strange value in the serial montor - please help

Hi,
After hours of clicking I really appriciate your help with the following situation:
I do receive strange values in the serial monitor. Since three weeks I have a Wemos D1 R1 WIFI (ESP8266). I am a new bee in using the Wemos board but also Arduino IDE. I managed to create a Blink sketch and that works well (the LED blinks every second). I tried to use a RF receiver and sender but got strange values in the serial monitor. This evening i did a step back and tried to use a very simple sketch => connecting my Wemos D1 to my WIFI network. Again: strange values in the serial monitor. I aligned the "baud", they are both equal in the connection settings and monitor.

So I am using a Wemos D1 R1, on a MacBook Air, Big Sur M1. Board manager: ESP8266 2.7.4 Wemos D1 R1

If you need further info to help me, please let me know!

The Output in serial monitor:
21:06:57.591 -> G⸮ZQp@dI⸮aM⸮⸮ P@w>TWJ-%-DTG⸮⸮\ dH 21:06:57.591 -> HH⸮;lKFhWedJ⸮ DU⸮\⸮fOH⸮PD+pJ"GE⸮*

The Sketch:
#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>
// Network SSID
const char* ssid = "";
const char* password = "";

void setup() {
// Connect WiFi
WiFi.hostname("Name");
WiFi.begin(ssid, password);

}

void loop() {

}

Serial speed is . . what?

TheMemberFormerlyKnownAsAWOL:
Serial speed is . . what?

I have tried:
A) (via tools => upload speed) 57600 and serial monitor 57600 I do get:
22:43:26.041 -> G⸮Z⸮Qp@dI⸮⸮6k⸮⸮⸮WZ%-⸮edDuP⸮JdH
22:43:26.041 -> X⸮;lKF⸮WedJ⸮ DU_⸮PDvOX9D+pJ"G⸮⸮
B) (via tools => upload speed) 57600 and serial monitor 9600 I do get:
G⸮a⸮Qp@dI⸮a⸮&⸮hV⸮W⸮⸮WZ%-⸮edDuP\ dH 22:44:54.848 -> H5;lK`F⸮WedJ⸮ DW&\DfOpPD+pJ2G⸮*

C) (via tools => upload speed)115200 and serial monitor 115200 I do get:
looping data like: ⸮a⸮⸮a⸮⸮a⸮⸮a⸮⸮a⸮⸮a⸮⸮a⸮⸮a⸮⸮a⸮⸮a⸮⸮a⸮

78400?

TheMemberFormerlyKnownAsAWOL:
78400?

Thanks for your replies!
With 78400 in the serial montor I do get :frowning: :
07:26:52.889 -> G⸮QHp@dI⸮⸮&⸮hV⸮W⸮UWZ%⸮lD⸮P\ dH 07:26:52.889 -> HH⸮elKpF⸮WedJ⸮ ⸮W'`\Dv_⸮PD⸮pJ"G⸮:⸮

I can't get the upload speed in 78400. Have to choose there 57600, 115200 et cetera

This is the right forum to post this issue am I right?

I believe i have asked this question in the wrong forum, therefore I have created a new topic in project support.

@konehead - your duplicate topic has been deleted

Cross-posting is against the rules of the forum. The reason is that duplicate posts can waste the time of the people trying to help. Someone might spend 15 minutes (or more) writing a detailed answer on this topic, without knowing that someone else already did the same in the other topic.

Repeated cross-posting will result in a timeout from the forum.

In the future, please take some time to pick the forum board that best suits the topic of your question and then only post once to that forum board. This is basic forum etiquette, as explained in the sticky "How to use this forum - please read." post you will find at the top of every forum board. It contains a lot of other useful information. Please read it.

Thanks in advance for your cooperation.

UKHeliBob:
@konehead - your duplicate topic has been deleted

Cross-posting is against the rules of the forum. The reason is that duplicate posts can waste the time of the people trying to help. Someone might spend 15 minutes (or more) writing a detailed answer on this topic, without knowing that someone else already did the same in the other topic.

Repeated cross-posting will result in a timeout from the forum.

In the future, please take some time to pick the forum board that best suits the topic of your question and then only post once to that forum board. This is basic forum etiquette, as explained in the sticky "How to use this forum - please read." post you will find at the top of every forum board. It contains a lot of other useful information. Please read it.

Thanks in advance for your cooperation.

Hi, I fully understand! I tried to delete this one. Please can you delete it for me? Than I will post this request in the right forum. Thanks!

Why not simply ask for it to be moved?

TheMemberFormerlyKnownAsAWOL:
Why not simply ask for it to be moved?

It is now in the right forum. Hope that people can help me

I can't get the upload speed in 78400.

78400 is an option on the Arduino IDE monitor.
Try adding a

Serial.begin(78400);

in your setup and then select 78400 from the drop down at the bottom right of the IDE monitor.
Upload speed is nothing to do with Serial baud rate for the IDE monitor.
Suggest you leave the upload speed at the default value.
Try a simple blink example to check your upload is working and then try your code.

drmpf:
78400 is an option on the Arduino IDE monitor.
Try adding a

Serial.begin(78400);

in your setup and then select 78400 from the drop down at the bottom right of the IDE monitor.
Upload speed is nothing to do with Serial baud rate for the IDE monitor.
Suggest you leave the upload speed at the default value.
Try a simple blink example to check your upload is working and then try your code.

