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Posted on October 18, 2011

How to Control Arduino

through the Serial Monitor

Written by
Dan
Posted in
Tutorials
Tagged
arduino, monitor, serial, serial monitor
Comments
13 Comments
When Im developing Arduino code, I often have variables that need to be tweaked

during testing & calibration.

Rather than recompile and upload the code (a time consuming process) I wrote a
few lines to let me open the Serial Monitor and send commands directly.
I hope you nd this useful I use it in all my robots!

#defineDELAY(5)
#defineBAUD(57600)
#defineMAX_BUF(64)

charbuffer[MAX_BUF]
intsofar

chartest_on=0//onlyusedinprocessCommandasanexample.
floatpos_x

floatpos_y

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floatpos_z

voidjog(floatx,floaty,floatz){
//dosometestsheretovalidatex,y,andz.
pos_x=x
pos_y=y
pos_z=z
}

voidprocessCommand(){
if(!strncmp(buffer,"help",4)){

Serial.println("commands:wheretest(1/0)jog[x(float)]
}elseif(!strncmp(buffer,"where",5)){
//noparameters
Serial.print(pos_x)

Serial.print(",")
Serial.print(pos_y)
Serial.print(",")
Serial.println(pos_z)
}elseif(!strncmp(buffer,"test",4)){
//onewholenumberparameter
char*state=strchr(buffer,'')+1
Serial.println(state)
if(state[0]=='0'){
Serial.println("Endtest")
test_on=0
}else{
Serial.println("Starttest")
test_on=1
}
}elseif(!strncmp(buffer,"jog",3)){
//severaloptionalfloatparameters.

//thencallsamethodtodosomethingwiththoseparameter
floatxx=pos_x
floatyy=pos_y
floatzz=pos_z

char*ptr=buffer
while(ptr&&ptr<buffer+sofar){
ptr=strchr(ptr,'')+1
switch(*ptr){

case'x':case'X':xx=atof(ptr+1)Serial.print('x')S

case'y':case'Y':yy=atof(ptr+1)Serial.print('y')S

case'z':case'Z':zz=atof(ptr+1)Serial.print('z')S
default:ptr=0break
}
}

jog(xx,yy,zz)
}

voidsetup(){
Serial.begin(BAUD)
Serial.println("Init...")
Serial.println("Stretching...")

sofar=0
Serial.println("**AWAKE**")
}

voidloop(){
//listenforserialcommands
while(Serial.available()>0){
buffer[sofar++]=Serial.read()

if(buffer[sofar1]=='')break//incasetherearemulti
}

//ifwehitasemicolon,assumeendofinstruction.
if(sofar>0&&buffer[sofar1]==''){
//whatifmessagefails/garbled?

//echoconfirmation
buffer[sofar]=0
Serial.println(buffer)

//dosomethingwiththecommand
processCommand()

//resetthebuffer
sofar=0

//echocompletion

Serial.println("Done.")
}
}

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