Sending SMS with a Huawei E220

Today I decided to play with an old Huawei E220 I have lying around.

After getting it setup and recognised in Linux by following the first 5 steps from http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=3656717

After this, restarting udev (restart udev) and replugging the device makes it ready to use.

Part of the testing I was doing, was to send text-messages using the device (as a way of sending status messages out-of-band if an internet connection isn’t available.) and threw together this quick script that relies on expect and kermit:

#!/usr/bin/expect -f
####################################################
# Copyright (c) 2010 Shane Mc Cormack
####################################################
# This script is used to send text messages using
# any AT-Compatible SMS-Capable serial device.
####################################################

if {[llength $argv] &lt; 3} {
      puts "Usage: $argv0 '&lt;device>' '&lt;number>' '&lt;message>'";
      puts "&lt;number> should be in international format.";
      exit 1;
}

set device [lindex $argv 0]
set number [lindex $argv 1]
set message [lindex $argv 2]

set escape "\x1C";

set timeout 25
match_max 100000

puts "Spawning: /usr/bin/kermit -b 9600 -8 -l ${device} -C "set exit warning off,set carrier-watch off,connect,exit""
spawn /usr/bin/kermit -b 9600 -8 -l ${device} -C "set exit warning off,set carrier-watch off,connect,exit"

expect -- "----------------------------------------------------" { send "AT+CMGF=1\r\n" }
expect -- "OK" { send "AT+CMGS="${number}"\r" }
expect -- ">" { send "${message}\032" }

expect -- "OK" {
      puts "";
      send "${escape}";
      send "c"
}

Usage is simple:

[09:51:22] [shane@ShanePc:~/3gsms]$ ./sendSMS.sh /dev/ttyUSB0 "+447XXXXXXXXX" "Test message from CLI"
Spawning: /usr/bin/kermit -b 9600 -8 -l /dev/ttyUSB0 -C "set exit warning off,set carrier-watch off,connect,exit"
spawn /usr/bin/kermit -b 9600 -8 -l /dev/ttyUSB0 -C set exit warning off,set carrier-watch off,connect,exit
Connecting to /dev/ttyUSB0, speed 9600
 Escape character: Ctrl-\ (ASCII 28, FS): enabled
Type the escape character followed by C to get back,
or followed by ? to see other options.
----------------------------------------------------
AT+CMGF=1
OK
AT+CMGS="+447XXXXXXXXX"
> Test message from CLI

+CMGS: 11

OK

[09:51:31] [shane@ShanePc:~/3gsms]$

Perfect.