Serial Communication with Arduino

Hey there! Today, we’re diving into the awesome Serial Plotter feature that you can find in Arduino IDE version 1.6.6 and later.
This tool is super handy for visualizing sensor data, especially when monitoring those quick-changing values can feel a bit overwhelming.
Instead of just reading numbers, you can actually see a clear graph representation of the data, making it a lot easier to grasp what’s going on.
Let me show you how to find this feature in the Tools menu, as it really amps up your data visualization game!.

The serial plotter feature is a game changer when it comes to getting a grip on values from Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (UART) communication.
If you’re using standard Arduino serial communication, it runs at a baud rate of 9,600, and you can send values with serial.print and serial.println —the latter just adds a new line.
But if you’re working with devices that aren’t Arduino, make sure to send your values with \r and \n so you can see them in the Arduino IDE using the serial plotter.
While you can only monitor one type of value at a time—like from an inertial measurement unit or a light sensor—it’s super handy for visualizing data like multiple angles or different data types at once..

When you run your data on the serial plotter, you get the cool ability to see multiple values all at once on a single graph.
While you can’t label them directly, each value is color-coded for easy identification: the first one shows up in blue, the second in red, and the third in green.
Now, if you spot what seems like four values on the display, don’t freak out; it could just be some glitches in the Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter communication—it happens! For some real-world context, let’s say the first value is one, the second is two, and the third is three.
But when you throw an Inertial Measurement Unit into the mix, you can easily spot trends over time, which is pretty neat!.

Did you know that you can easily plot a graph even when values are changing at the same time? All you need is a single print line command for each value! If you’re sending UART data from a non-Arduino device, just make sure to follow each value with \R and \N.
You can also separate multiple values with tabs, spaces, or commas, and just wrap it up with a final print line.
For different hardware systems, use double backslashes followed by N to see your data in real-time on the serial plotter interface.
This session really showed how handy the serial plotter can be, so I definitely encourage you to give it a shot during your hardware development!.