Could someone evaluate how difficult it could be to detach the serial plotter and the serial monitor from the Arduino IDE?
Specially the serial plotter is a fantastic tool, but it is quite a pain to be compelled to load the complete IDE, just to run the serial plotter. The serial monitor as well, but here we have got minicom, as a replacement.
I can imagine, that the serial plotter has been developed using common resources (e.g. selecting the serial port) but how critical would it be to detach it having it running as an own application?
One thing that's extremely convenient about the Serial Monitor and Serial Plotter being integrated into the Arduino IDE is that the port is automatically closed when you upload. If you used these as separate tools, you'd need to manually close the port (or exit the tool), upload, then manually re-open the port (or restart the tool) each time.
There are many "stand alone" options for serial plotters.
I would suggest taking a look around to see what best suits your needs.
But as Per says you need to be aware of serial port in use if the IDE is using the port needed.
pert:
One thing that's extremely convenient about the Serial Monitor and Serial Plotter being integrated into the Arduino IDE is that the port is automatically closed when you upload.
I am aware of that and i appreciate it a lot.
I am however not always developing and I fell in love with the serial plotter.
If it could additionally be run standalone, it will be a huge benefit, surely for many users.
Another aspect to consider is running on a Raspberry Pi with a small screen of 480*320 pixels.
A full screen serial plotter would have been gorgeous, but now, you just have got no chance to reach the menu of the IDE to invoke it.
ballscrewbob:
There are many "stand alone" options for serial plotters.
Most of these options are running on Windows.
Only one, the Arduino plotter, is written in Java and could be ported to a Raspberry Pi.
However all of these will require additional Arduino code different from the code I already have for the serial plotter an i am already using 80% of my available RAM.
And -obviously- also these apps will block the serial port like a standalone serial plotter will do!
That begins to look really cool!
We will probably get far beyond the serial plotter output.
It is however somewhat more CPU intensive (the serial Plotter uses about 6% CPU for 500*5 values
the Python script about 12%)