Hi! Thanks for your reply.

drmpf:
78400 is an option on the Arduino IDE monitor.
Try adding a

Serial.begin(78400);

in your setup and then select 78400 from the drop down at the bottom right of the IDE monitor.
Upload speed is nothing to do with Serial baud rate for the IDE monitor.
Suggest you leave the upload speed at the default value.
Try a simple blink example to check your upload is working and then try your code.

Hi, thanks for your reply. I have tried it via below sketch WIFI. Still strange value. I don't have the option of 78400 in the pull down of the IDE monitor, but 74880. I tried also with this value in the sketch/IDE monitor.
I tested your other suggestion, please see Sketch (2), with a simple blink example. With this sketch i have normal and expected values in the IDE montor. So this works well. I use here 9600. I tried that value also in the WIFI sketch.
So the sketch WIFI doesnt work and Sketch 2 works well. I'am lost. I think next area to discover is the serial driver. I use Big Sur, maybe there is something wrong.

SKETCH WIFI - Fails => Strange value in IDE Monitor
#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>
// Network SSID
const char* ssid = "";
const char* password = "";

void setup() {
// Connect WiFi

Serial.begin(78400);
WiFi.hostname("Name");
WiFi.begin(ssid, password);

}

void loop() {

}


SKETCH 2: - Works well, normal output in the IDE monitor
/*
Blink
Turns on an LED on for one second, then off for one second, repeatedly.

This example code is in the public domain.
*/

// Pin 13 has an LED connected on most Arduino boards.
// give it a name:
int led = 13;

// the setup routine runs once when you press reset:
void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600);
// initialize the digital pin as an output.
pinMode(led, OUTPUT);
}

// the loop routine runs over and over again forever:
void loop() {
Serial.print("bleee Start");
digitalWrite(led, HIGH); // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
delay(2000); // wait for a second
digitalWrite(led, LOW); // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
delay(1000); // wait for a second
Serial.println(" Wacht");
}

I don't have the option of 78400 in the pull down of the IDE monitor, but 74880.

My mistake :frowning:

That will be part of your issue.
The IDE won't display the correct chars if the baud rate does not match. Try

Serial.begin(74880);

The ESP8266 spits out some diagnostic information initially at 74880

drmpf:
My mistake :frowning:

That will be part of your issue.
The IDE won't display the correct chars if the baud rate does not match. Try

Serial.begin(74880);

The ESP8266 spits out some diagnostic information initially at 74880

Hi, no worries. Thanks agian! I tried it with equal baud values (76880). Unfortunately same results. Status so far:
Simple blink Sketch => Works fine
Wifi Sketch => Strange values
Rediohead Sketch => Strange values

Try adding this in the setup and see if it prints correctly

  Serial.begin(9600);  // << then try changing this to some other values like 115200
  for (int i = 10; i > 0; i--) {
    Serial.print(' '); Serial.print(i);
    delay(500);
  }
  Serial.println();

drmpf:
Try adding this in the setup and see if it prints correctly

  Serial.begin(9600);  // << then try changing this to some other values like 115200

for (int i = 10; i > 0; i--) {
    Serial.print(' '); Serial.print(i);
    delay(500);
  }
  Serial.println();

wow, i do get an other output. I am not sure that we have fixed it with this change, but.. it is mutch better with 115200. With 74880 i do get starnge values. From this point I will extend the Sketch and try to connect my board to the Wifi network. Keep you posted!

The output which i get is the following output with 115200
19:42:01.663 -> 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

The output which I get with 74880 is the follwing
19:45:59.122 -> ⸮⸮l⸮rl

Sketch:
#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>
// Network SSID
const char* ssid = "";
const char* password = "";

void setup() {
// Connect WiFi

Serial.begin(74880); // << then try changing this to some other values like 115200
for (int i = 10; i > 0; i--) {
Serial.print(' '); Serial.print(i);
delay(500);
}
Serial.println();
WiFi.hostname("Name");
WiFi.begin(ssid, password);

}

void loop() {

}

@drmpf: I think your suggestion worked quite well! this was a quick one:

19:55:35.197 -> Ĥ⸮ 5 4 3 2 1
19:55:37.784 ->
19:55:37.784 ->
19:55:37.784 -> Connecting to
19:55:38.318 -> ..........................................
19:55:59.551 -> WiFi connected
19:55:59.551 -> IP address: 192.168.1.58

Many thanks! Now i am going to try to fix my Radiohead sketch. Can you explain what your code does? I don't understand: for (int i = 10; i > 0; i--) {

Just gives me some time to open the Monitor and see the startup messages.
If I don't see some of that count down I know I have missed some startup msgs
Also checks the Serial baud rate is set correctly :slight_smile:

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