Serial Port: Arduino SerialPort Library

Introduction

This library provide more options for buffering, character size, parity and error checking than the standard Arduino HardwareSerial class for AVR Arduino boards.

The API was designed to be backward compatible with Arduino Serial. A number of functions have been added to the API.

To install the this library, copy the SerialPort folder to the your libraries folder.

Please explore the above tabs for detailed documentation.

Quick How To

This was posted in the Arduino forum by user sixeyes. It is a nice introduction to to the SerialPort library.

The core Arduino based serial code looks like this:

void setup()
{
    Serial.begin(9600);
    Serial.println("Using Arduino supplied HardwareSerial");
}

void loop()
{
}

So if you've copied the SerialPort folder from the zip file into your libraries folder (So you have Arduino/libraries/SerialPort/SerialPort.h and Arduino/libraries/SerialPort/SerialPort.cpp) you can write the following code instead

#include <SerialPort.h>

SerialPort<0, 32, 256> port;

void setup()
{
    port.begin(9600);
    port.println("Using SerialPort class");
}

void loop()
{
}

Just remember to do the following and you should be alright:

Include <SerialPort.h>
Declare new Serial port including its parameters
Initialise (call begin()) and use the new serial port (NOT Serial)

The configuration of the serial port looks odd to anyone not familiar with C++ templates, but it's easy to explain. The first parameter inside the angle brackets is the serial port number. Unless you've got a board with more than one serial port (e.g. Arduino Mega) this will always be 0. The second parameter is the size of the receive buffer in bytes and the third is the size of the transmit buffer in bytes.

You can ignore the stuff about editing SerialPort.h. You'll only need this if you're short of flash memory at which point you can come back and ask more questions.

If you do by chance refer to both the new SerialPort and HardwareSerial in the same sketch you'll get some error messages about duplicate interrupt vectors.

Hope that helps.

Iain

SerialPort Sd Logger

The folder, SerialPortLogger, contains a demo data logging sketch that is capable of logging serial data to an SD card at up to 115200 baud.

The two programs, SerialPortLogger.ino and SerialDataSource.ino, demonstrate high speed logging of serial data.

For more information see the readme.txt file in the SerialPortLogger folder.

Examples

A number of examples are included in the SerialPort/examples folder.

ArduinoSize - Print the amount of free RAM using Arduino HardwareSerial.

ArduinoTest - Arduino HardwareSerial version of test sketch.

BufferedSize - Print the amount of free RAM using SerialPort with buffered RX and TX.

BufferedTest - Test SerialPort with buffered RX and TX.

HelloWorld - Simple first example.

MegaTest - Test all ports on a Mega using SerialPort.

MegaTestArduino - Test all ports on a Mega using Arduino HardwareSerial.

ReadWriteTest - Test that ring buffer overrun can be detected.

UnbufferedSize - Print the amount of free RAM using SerialPort with no buffers.

UnbufferedTest - Test SerialPort with no buffering.

WriteFlash - Test write() for a flash string.

Configuration Options

You can can save flash if your buffers are always smaller than 254 bytes by setting ALLOW_LARGE_BUFFERS zero in SerialPort.h. This will also increase performance slightly.

You can save substantial flash by disabling the faster versions of write(const char*) and write(const uint8_t*, size_t) by setting USE_WRITE_OVERRIDES zero in SerialPort.h.

If you only use unbuffered TX, edit SerialPort.h and set BUFFERED_TX zero. This will save some flash and RAM by preventing the TX ISR from being loaded. TxBufSize must always be zero in SerialPort constructors if BUFFERED_TX is zero.

If you only do output or if input buffering is not required, edit SerialPort.h and set BUFFERED_RX zero. This will save some flash and RAM by preventing the RX ISR from being loaded. RxBufSize must always be zero in SerialPort constructors if BUFFERED_RX is zero.

You can disable RX error functions by setting ENABLE_RX_ERROR_CHECKING zero in SerialPort.h This will save a tiny bit of flash, RAM, and speedup receive a little.