make[4]: Leaving directory `/home/me/smetiste/Sick/sicktoolbox-1.0.1/c++/drivers/ld/sickld-1.0'
  make[3]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
  make[3]: Leaving directory `/home/me/smetiste/Sick/sicktoolbox-1.0.1/c++/drivers/ld'
  make[2]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
  make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/me/smetiste/Sick/sicktoolbox-1.0.1/c++/drivers'
  make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
  make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/me/smetiste/Sick/sicktoolbox-1.0.1/c++'
  make: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
  me@ MyPC:~/smetiste/Sick/sicktoolbox-1.0.1$ 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I've heard that using "old" packages with newer releases may be tricky. But is there any chance to make it work? </p>
  
  <p>Is there any other way how to get data from this scanner on Linux since it doesn't have any internal memory? </p>