Help!  Serial Monitor giving me a headache(wi

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) Software Troubleshooting
1

I have arduino 0005 on Windoze and am having problems with the serial monitor
mine is a usb v1.18 i think, atmel8

Other sample programs seem to work ok, i have been blinking lights and stuff already.
Using some of the serial examples, I do manage to get some data back from the arduino too. However, it all looks like this:

0

À?à?ø?
83à
?x
æ???
?

And earlier i saw a bunch of java Ioexception errors and other weird errors that came up in the cmd window and serial monitor output as i sent data to/from the board. Now they seem to have disappeared, i don't know why.

[smiley=shocked.gif]

my java version is recent, too.

help!

2

ah, so now the errors return:
Error inside Serial.()

gnu.io.PortInUseException: Unknown Application

at gnu.io.CommPortIdentifier.open(CommPortIdentifier.java:354)

at processing.app.Serial.(Serial.java:127)

at processing.app.Serial.(Serial.java:63)

at processing.app.Editor.handleSerial(Editor.java:1449)

at processing.app.EditorButtons.mousePressed(EditorButtons.java:373)

at java.awt.Component.processMouseEvent(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.Component.processEvent(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.Container.processEvent(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.Component.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.retargetMouseEvent(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.processMouseEvent(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.Window.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForHierarchy(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(Unknown Source)

java.lang.NullPointerException

at processing.app.Serial.write(Serial.java:453)

at processing.app.Serial.write(Serial.java:476)

at processing.app.EditorStatus$1.keyTyped(EditorStatus.java:405)

at java.awt.Component.processKeyEvent(Unknown Source)

at javax.swing.JComponent.processKeyEvent(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.Component.processEvent(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.Container.processEvent(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.Component.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.KeyboardFocusManager.redispatchEvent(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.DefaultKeyboardFocusManager.dispatchKeyEvent(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.DefaultKeyboardFocusManager.preDispatchKeyEvent(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.DefaultKeyboardFocusManager.typeAheadAssertions(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.DefaultKeyboardFocusManager.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.Component.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.Window.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForHierarchy(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(Unknown Source)

at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(Unknown Source)

3

It's possible that the serial port is in use by another application. Things like Processing, or terminal programs sometimes hang on the serial port even if they're not actually connected. Trying quitting any other programs that use the serial port.