Serial communication between two Arduino Nano’s

Projects Programming
1

Hello Arduino Community,

Currently I’m working on a Geocache cube. there is a (capacitive) touchpad made from € coins. When a coin lights up you need to touch it. Now another coins lights up and you touch it,and another etc etc.. if you are fast enough and finish all the rounds the cube opens (servo lever touches open mechanism). when you are to slow the servo touches a mechanical endswitch and cuts the power and you have to start over from round 1.

I’m using two arduino nano’s that are communicate via the serial port (TX>RX and RX>TX).

the first nano is connected to the touchpad and sends characters A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I to the second nano. A when led/coin 1 is touched, B when led/coin 2 is touched etc. (see first sketch)

the second nano processes the input from nano 1 and also controls the LED’s and Servo. (see second sketch)

everything went well but now I got stuck on the following:

In round 1 the characters A,B,C are sent to the second nano. When round 2 starts the last character send is still in the serial buffer from the second nano (see screenshot serial monitor nano 2).

so the statement below kicks in, the servo cuts the power and the game ends without a mistake being made.

if (incomingByte == 'A' || incomingByte == 'B' || incomingByte == 'C' || incomingByte == 'D' || incomingByte == 'E' || incomingByte == 'F')

{
Serial.print(incomingByte);
servo1.write(20);
}

is there a way to clear the serial buffer after round one? ore does someone know another smart solutions to make this game work?

MB

Sketch 1#

#include <CapacitiveSensor.h>

CapacitiveSensor   cs_2_3 = CapacitiveSensor(2,3);       
CapacitiveSensor   cs_2_4 = CapacitiveSensor(2,4);       
CapacitiveSensor   cs_2_5 = CapacitiveSensor(2,5);       
CapacitiveSensor   cs_2_6 = CapacitiveSensor(2,6);        
CapacitiveSensor   cs_2_7 = CapacitiveSensor(2,7);        
CapacitiveSensor   cs_2_8 = CapacitiveSensor(2,8);        
CapacitiveSensor   cs_2_9= CapacitiveSensor(2,9);      
CapacitiveSensor   cs_2_10= CapacitiveSensor(2,10);      
CapacitiveSensor   cs_2_11= CapacitiveSensor(2,11);       

void setup()                    
{
   cs_2_3.set_CS_AutocaL_Millis(0xFFFFFFFF);     
   Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop()                    
{
    long start = millis();
    long total1 =  cs_2_3.capacitiveSensor(30);
    long total2 =  cs_2_4.capacitiveSensor(30);
    long total3 =  cs_2_5.capacitiveSensor(30);
    long total4 =  cs_2_6.capacitiveSensor(30);
    long total5 =  cs_2_7.capacitiveSensor(30);
    long total6 =  cs_2_8.capacitiveSensor(30);
    long total7 =  cs_2_9.capacitiveSensor(30);
    long total8 =  cs_2_10.capacitiveSensor(30);
    long total9 =  cs_2_11.capacitiveSensor(30);

    if(total1 > 200){
        Serial.print('A');
        delay(1);
          }
    if(total2 > 200){
        Serial.print('B');
        delay(1);
          }
    if(total3 > 200){ 
        Serial.print('C');
        delay(1);
          }
    if(total4 > 200){    
        Serial.print('D');
        delay(1);
          }
    if(total5 > 200){       
        Serial.print('E');
        delay(1);
          }
    if(total6 > 200){     
        Serial.print('F');
        delay(1);
          }
    if(total7 > 200){      
        Serial.print('G');
        delay(1);
          }
    if(total8 > 200){       
        Serial.print('H');
        delay(1);
          }
    if(total9 > 200){      
        Serial.print('I');
        delay(1);
          }
}

Sketch 2#

char incomingByte;

void setup() {

// first round of the game, LED's 1,2 and 3 start burning. Touch buttons 1,2 and 3 need to be pushed to proceed

digitalWrite(LED1,HIGH);
digitalWrite(LED2,HIGH);
digitalWrite(LED3,HIGH);

while(true){
  
  if (Serial.available() > 0) {
    incomingByte = Serial.read();   // check for incoming data
   
    if (incomingByte == 'A') {
      digitalWrite(LED1, LOW);      
    }
    if (incomingByte == 'B') {
      digitalWrite(LED2, LOW);
    }
    if (incomingByte == 'C') {
      digitalWrite(LED3, LOW);
    }
    if(!digitalRead(LED1)&!digitalRead(LED2)&!digitalRead(LED3))
      {
        break;
      } 
  }
}

  // second round of the game. LED's 7,8,9 start burning. Touch buttons 7,8 and 9 need to be pushed to proceed. 
  //when a mistake is made (touch button 1,2,3,4,5 or 6 are touched) the servo rotates and cuts the power to both arduino's to stop the game.


Serial.print(incomingByte);
Serial.println();

digitalWrite(LED7,HIGH);
digitalWrite(LED8,HIGH);
digitalWrite(LED9,HIGH);

while(true){

  if (Serial.available() > 0) {
    incomingByte = Serial.read();

    if (incomingByte == 'G') {
      digitalWrite(LED7, LOW);
    }
    if (incomingByte == 'H') {
      digitalWrite(LED8, LOW);
    }
    if (incomingByte == 'I') {
      digitalWrite(LED9, LOW);
    }

    if(!digitalRead(LED7)&!digitalRead(LED8)&!digitalRead(LED9))
      {
        break;
      }
      
    if (incomingByte == 'A' || incomingByte == 'B' || incomingByte == 'C' || incomingByte == 'D' || incomingByte == 'E' || incomingByte == 'F')
    
   {
    Serial.print(incomingByte);
    servo1.write(20);
   }

void loop() {

}

screenshot serial monitor nano 2.jpg
screenshot serial monitor nano 2.jpg1366×768 136 KB

2

if (incomingByte == 'Z') {
clearBuffer();
}

and send the "Z" before switch off.

3

is there a way to clear the serial buffer after round one?

Just do

while(Serial.available) // while there are bytes in the serial buffer
{
Serial.read();  //read the bytes and throw them away
}

That will empty the serial buffer.

I am curious why you need 2 Nanos. If you are short on pins, note that the analog inputs can be used as digital pins (6 pins).

And why all the code in setup with a while(1). That is what loop() is for.

4

Thanks for both your replies :slight_smile:

groundFungus:
Just do

while(Serial.available) // while there are bytes in the serial buffer

{
Serial.read();  //read the bytes and throw them away
}




That will empty the serial buffer.

Adding your suggestion did, to my surprise, not change anything. So to problem had to be somewhere else than the serial buffer.

The thing I couldn't explain was that the second row from the serial monitor screenshot had multiple C’s in it.

    if (incomingByte == 'A' || incomingByte == 'B' || incomingByte == 'C' || incomingByte == 'D' || incomingByte == 'E' || incomingByte == 'F')
    
   {
    Serial.print(incomingByte);
    servo1.write(20);
   }

looking at the statement above I finally became clear that the Character C was stilling being send on the moment this part of code ran. Increasing the delay time in the first sketch from 1 to 100 milliseconds did solve this issue.

 if(total3 > 200){ 
        Serial.print('C');
        delay(100);
          }

I am curious why you need 2 Nanos. If you are short on pins, note that the analog inputs can be used as digital pins (6 pins).

Thanks for the tip. I was aware of this. The total pins needed is,unfortunately, 20+

And why all the code in setup with a while(1). That is what loop() is for.

Just a bad practice I think :wink: