Side effects of using Serial Interface

Projects Networking, Protocols, and Devices
1

I want to interface a GPS module (SkyNav SKM53), which uses the UART interface to talk to the microcontroller. What will I be giving up? Can I still program the Arduino through USB? Can I use the serial monitor for debugging?

Thanks!

2

gknight4:
I want to interface a GPS module (SkyNav SKM53), which uses the UART interface to talk to the microcontroller. What will I be giving up? Can I still program the Arduino through USB? Can I use the serial monitor for debugging?

Thanks!

Attaching a GPS to an arduino is a very popular application. But as your probably aware (and asking about) the standard arduino boards only have one serial UART port and is needed to upload sketches and for debugging by sending serial messages to the Arduino's IDE serial monitor. A most common solution is to use a software serial library to allow communication with a GPS module using any desired I/O pins you wish, thus leaving the pins 0 and 1 hardware uart free for uploads and debugging. By far the most popular software serial library is:

http://arduiniana.org/libraries/newsoftserial/

Now of course if you are using a arduino mega1280 or mega2560 board, they both have four internal hardware UART ports.

Lefty

3

An excellent solution. Thanks!