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[on:]

I have been using Serial.print and Serial.println for quite a while as a debugging aid with no difficulty. Now, I'm having problems and after much searching and attempts to pin it down, I need some help.

Serial.println ("setup ends");
 Serial.println (millis());

for the first line, the serial monitor shows nothing - no characters at all
for the second line, the serial monitor shows a number as expected.

I have tried turned groups of statements like these on and off (as comments) in many places throughout a large program with the same results. Variables print and text does not. With all Serial. statements commented out, the program executes as expected. Any idea what to look for ?

[Reply #1 on:]

I can add that I have tried with 9600 and 19200. The board is an Uno.

[Reply #2 on:]

What is your code? Do you have a Serial.begin() call? Does the baud rate match up in the code and serial monitor?
Try resetting the board, or closing then re-opening serial monitor. Often, random characters appear when I first open serial monitor. These disappear when I re-open it.

Onions.

[Reply #3 on:]

millis() returns a large number (float/double), or?
ascii is 7bit.

try

Code:

Serial.println(millis(), DEC); // DEC to convert it to an Number

[Reply #4 on:]

Doesn't work for me.

Code:

Serial.println( (int) millis() );

println can't print float/double. You have to convert it to int.

I confess this isn't a nice solution..

[Reply #5 on:]

millis() returns a large number (float/double), or?

It returns a long.  

print / println should convert ints and longs to an ASCII-decimal.  It normally isn't necessary to call it with the optional format parameter.

Without the additional details that Onions is asking for (and/or complete code from the original poster) this is going to be very difficult to debug.

[Reply #6 on:]

I am running on a Win7 x64 system and using Arduino 022 IDE.

Here's what just happened using the following code:

Code:

#include "Tlc5940.h"

]#include "math.h"
void setup() {
     Serial.begin(9600);
     Serial.println ("setup start");
     Serial.println (millis());
}
void loop(){
  Serial.print("loop start");
  Serial.println(millis());
  delay (1000);
}

RESULT is     fx`f~      actually the line is much longer but this is all I got with copy/paste. Gibberish and all on one line.

The includes are there because they are vital to the main program I'm working with. I also just tried same code without the includes and the results were same as above.

I also just tried with a different UNO board and the results were the same.

NOTE - all of the above was done on a WIN7 x64 platform which is my base system.

NOW - the following is from an XP system in Virtual PC on the same computer.

here's the code:

Code:

#include <math.h>
int ledpinyellow = 3;
int ledpingreen = 5;
int ledpinred = 9;
int currentmillis=0;
int previousmillis=0;
double startmillis=0;
int N=0;
double clockint=50;
double ledstep = -1;
double x=0;
double y1=0;
double y2=0;
double y3=0;
double z1=0;
double z2=0;
double z3=0;
void setup (){
   Serial.begin(9600);
   x=0;
   y1=0;
   Serial.println("millis");
   Serial.println(millis());
   previousmillis=millis();
   currentmillis=millis();
}
void loop (){
  currentmillis=millis();
  while(currentmillis-previousmillis<clockint){
    delay(10);
    currentmillis=millis();
  }
  previousmillis=currentmillis;
ledstep +=1;
x=10* ledstep*(clockint/1000);
 
 if (x >0 & x <9){
   y1= 4*4*x;
   analogWrite(ledpinyellow, y1);
   analogWrite(ledpingreen,255);
 }
 if (x>=9 & x<=10 ){
   analogWrite(ledpingreen,0);
   analogWrite(ledpinyellow,y1);
 }  
 if(x>10  & x<= 20.5){
   y1=4.7*50*sin(.15*x+.1)+18;
   analogWrite(ledpinyellow,y1);
    }
 
 
 
  Serial.println("x");
 Serial.println(x);
Serial.println(y1);
Serial.println(y2);
Serial.println(y3);

if (ledstep >=50){
ledstep = -1;
Serial.println("time");
Serial.println(millis()-startmillis);
 
startmillis=millis();
}
}

and the result is:

millis
6
millis
6
x
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
x
0.50
and it goes on

so this result looks very good and is what is expected.

