Reading Serial Monitor

Projects Programming
1

Is it possible to read the serial monitor without restarting the sketch.

I have a sketch which over a 12 hour period turns on and off selenoids

dependent on time of day.

At the moment, unless i leave the Serial Monitor continually running in

the background, i cannot read the time printouts displayed regulary on

the monitor. If I accidentially delete the Screen Monitor, every time I

re-select Screen Monitor the sketch restarts.

Is there another way to access the screen monitor without restarting

the sketch?

2

Which Arduino board are you using?

3

A number of Arduino models do reset when you open the Serial Monitor, others don't. The reset is caused by the activation of the DTR line.

Serial Monitor is a terminal program. There are other terminal programs that can be configured not to reset Arduino models that would normally reset. RealTerm (for Windows) is one of them.

The only advantage of Serial Monitor is that it's part of the IDE and can be controlled during upload. The IDE can't control other terminal programs so you will have to disconnect it from the serial port before starting an upload.

4

Using Mega2560

5

There is a trace on the board that causes the board to reset when ANY terminal program connects. You need to cut this trace. After you do this, you then need to wire a switch between those two pads so you can reprogram your board. I have done this many times with a small toggle switch labeled "run" and "program" such that "run" means the trace is open and I can open Serial Monitor without resetting the board and see the current output. Or, I can toggle it to "program" which closes the connection and allows the IDE to reset the board to download new code.

6

The mega has other hardware serial ports , use one of those instead with a converter lead to connect to your usb lead . “ UART to usb”

7

The option @blh64 mentioned is the reason I was asking about which board. The solder jumper is marked "RESET-EN".

8

Thanks for the replies.

Cutting a trace on the board is a bit daunting for a Newb.

Following the Port Emulator suggestion have eventually found "CoolTerm"

which I found worked for me.

Thank you all for the help.

9

Farticus:
Thanks for the replies.

Cutting a trace on the board is a bit daunting for a Newb.

Following the Port Emulator suggestion have eventually found "CoolTerm"

which I found worked for me.

Thank you all for the help.

Very cool. I may have to this software in the future instead of cutting traces.
NOTE: you can also use Putty and select DSR/DTR for flow control

10

This topic was automatically closed 120 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.