What's the simplest way to communicate between Arduino & a browser

Hi Guys,

I'm in the process of learning with Arduino and hoping to get it hooked up to a web browser, currently I have an UNO.

An example of a simple setup I'm hoping to build would be a button that when pressed changes the color of a div in a web browser.

I've built the hardware side of that example and I can get a value to print in the Serial Monitor, yay me!

I've attempted to get a Node.js solution setup to read the serial port with no luck, something about missing modules.

So, will it be easier to either use an Ethernet shield or buy an Ethernet Arduino in order to communicate between it and the browser?

Is there a knack to serial communication between browser and board that I don't know about?

Cheers.

Jolyon

So, will it be easier to either use an Ethernet shield or buy an Ethernet Arduino in order to communicate between it and the browser?

Easier that what? The web browser normally knows nothing about a serial port, so the ethernet shield, and Arduino-as-server, is the only way for a browser to communicate with an Arduino.

Is there a knack to serial communication between browser and board that I don't know about?

Since we have no idea what you do, or do not, know about serial communication between a browser and a board, how are we supposed to know?

Other, of course, than the fact that the browser doesn't communicate with the serial port.

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the reply, I'm a web developer, so am happy with the web side of things, just needed some help with hooking it all up.

I've found various solutions online that seem to be able to handle serial to web communication, GitHub - ecto/duino: Arduino framework for node.js being one of them, but can't get it to work.

I think an Ethernet hardware is going to be the easiest solution, with a web server running on the board.

Cheers.

Hi Jolyon,

You might want to take a look at

"Breakout is a prototyping tool for exploring the intersection of the web and the physical world. The popular Arduino platform and the Firmata protocol are leveraged to enable users to access physical input and output purely from javascript."

found here - http://breakoutjs.com/