Looking for a board recommendation.

Using Arduino Project Guidance
1

Hello all, I've been up and down the compare page and I'm looking for advice. I'm really looking to avoid any "Gotchas" which is why I'm asking here.

My project boils down to, I need to have a dedicated serial port for a bluetooth module. Software serial is very slow for me. It takes a full second to do a serial read. I imagine reading from a hardware serial port is faster. So I'm looking for a board with a dedicated serial port. There's a big catch though, I need it to be really small. As small as I can get it. I'm thinking about the promicro from sparkfun. It has what I think is a dedicated serial port but I'm unsure if I can use it for this.

Any advice is appreciated, kurt responses are not. Lets just to reduce the toxicity of this forum please.
We're all learning.

2

I can get it. I'm thinking about the promicro from sparkfun. It has what I think is a dedicated serial port but I'm unsure if I can use it for this.

Hello,
I've not go a Pro micro but I've looked at the schematic and the serial port is separate from the usb port, so should be ok.

Please, when you ask for comments about a product provide a link to the product so we don't have to go looking for it. You can edit your question to include a link for the benefit of anyone else thinking of helping.

Thanks.

3

I assume you mean a dedicated Serial port and the serial connection to the PC are needed at the same time.
This device is small, has both USB serial and normal hardware serial pins (that are not shared).

Another option might be to use a MCU that has built in Bluetooth but you would need to explain in more detail what your hoping to do and how.

4

Braeden:
Software serial is very slow for me. It takes a full second to do a serial read.

That is the fault of your program, not Software Serial.

Have a look at the examples in Serial Input Basics - simple reliable non-blocking ways to receive data. There is also a parse example to illustrate how to extract numbers from the received text. The concept works equally well with SoftwareSerial.

If you need more help please post your program.

...R

5

Application, application, application

What are you doing?

Do you ou need to receive one serial input on one set of pins and output on a second set and do nothing else?

Your current chip may be able to do what you want. It may be your code that is blocking the speed

6

Braeden:
Software serial is very slow for me. It takes a full second to do a serial read.

A full second to read a character ? Thats daft.

Softwareserial is often used to read GPSs for instance, with no problems.

Perhaps explain what you are actually doing as in what actually does take a 'full second' ?

Posting code is always a good idea too ................................