Serial Monitor Killer
Serial Studio turns Arduino serial data into real-time charts and gauges for debugging and user interfaces, no custom coding required.
When something is going wrong with an Arduino project, one of the first steps that most people take is to output some serial data for debugging with the Serial Monitor. This tool gets the job done, but it is pretty bare-bones. With just a stream of plain text zipping by, it can be challenging to spot the problem when dealing with a complex situation or multidimensional sensor data.
Aside from debugging, the Serial Monitor is also frequently used as a simple user interface. It may not be pretty, but it is a quick and easy way to report the temperature and humidity values for your weather station, or the battery power remaining in your robot build. What Serial Monitor lacks in style, it makes up for in time savings. Few people want to code their own custom dashboard for every project just to output a few data points, even if it would be easier on the eyes.
Redditor daspat is no stranger to the Arduino ecosystem. As a hardware hacker, daspat is all too familiar with the Serial Monitor and its limitations. That led this engineer to develop a replacement called Serial Studio. This application takes in serial (or TCP/UDP, MQTT, or Bluetooth LE) data from an Arduino or other microcontroller, and displays it in the form of charts, tables, gauges, and other types of interfaces.
Serial Studio gives users the ability to identify what each data point represents (temperature, humidity, etc.), then asks them how it should be displayed. There is also a visual editor that can be used to fine-tune how all of the elements are laid out on the screen. Once that is done, it only takes a single button click to start visualizing a stream of real-time data. Sure beats the pants off of developing a custom solution for every project, huh?
The software is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux, so just about everyone can get in on the fun. It has also got some advanced features that enable custom decoding of data, so it can work with just about any data you throw its way. And if you want to review the data later, it is saved in a CSV format.
One downside to Serial Studio is that it is not entirely free software. If you do not mind jumping through some hoops, you can compile the source code on your own for free, but if you go this route some features — like MQTT support and 3D plotting — will be unavailable. If you want these features, a binary of the application, or the ability to use it commercially, you will have to buy a license for the Pro version. For all the details, check out the Serial Studio web page.