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How to Efficiently Copy Data from an Arduino Serial Monitor

How to Efficiently Copy Data from an Arduino Serial Monitor

January 06, 2025 Digital

How to Efficiently Copy Data from an Arduino Serial Monitor

The Serial Monitor in the Arduino IDE is often a simple yet lacking tool for data transfer. While the Arduino board is not actively writing to it, you can manually select and copy the text. However, for more advanced and reliable data logging, consider using better terminal emulators like PuTTY on Windows or the terminal program screen on Mac or Linux environments. These programs will automatically log the data to a file, which can be much more efficient.

Advanced Data Logging with Terminal Emulators

Some developers have devised workarounds to capture and log data from the Serial Monitor more efficiently. Here are examples of custom code snippets that can help you achieve this:

Example Code 1: Sending Random Data via Serial Monitor

Author: mauricioge | Published: Aug/20/2019

This code sends random temperature and humidity values through the Serial port every 5 seconds. By utilizing external terminal emulators, you can easily capture and log this data.

String rndTmp;
String rndHmd;
void setup() {
  (9600);
}
void loop() {
  // Generate random values for temperature and humidity
  rndTmp  String(random(0, 50));
  rndHmd  String(random(0, 80));
  // Send the values through the Serial port
  (rndTmp);
  (",");
  (rndHmd);
  delay(5000);
}

To capture this data, you can use a terminal emulator. Here’s a Python script to log the data to a file:

import serial
serial_port  ('COM3', 9600)
while True:
    line  serial_().decode('utf-8').strip()
    print(line)
    with open('data_log.txt', 'a') as file:
        file.write(line   '
')

Example Code 2: Capturing Raw Serial Data

This code captures raw data sent through the Serial port and logs it to a file.

String sd;
void setup() {
  (9600);
}
void loop() {
  // Capture everything that comes through the serial port
  while (Serial.available()) {
    sd   ();
  }
  sd   '
';
  // Log the data
  (sd);
  (('ascii'));
}

Advanced Techniques for Data Logging

For more advanced data processing and storage, you can pipe the data through a text formatting routine and then send it to an SD card module. This can be particularly useful for long-term data storage and analysis.

Pipeline Example: Text Formatting and SD Card Module

Here's a basic pipeline that formats the data and writes it to an SD card:

#include 
SdFat sd;
void setup() {
  if (!(SdioCs, SPI_HOST_CS)) {
    ("SD Card failed, check your wiring!");
    while (1);
  }
  (9600);
  // Open the file for writing
  FILE *fp  ("data.txt", O_WRITE | O_CREAT);
}
void loop() {
  // Send data through the serial port
  while (Serial.available()) {
    char c  ();
    // Process and format the data
    // Write the formatted data to the SD card
    if (fp) {
      (c);
    }
  }
}

This code initializes the SD card module, opens a file for writing, and continuously writes incoming serial data to the file. You can customize the data processing routine to fit your specific needs.

Conclusion

While the Serial Monitor in the Arduino IDE can be a simple tool, it’s often not sufficient for more complex data logging requirements. By using terminal emulators and SD card modules, you can capture and store data more efficiently and reliably. Experiment with different tools and techniques to find the best solution for your project.

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