However, when I load my main program - here's the first several lines of setup -
note: I have attached the complete program in a file.

Code:

void setup() {

      Serial.begin(9600);
      
Tlc.init();
Tlc.clear();
Tlc.update();
 //      delay(1000);
    Serial.println ("setup start");
    Serial.println (millis());
//**************************  wakeup  begins  **********************
  x=0;
   y1=0;
    prevmillis=millis();
   curmillis=millis();
     while(ledstepint<50){
  curmillis=millis();
  while(curmillis-prevmillis<clockintdbl){
    delay(10);
    curmillis=millis();
  }
  prevmillis=curmillis;

ledstepint +=1;
x=10* ledstepint*(clockintdbl/1000);
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
 if (x >0 & x <9){
   y1= 4*4*x;
     }
 if (x>=9 & x<=10 ){
    y1=255;
    }  
 if(x>10  & x<= 20.5){
   y1=4.7*50*sin(.15*x+.1)+18;
    }
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////    
    brt[ledstepint]=y1;
//   Serial.println(y1);
  }
 ledstepint=-1;
// delay (2000);
 
 Serial.println ("setup ends");
 Serial.println (millis());
//***********

THE RESULT is blank - nothing at all. This only thing that changed here is the program I loaded into the UNO.

This is driving me nuts and wasting a lot of time - would very much appreciate help.

I just saw a few posts that came in as I was preparing this reply. Before my current problems, I have used Serial.println (millis()) many times with no problems at all.

[Reply #7 on:]

When posting code, please wrap them in the "Code" tags (the "#" in the editor's tool bar.)  Please edit your post so that your code is easily readable from your results.

The code you posted doesn't seem to match what is in the .pde you attached.  Just a note on that code, I did a quick count and before code even starts to run you have allocated 1218bytes of RAM.  That's a little over half of the ATmega328's available RAM.  Strings, like those used in your Serial.printlns() can add up fast.

[Reply #8 on:]

Quote
millis() returns a large number (float/double), or?
It returns a long.

sp. "unsigned long"

[Reply #9 on:]

Doesn't work for me.

Code:

Serial.println( (int) millis() );

println can't print float/double. You have to convert it to int.

I confess this isn't a nice solution..

crikey ! how the hell do you send a number that has a decimal point ie 1.1234567890 ?

[Reply #10 on:]

println can't print float/double

This is utter bolleaux.
The "print" method even allows you to specify the number of decimal places* to print.


(*however, since "float" == "double" for the Arduino, this isn't many)

I confess this isn't a nice solution..

As my old teacher used to say "if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate"

[Reply #11 on:]

Not the issue here

Code:

if (x >0 & x <9){
   y1= 4*4*x;
     }
 if (x>=9 & x<=10 ){
    y1=255;
    } 
 if(x>10  & x<= 20.5){
   y1=4.7*50*sin(.15*x+.1)+18;
    }

could be more efficient

Code:

if (x >0 & x <9) {
   y1= 4*4*x;
     }
else if (x<=10 ){
    y1=255;
    } 
else if (x<= 20.5){
   y1=4.7*50*sin(.15*x+.1)+18;
    }

The second code prevents some double testing and is faster.

Because there is only one statement in the if's the brackets may be ommited but that is a question of style & taste

Code:

if (x >0 & x <9) y1= 4*4*x;
else if (x<=10 ) y1=255;
else if (x<= 20.5) y1=4.7*50*sin(.15*x+.1)+18;

[Reply #12 on:]

Good people with good ideas but we're off topic. Please re-read the top posts, I really need help with this.

[Reply #13 on:]

Did you try moving 'Serial.begin(9600);' after the Tlc calls?

[Reply #14 on:]

Good people with good ideas but we're off topic. Please re-read the top posts, I really need help with this.

Please address the issues I asked you to fix with your previous post (which was before the off-topic discussion.)