Windows echo to serial port

CoolTerm is useful no matter which operating system you're using. However, it is especially useful in Mac OS where there aren't as many terminal options as there are in Windows. You can download the latest version of CoolTerm here. To change the settings, click the Options icon with the little gear and wrench. You'll be presented with this menu:. Line mode doesn't send data until enter has been pressed. Raw mode sends characters directly to the screen.

Once all your setting are correct, the Connect and Disconnect buttons will open and close the connection. The settings and status of your connection will be displayed in the bottom left corner. If you need to clear the data in the terminal screen, click the Clear Data icon with the large red X on it. If you're getting annoyed with not being able to use the backspace, turn on 'Handle Backspace Character' under the Terminal tab under Options.

One awesome feature of CoolTerm is Hex View. Click the View Hex icon. The terminal's appearance will change slightly.

The first column is just keeping track of line numbers. Notice the 0D and 0A that appear for carriage return and line feed. You can also use the Send String option to send entire strings of text. In the connection menu, select Send String. ZTerm is another terminal option for Mac users. Compared to CoolTerm, it seems a lot less user friendly, however, once you find your way around, it's just as useful.

This can be annoying if you have multiple connections available. This will bypass the auto connect and ask you to which port you'd like to connect. Here you can change the baud rate data rate ; parity, data, and stop bits; flow control; and turn local echo on or off. ZTerm has lots of other uses for network communication, but that is beyond the scope of this tutorial.

Have a command that you're typing constantly? Make a macro for it! As mentioned earlier, you can use command line interfaces to create serial connections. The major limiting factor is the lack of connection options.

Most of the programs we've discussed so far have a slew of options that you can tweak for your specific connection, whereas the command line method is more of a quick and dirty way of connecting to your device in a pinch. Here's how to accomplish this on the three major operating systems.

Open Terminal. See the Connecting to Your Device section for directions. The screen will then ask if you are sure you want to disconnect.

There are other options you can control from screen, however it is recommended that you only use this method if you are comfortable with the command line.

Type man screen for a full list of options and commands. The screen command can also be used in Linux. There are only a few variations from the Mac instructions. The fastest way to get to the command line in Windows is to click on the start menu, type cmd into the search field, and press Enter. To be able to issue Serial commands, you must first enter PowerShell. Type powershell to get into PowerShell command mode. There may come a time when you need a device to be on a specific COM port.

An example of this is, in older versions of TeraTerm, you could only connect to COM ports 16 and below. Thus, if your device was on COM 17, you'd have to change it to connect to it. This problem has been addressed in newer versions of TeraTerm, but there are many other programs out there that only allow a certain number of COM ports. Here, you'll see a drop down menu with all the available COM ports in it.

Some of them will have in use next to them. These are the ports that have been assigned to a serial device. Notice that COM 9 doesn't have an in use next to it because that is the port we are currently working with. The in use next to COM 3 should go away. This trick is only for if you really need it and shouldn't be performed very often, for sanity's sake. In Unix and Linux environments, each serial communication port has two parts to it, a tty.

When you look at your ports in say the Arduino IDE, you'll see both for one port. Thus, this allows for two-way communication at the same time full-duplex. This is more important to know if you are doing network communications through a terminal or other program, but it is still a question that comes up frequently. Just know that, for the purposes of this tutorial, always use the tty option for serial communication.

You can only have one connection to a particular port open at any given time but you can have multiple terminal windows connected to different ports open at the same time. Thus, if you have an Arduino Serial Monitor window open and try to connect to that same port on a different terminal program, it will yell at you and say it could not establish a connection with that port or some such jazz.

If you are ever having trouble connecting to a port, make sure it's not open somewhere else. If you don't have another connection open and still can't connect, make sure all your settings baud rate, etc. If you are connected to the correct port but don't see any data, there are two possible culprits.

First check your baud rate. I know I sound like a broken record, but baud rate is the most important setting to match up. Check that baud! The other culprit could be that the TX and RX lines are reversed. It is over these two lines that the Arduino gets programmed.

Thus, when working with the Arduino or other microcontrollers it's best to avoid using these lines to communicate with other serial devices, especially if you are developing your code and need to upload frequently. What happens is, if you have another device hooked up to the UART, the data from your computer might not get interpreted correctly by the Arduino leading to code not working the way it's supposed to or not getting uploaded at all.

The same rule applies to serial terminals. If you have a terminal open on the same port that you are trying to program, it won't work. Arduino will throw some errors about not being able to communicate with that port. If this happens, close your connection, and try again.

That way, your Arduino can communicate on one port while still leaving the default UART open for programming. That was a lot of information! At the very least, you should walk away from this knowing what a terminal window is, how to use it, which terminal program is best suited for you and your operating system, and how to navigate that program's interface. Again, terminal programs are a very powerful tool when working with serial devices and microcontrollers.

Now go collect some data! Your favorite terminal didn't make the list? Tell us which terminal emulator is your favorite and why in the discussion section. See our Engineering Essentials page for a full list of cornerstone topics surrounding electrical engineering. Take me there! Need Help? Mountain Time: Shopping Cart 0 items. Product Menu. Today's Deals Forum Desktop Site. All Categories. Development Single Board Comp.

Covered in this Tutorial There are lots of different terminal programs out there, and they all have their pros and cons. Suggested Reading You should be familiar with these topics before diving into this tutorial. What is a Terminal? Brief History To understand the use of the word terminal, we must visit the not so distant past.

Basic Terminology Here are some terms you should be familiar with when working within a serial terminal window. Connecting to Your Device Now that you know what a terminal is and the lingo that comes with the territory, it's time to hook up a device and communicate with it.

Show 1 more comment. Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. Sign up using Facebook. Sign up using Email and Password.

Post as a guest Name. Email Required, but never shown. The Overflow Blog. Stack Gives Back Safety in numbers: crowdsourcing data on nefarious IP addresses. Featured on Meta. New post summary designs on greatest hits now, everywhere else eventually. End If. End Sub. Handles ComPort. Dim RxByte As Byte. Just use the Line Feed. Causes a double. Loop Until ComPort. If I set e.

What I would like to see is the text displayed on the same line that I type it on. I am writing to check the status of the issue on your side. Would you mind letting us know the result of the suggestions? If you have any concerns, please feel free to follow up. Ask a question. Quick access. Search related threads. Remove From My Forums. Answered by:. Archived Forums. Visual Basic. Not for VB6 questions. Sign in to vote. Wednesday, February 16, PM.

What I pasted was garbled. You can follow the question or vote as helpful, but you cannot reply to this thread. I have the same question 5. Report abuse. Details required :. Cancel Submit. Frederik Long.

In reply to aidancar's post on September 19, Let's do this properly, step by step. Open a Command Prompt cmd.