ESP32 getting ASCII decimals from Serial2 instead of char

Using Arduino Programming Questions
#1

Hi, I have acquired a Radar Module that I connected to the ESP32 Serial2 and it should report speed even when one waves a hand in front of it.

First I connected the Radar Module to an FDDI (USB to Serial) adapter and used Putty to monitor the serial on the PC.

The radar module output is simple:

wait
wait
wait
wait -2,128 (km/h)
wait -3.098 (km/h)

And so on showing the speed when I wave my hand in front of it.

Then I connected it to my ESP32 (Serial2) with the code below:

void setup(){ 
  Serial.begin(115200);                     // Define and start serial monitor
  Serial2.begin(115200);
  Serial.println("Radar Test.");
}

void loop() {
  while(Serial2.available()){
    Serial.print(Serial2.read());
    if(!Serial2.available()){
      Serial.println();
    }
  }
}

And the output I get when I wave my hand is:

16:54:38.790 -> 119971051161310
16:54:38.883 -> 119971051161310
16:54:38.883 -> 119971051161310
16:54:38.930 -> 119971051161310
16:54:39.023 -> 1183210511532
16:54:39.023 -> 455046495755324010710947104411310
16:54:39.070 -> 119971051161310

I noticed that 119 = w, 97=a, 105=i, 116=t and 1310 = carriage return and line feed.

Why Am I getting decimals instead of the char?

Assistance welcome.
Thanks
Paulo

#2

Use Serial.write() instead of Serial.print() if you want to see characters and not their ASCII decimal code.

#3

The read() function returns an int, not a char.

#4

Hi, thank you for your input.

Solved with:

void loop() {
  String BTString="";
  char   c;
  while (Serial2.available()) {
    delay(3);
    c = Serial2.read();
    BTString += c;
  }
  if(BTString.length()>0){
    Serial.println(BTString);
  }  
  BTString = "";
}

Regards
Paulo

#5