Serial monitor not working after may 6th update

Development Tools Cloud Editor
1

Following the update to the arduino web editor this monday the serial monitor stopped working. I have an arduino uno rev3 and I can upload my code just fine and there's no errors in the serial monitor but nothing appears. I've tried using
Serial.print("test");
Serial.println("test");
in the setup, loop, and empty space of the ino but none display. Randomly the monitor will also say "Serial monitor unavailable" when I try to open it so I have no idea what's happening there.

2

I am experiencing this as well, most of the times when I try to open the monitor it gives me a "Serial monitor unavailable." message. If I refresh it will sometimes work. I am on the web editor.

3

I use the Arduino Online Editor to teach an introductory high school robotics course. This update and subsequent serial monitor issue has really slowed things down. I am hoping that the folks at Arduino get this sorted out. I had to move students to Codebender today if they needed to use the monitor. I hope we can get back to the Arduino IDE soon.

4

Hi @lucasb70203, @oliverbilotte, and @stcline. I'm sorry you are having trouble with the Serial Monitor.

I just did some experiments myself and was not able to reproduce any problems so I'm going to ask you to provide some additional information that might allow me to identify the specific conditions under which the fault occurs.

Are you able to reproduce the fault if you upload this simple sketch to your board?:

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {
  Serial.println("test");
  delay(1000);
}

The expected result is that the text "test" will be printed to Serial Monitor once a second.

Please also provide the following information:

  • Which operating system (e.g., "Windows") are you using?
  • Which web browser (e.g., "Chrome") are you using?
  • @lucasb70203 already specified this, but for the other two of you, which board model are you using (e.g., "Uno R3")
5

I will not be able to check it until we are back in class on Monday.

6

OK, no problem. I'll be here ready to proceed with the investigation whenever you are ready.

7

Iā€™m gonna have to get back to you on that on Monday since I left the board at school

8

I had a student test using your code. Hi initially got "Serial Monitor Not Available". We switched USB cables and even boards. One time it worked but the problem seems to be intermittent.

9

I tried the code you sent and nothing pops up in the serial monitor. I am using chrome-os on an hp chromebook and am using the Chrome browser.

10

BTW - The students all use Chromebooks and operate the IDE through Chrome. The current student version is Version 121.0.6167.212 (Official Build) (64-bit).

11

Any chance that you have been able to recreate this issue?

12

I am a high school teacher using the online IDE with the CTC Go Kits. Once the serial monitor opened in a separate window, it stopped connecting to the Uno Rev 2 boards. They are working on their semester final project so the timing is terrible.

13

Hi all. I apologize for the problem with the Arduino Cloud Editor Serial Monitor. The developers have been notified of this bug and a fix is in progress. I'll post an update here if I receive any news about a resolution.

Workaround

As a workaround for now, you can use any desktop serial terminal application.

I don't have experience with ChromeOS, but I can offer some suggestions for any of you who are using Linux, macOS, or Windows machines.

Arduino IDE

Arduino IDE has an easy to use Serial Monitor.

For You can download Arduino IDE from the links on Arduino's official "Software" page here:

PuTTY

PuTTY is a nice free open source terminal application. It is available for all three operating systems. Due to being a powerful general purpose terminal, it is a bit less user friendly than Serial Monitor, but it is usable.

https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/

:exclamation: If you use a serial terminal application, make sure to close it before uploading a sketch to your board with Cloud Editor the reason is that Cloud Editor needs to use the serial port to upload the sketch and only one application can have the port open at a time. The Cloud Editor Serial Monitor is smart enough to automatically close the port during the upload, but such automatic coordination with Cloud Editor is not possible when using an independent terminal.

14

I appreciate the response. However, many schools in the US check out Chromebooks to their students which prohibits the ability to install desktop software. I am very sympathetic to any teacher who is trying to encourage their students to use the built in telemetry system with Arduino. In the future you should be aware of when you are sending out untested updates. This is a terrible time for students in the US to lose the serial monitor capabilities.

If anyone else needs a web editor with a serial monitor alternative to Arduino, try Codebender. It has its limitations but is a potential workaround with Chromebooks.

15

Hello all. The Arduino Cloud developers have deployed a fix for the bug that caused Cloud Editor's Serial Monitor to be stuck in the "Connecting..." state.

I have personally verified this fixes the problem when Cloud Editor is used on Linux, macOS, and Windows machines. However, Cloud Editor's handling of serial ports is significantly different on ChromeOS machines and unfortunately I don't have access to one of these machines. So I am not certain that the fix also solved the problem you are experiencing on ChromeOS machines. Please give it a try and let me know in a reply here on the forum thread if you are still unable to use Cloud Editor's Serial Monitor.

16

The serial monitor works for us. Thank you so much!!!

1 Like
17

A post was split to a new topic: Serial Monitor sometimes doesn't do anything on ChromeOS

18

I am a teacher and I still have this problem in my class. Less than 10% of chromebooks are able to connect to an Arduino Uno R3, and there is no indication as to what makes some work and others not. I have found several threads here that describe the same issue, and no fix for the issue.

I have "solved" the problem by using a website called duino.app instead of the official arduino cloud editor. It has worked well for me so far with all arduinos and all chromebooks in my classroom.

19

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