#UART SERIAL COMMUNICATION BASICS CODE#
The code below adds Serial.begin(9600) inside setup() to initialize the Arduino Uno UART with a baud rate of 9600 bps and other parameters set to default values.COM ports. Defined values for the parameter config can be found here. The additional parameter config is used to change the settings for data length, parity bit, number of stop bits. If the default settings don’t work for you, use the function Serial.begin( speed, config) instead of Serial.begin( speed). Using this function will set the remaining UART parameters to default values ( Data length=8, Parity bit=1, Number of Stop Bits=None). The speed parameter is the baud rate that we want the UART to run. The easiest way to configure the Arduino’s UART is by using the function Serial.begin( speed). To communicate via the UART interface, we need to configure it first.
#UART SERIAL COMMUNICATION BASICS HOW TO#
To build our project, we need the following components:įigure 4 shows how to connect the components used in our project. A push-button wired to the first Uno board will control the built-in LED of the second Uno board and vice versa. Our project is about controlling the built-in LED of an Arduino remotely via UART. A Simple UART ProjectĪfter learning how the UART works, let us now build a simple sketch demonstrating how to use UART communication using Arduino Uno. If both UART devices don’t have the same logic levels, a suitable logic level converter circuit is needed to connect the devices.įor further reading about UART, please check out our article on the Basics of UART Communication. Connecting an Arduino Uno directly to an RS232 port will damage the Arduino. For example, an Arduino Uno has a 5-V logic level but a computer’s RS232 port has a +/-12-V logic level. The UART logic levels may differ between manufacturers. Figure 3 shows the location of the UART TX and RX pins.įigure 3: Arduino Uno TX/RX pins UART Logic Level So if you will upload sketches to your UNO, be sure to first disconnect any wires on pins 0 and 1. The Arduino pins 0 and 1 are also used for communicating with the Arduino IDE via the USB.
For our project, we will use an Arduino Uno which has only one UART interface found on pin 0 (RX0) and pin 1 (TX0). Arduino UART InterfaceĪrduino has one or more UART pins depending on the board. The UART device uses special characters as flow control to start/stop transmission. Flow Controlįlow Control is the method to avoid the risk of losing data when transmitting data over UART. UART devices can use none, one or two stop bits to mark the end of a set of bits (called packets) transmitted.
Data Lengthĭata length refers to the number of bits per byte of data. We need to set both UART devices with the same baud rate to have the proper transmission of data. These UART settings are the baud rate, data length, parity bit, number of stop bits, and flow control.īaud rate is the number of bits per second (bps) a UART device can transmit/receive. UART has settings that need to be the same on both devices to have proper communication. Bits can change because of the transmission distance, magnetic radiation, and mismatch baud rates, among other things. Data loss in transmission happens when a bit changed its state while being transmitted. The receiving UART device uses the parity bit to determine if there was a data loss during transmission. After rebuilding the byte, it is stored in the UART buffer. It may need to receive several packets before it can rebuild the whole data byte from the data frames. If there are no errors in transmission, it will then proceed to strip the start bit, stop bits, and parity bit to get the data frame. The receiving UART device checks the received packet (via RX pin) for errors by calculating the number of 1’s and comparing it with the value of the parity bit contained in the packet. After preparing the packet, the UART circuit then sends it out via the TX pin.