Serial monitor broken ?

Using Arduino IDE 1.x
1

I have been using the serial monitor for trouble shooting and communicating with a 168p on a custom board with no problems whatsoever. Suddenly now it will no longer talk to the chip !

If I communicate with the 168p via some test software I wrote (which includes a serial monitor) it works fine.
The sketch when running on a friends Windows PC and using the same board works fine
Sketches from weeks ago when it was still working work fine
The baud rate is set correctly
It RECEIVES data from the 168p and happily displays this correctly.

So basically if I enter text into the text box and press return or click send the 168p does not get it and if I do the same with my own serial monitor it does.

So it appears that a setting has gone astray or broken OR the IDE is damaged.

I've tried renaming the Arduino package within Applications (MAC) and reinstalling a fresh version which does the same.

It's just annoying that I can't use the built in monitor......

Any ideas?

2

Have you tried a terminal emulator?

3

Does the loopback test work? Can confirm the USB path is all working.
http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,73748.0.html

4

AWOL:
Have you tried a terminal emulator?

Yes as stated in OP thanks.

5

CrossRoads:
Does the loopback test work? Can confirm the USB path is all working.
http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,73748.0.html

No I've not done that but I have two identical boards here both of which are working perfectly using my own serial comms program in both directions. Both also send data which the computer receives only issue is the serial monitor sending data which does not work.

6

Yes as stated in OP thanks.

which terminal emulator?

7

AWOL:

Yes as stated in OP thanks.

which terminal emulator?

Part of the desktop program which communicates with the board.......

However.....

8

I just quickly wrote this to test it:

char inputString[50]; 
int stringPos=0;

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(115200);
  Serial.println("Quick test");
}

void loop() {
  if (Serial.available()>0){
    digitalWrite(13, HIGH);
    Serial.println(Serial.available()); 
  } else {
    digitalWrite(13, LOW);
  }
  if (Serial.available()>0) {
    char inChar = (char)Serial.read(); 
    inputString[stringPos]= inChar;
    stringPos=min(stringPos+1,50);
    if (inChar == '\n') {
      digitalWrite(10, HIGH);
      delay(100);
      digitalWrite(10, LOW);
      Serial.println(inputString); 
      stringPos = 0;
      for (byte i = 0; i < 50; i++) {inputString[i]=(char)0;}
    } else {
      Serial.print("Part = "); 
      Serial.println(inputString); 
    } 
  }
}

And it works fine..... BUT it still doesn't work in the original sketch or previous versions that WERE working fine.

Investigating......

9

PROBLEM SOLVED.....

The box [No line ending...New line...CR.....etc etc] had moved to "No line ending"

DOH!

10

Don't ya hate when that happens? 8)