Serial.read() does not behave as I expect

Using Arduino Programming Questions
1

In my program I have these codelines

Serial.println(F("Simple Termometer\n\r"));
c=Serial.read();
Serial.print(c);

The first string is printed correctly. But then instead of waiting for character from the terminal window (as I would expect) it keeps printing a garbage token. Why ? How do I get the program to wait and read a character when I send it from the terminal ?

2

Your expectation of how Serial.read works is not aligned with reality.
If there is nothing to read, it returns -1, your garbage token.

If you want to wait, use Serial.available()

3

We were actually just talking about this in this thread:

http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=210668.new;topicseen#new

Although this may not be the best way to do things it should work and maybe get you moving along.

4