MegunoLink: plot, log, monitor serial data; upload hex files

Hi,

Thought you folk might be interested in MegunoLink, a free Windows utility we’ve made specifically for communicating with Arduinos. Currently it has five main functions:

  • Plot data sent by the Arduino through the serial port on a graph. You just format the data as {Temperature,T,23.4} and can have as many different series as you like.
    MegunoLink Pro | The swiss army knife for Arduino

  • Logs serial data to a text file for later inspection. We mostly use it to record debug messages to help find those bugs that occur when nobody is watching, but it is helpful to capture any data sent by the Arduino for later analysis
    MegunoLink Pro | The swiss army knife for Arduino

  • Monitors serial data, sending it to a text window. Just like the built-in monitor only we don’t reset the Arduino when the serial connection is made. This means you can connect and disconnect as often as you like without interrupting your Arduino program.
    MegunoLink Pro | The swiss army knife for Arduino

  • Upload hex files. Useful for people using tools such as Atmel Studio to build Arduino programs.
    MegunoLink Pro | The swiss army knife for Arduino

  • Simulate serial devices. A “Serial Monkey” created to help debug communications with a TV, the monkey looks for patterns in the serial data (such as a command to turn the TV on) and sends a response (an acknowledgement, for example). This means you don’t need the TV connected to debug the Arduino program & can more easily see what is going on in the communications.
    MegunoLink Pro | The swiss army knife for Arduino

Please let us know if you have any problems, comments, or features you’d like to see added!

Paul

Well done Paul, Megunolink is a great piece of software that will be useful to all of us in the Arduino user community.
I encourage everyone to give it a test run, you won't be disappointed.

Thanks John, an updated version is up at http://MegunoLink.com. New features include...

  • Automatically disconnect the serial port when Arduino IDE builds and uploads.
  • Improved plotting tool. Modify line thickness and add plotting symbols.
  • Launch MegunoLink for uploading programs to the Arduino by double clicking on a Hex file created with Atmel Studio ( Tutorial : Using Atmel Studio for building Arduino programs)
  • Improved configuration for AVRDude uploader
  • Improved project configuration

The first feature is great. It allows you to work seamlessly between the Arduino IDE and MegunoLink. The Arduino IDE for code development and upload, and MegunoLink for serial data plotting, monitoring and logging.

Join us on facebook facebook.com/megunolink and twitter. We would love some feedback on bugs and feature requests.

Awesome - I just fired it up this morning and the red "update" blinked at me (great feature by the way).
Nice work on the auto-disconnect serial, that was my only issue.

Hi

We've just updated MegunoLink again. Download it here:

We have a couple of bug fixes and a few new features:

  • Added support for uploading hex files to Leonardo boards (we don't have a Leonardo yet, so please let us know if you have any problems!)
  • You can now automatically add carriage return/ line feed characters to text sent with the serial monitor
  • Added support for data sent at 500,000 baud. The Arduino does not officially support this rate, but some users are reporting greater reliability at 500,000 than 115,200 baud.
  • Added a text box to specify the source file on the upload tab. Use the browse button, or drag files from Windows Explorer & drop them on the text box.
  • Secret method to remove the donate link from the status bar. Make a donation to find out the secret!

As always, let us know if you have any problems or would like to suggest a feature. It can take us a little while to implement new features, but we do read all your messages!

Have a great day,
Paul.

This is very great, :slight_smile:

Hi again everyone,

We've just released a completely rewritten version & upgraded it to MegunoLink Pro. The biggest difference is we now have docking windows so that you can see data from your Arduino in a text monitor, on a graph, in a table or on a map all at the same time. You can pull in data from several Arduinos, either through serial or UDP, into different windows to monitor everything at once. We also have message monitors and loggers that pull out specially formatted messages...to separate debug data from the vast stream of serial messages your project spits out, for example. And a interface panel to send messages to your program using buttons, sliders and number controls.

You'll find more information at www.MegunoLink.com. We'd love to hear any feedback...what you think, what new features you'd like to see, etc.

Have a great week,
Paul

Just to let everyone know, in celebration of Arduino's 10th birthday MegunoLink Pro is only 5$ currently.

Looks like $5 special is over - just when I discovered product...