Microcontroller Serial Communications Articles

We have several related articles about Microcontroller Serial Communications on this site. These articles themselves have many links off site.


 * Microcontroller Serial Communications Articles this article, the a root for the articles on the site.


 * BitWacker PIC and Other Microcontroller to Java Communications an oveview of the applications for Microcontroller Serial Communications.


 * RS232/USB Probe an application with much of the functionality of a terminal emulator but with specialized extensions for for MicroController command response control. The basis for a series of more specialized applications. See it for information on installation of all the applications and for access to the bug and enhancement list.


 * BitWacker Command GUI an application for issuing the basic commands of the BitWacker. Part of a series of articles based on the RS232/USB Probe


 * Graphical Data Logger an application data logging and graphing. Sometimes called the PICMeter. Part of a series of articles based on the RS232/USB Probe


 * USB Bit Whacker Brief discussion of this interesting development board with built in USB communications.


 * Making Your Own Microcontroller Serial Communications Application Using the code from the above applications to make your own.


 * RS232 a discussion of some of the theory behind Microcontroller Serial Communications. The PC side of this is implemented by RS232/USB Probe and its related applications.


 * Serial Communications (RS232) in BoostC and the earlier more limited Serial Communications Library -- BoostC and 16F877A are examples PIC programs and communications libraries that uses the techniques discussed in RS232, above.


 * PC-Microcontroller Communications an article on some of the technology of microcontroller communications and lots of external links. List of terminal emulators and alternatives to Hyper Terminal.


 * Analog Whacker a proposal for hardware to link the Bitwacker to the Graphical Data Logger above.


 * SPI is a popular protocol for many small peripheral chips


 * CAN bus is designed to allow low-cost devices to communicate with each other within a vehicle without a host computer.


 * Local Interconnect Network (LIN) is designed to be even lower-cost than CAN bus. Some large systems use many simple sensors in low-cost LIN sub-networks, then connect the single master of each LIN sub-network with CAN or some other backbone network.

Microcontroller Projects that Use Serial Communications

 * Stepper Motor Demonstration and Tester a project for both PIC's and Arduinos.


 * Arduino Command Interpreter


 * PIC based Stepper Motor Dancing Analog Clock


 * Experimenting with IR Remotes using a PIC running BoostC Project


 * Experimenting with Stepper Motors as Rotary Encoders using a PIC running BoostC Project


 * Arduino Laser Cannon

Other Readings

 * Serial Programming -- From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection
 * Application Note 83 Fundamentals of RS–232 Serial Communications a pdf, good
 * {Serial Communications Protocol} a pdf, not just for the PIC18