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How to use ComChan

Currently in the latest version, ComChan has the following features

  1. Basic Serial Monitor
  2. Verbose Mode of Basic Serial Monitor
  3. Logging data into a file
  4. Serial Plotter

Basic Serial Monitor

ComChan can be used as a basic serial monitor for EMbedded Applications.

In the Basic Serial Monitor mode, it has Read/Write capabilities.

Here is a GIF showing how it works in basic mode :

Video 1 (Hello World printing)

We will run a basic Arduino application that continuously prints Hello World

Apparatus Used:

  1. Arduino Uno
  2. ComChan

Configuration

  1. Port: /dev/ttyACM0 (for Linux) OR COM3 (for windows) (can be any number)
  2. Baud Rate: 9600

Command Used :

comchan -p <port> -r <baud_rate>

Basic mode Hello World


Video 2 (User Input)

We will now run another Arduino Application that takes User Input (1 or 0) to turn on and off the LED.

Working:

When the user types on or ON, the LED on the Arduino Turn ON and when the user types off or OFF, the LED turn OFF.

Here are the GIF's :



Verbose Mode

Command Used :

comchan -p <port> -r <baud_rate> -v 

# OR 

comchan --port <port> --baud <baud_rate> --verbose

ComChan also has a verbose mode where the timestamps are available.

The time stamps the time in milliseconds since January 1 1970 (Unix Epoch).

Here is the GIF


Logging

Command Used :

comchan -p <port> -r <baud_rate> -l <file_name>.log

# OR 

comchan --port <port> --baud <baud_rate> --log <file_name>.log

Log Files can be used to access the Serial Monitor data on a later date to debug Embedded Applications.

Here is the GIF of a Normal Serial Monitor

Here is the GIF of a log file

You can access the sample log file here.