Can't get passed the example of SoftSerial

Projects Programming
1

I want to start to work with SoftSerial but I can not even get the example to work.
The tutorial page says "no circuit required" Yet the code notes say

The circuit: 
 * RX is digital pin 10 (connect to TX of other device)
 * TX is digital pin 11 (connect to RX of other device)

When I have nothing on the board I get "goodnight moon" on serial monitor 57600 baud
Change baud to 4800 baud I get " ÿÿþþÿ" on serial monitor

I put two jumper pin 10 to TX (pin1) and Pin 11 to ( pin0 )

I get o continual stream of " ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ "

What am I not seeing? It is so simple an exercise I read over and over and I just can not see where I am going wrong. I have changed the uno chip for a new one. I don't have a second board to try.

Appreciate any time you can spare to tell me where I should be looking.
Thank you

The example is

/*
  Software serial multple serial test
 
 Receives from the hardware serial, sends to software serial.
 Receives from software serial, sends to hardware serial.
 
 The circuit: 
 * RX is digital pin 10 (connect to TX of other device)
 * TX is digital pin 11 (connect to RX of other device)
 
 Note:
 Not all pins on the Mega and Mega 2560 support change interrupts, 
 so only the following can be used for RX: 
 10, 11, 12, 13, 50, 51, 52, 53, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69
 
 Not all pins on the Leonardo support change interrupts, 
 so only the following can be used for RX: 
 8, 9, 10, 11, 14 (MISO), 15 (SCK), 16 (MOSI).
 
 created back in the mists of time
 modified 25 May 2012
 by Tom Igoe
 based on Mikal Hart's example
 
 This example code is in the public domain.
 
 */
#include <SoftwareSerial.h>

SoftwareSerial mySerial(10, 11); // RX, TX

void setup()  
{
  // Open serial communications and wait for port to open:
  Serial.begin(57600);
  
  Serial.println("Goodnight moon!");

  // set the data rate for the SoftwareSerial port
  mySerial.begin(4800);
  mySerial.println("Hello, world?");
}

void loop() // run over and over
{
  if (mySerial.available())
    Serial.write(mySerial.read());
  if (Serial.available())
    mySerial.write(Serial.read());
}
2

Based on the code, you would need to connect a link wire between pins 10 and 11 to cross-connect the SoftwareSerial Tx and Rx, and leave pins 0 and 1 disconnected.

3

When I have nothing on the board I get "goodnight moon" on serial monitor 57600 baud

You are using SoftwareSerial to (try to) read from pins with nothing connected to them? Why?

4

to PeterH i have tried your suggestion
the serial monitor shows "ï­ÞÌ" at baud 4800 and "àà" a whole line of them actually.

PaulS I was trying to follow the distructions of the tutorial on the Arduino site that says "no circuit" and shows a picture of the uno alone with nothing connected. But why does it print "goodnight moon" on the hardwired serial port with no external wire. Is there an internal link?

5

Are you trying to communicate with the serial to the computer, or to some other device ?

If you see garbage characters, the reason is nearly always a speed mismatch. If you are using
serial communication between the arduino and PC, you need to use the same speed. You set
the speed in the serial monitor with the drop-down list in the bottom corner of the screen. This needs
to match the speed you set with the Serial.begin( ) call in your Arduino sketch setup( ).

6

I have a project which uses a sensor and Softserial to communicate with it. But like I said at the beginning of this post I am only trying to run through the Tutorial example of Softserial.
If I can't even get this to work and understand it so I have no chance on the next step.

7

Sorry Michinyon I'm not sure how it can be different.
The example program runs between two different baud values one the hard serial the other the soft serial.
Changing the Serial monitor baud in the drop down menu should switch between the two.
When I choose a baud rate that is different from either nothing is on the serial monitor.