Getting Serial.write and Serial.print in the monitor

Projects Programming
1

I want to plot the values from a ORP Circuit that displays measurements from -1V to 1V against the values of a String Potentiometer that tell me position of my ORP (Oxidation Reduction Potential) measurements.

I have the ORP circuit connected to my Arduino through pins D2 (from ORP TX) and D3 (from ORP RX), GND and 5V.
My String Potentiometer is, as any pot that I know, connected to my Arduino through A1, GND and 5v.

But there's no way I can make sense of my readings with my code! I use a Software Serial Example for reading my ORP circuit:

#include <SoftwareSerial.h>

SoftwareSerial mySerial(2, 3); // RX, TX

void setup() {
  // Open serial communications and wait for port to open:
  Serial.begin(300);
  while (!Serial) {
    ; // wait for serial port to connect. Needed for native USB port only
  }


  Serial.println("Goodnight moon!");

  // set the data rate for the SoftwareSerial port
  mySerial.begin(9600);
  mySerial.println("Hello, world?");
}

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

 
  
}

And that works OK. But as soon as I also introduce my POT ( in this case I just Serial.print a letter for being able to locate it) it's imposible for me to discern between the values, for they are printed intertwined:

#include <SoftwareSerial.h>

SoftwareSerial mySerial(2, 3); // RX, TX

void setup() {
  // Open serial communications and wait for port to open:
  Serial.begin(300);
  while (!Serial) {
    ; // wait for serial port to connect. Needed for native USB port only
  }


  Serial.println("Goodnight moon!");

  // set the data rate for the SoftwareSerial port
  mySerial.begin(9600);
  mySerial.println("Hello, world?");
}

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

  Serial.println('a'); //that would be my POT
  
}

So that if the value of my ORP reading is -240.6, I will get -a2a4a0a.a6a on the serial monitor. And I can understand that from the loop. Nontheless I can't come with any way of getting, following with the previous example: -240.6 a.
Someone that can come with a solution to that?

2 
void loop() { // run over and over
  if (mySerial.available()) {
    Serial.print (F("Here comes a mySerial"));
    Serial.write(mySerial.read());
  }

  Serial.print (F("Here comes a pot reading"));
  Serial.println('a'); //that would be my POT
 
}
3

What do you see with a small change to Groove's code?

void loop() { // run over and over
  int val;

  if (mySerial.available()) {
    Serial.print (F("Here comes a mySerial"));
    val = mySerial.read();
    Serial.write(val);
    Serial.println(F("Same data with print"));
    Serial.println(val);
  }

  Serial.print (F("Here comes a pot reading"));
  Serial.println('a'); //that would be my POT
 
}
4

If the SoftwareSerial pins are connected to a sensor I can't see the value of this line

mySerial.println("Hello, world?");

The simplest way to separate the different items of data is to print an indentifier before them. For example

orpVal = mySerial.read();
potVal = analogRead(potPin);
Serial.print("ORP Value ")
Serial.println(orpVal);
Serial.println();
Serial.print("Pot Value ");
Serial,println(potVal);

Or have I misunderstood the question ?

...R