Serial
Read from and write to a serial port device such as an Arduino or sensor, parsing incoming data as lines, comma-separated values, or JSON.
What it does
Serial talks to a serial-port device: an Arduino, a microcontroller, a sensor board, anything speaking plain serial over USB or Bluetooth. Pick a port, set a baud rate, and incoming lines are read continuously and parsed into numbers. The connection is bidirectional, so data can also be sent back out to the device.
Incoming data is split by parse mode, each line treated as raw text, as comma/semicolon/tab/space-separated values, or as JSON. The first four parsed values are broken out individually.
When to use it
Live sensor data from an Arduino or similar board read into the graph
Parameters driven from a physical control surface (knobs, switches, distance sensors) wired to a microcontroller
Values sent back out to a device, for example triggering an LED or a servo from something happening in the graph
| Parameter | Type | Default |
|---|---|---|
port | String | "" |
baud_rate | String | "115200" |
parse_mode | String | "csv" |
delimiter | String | "comma" |
enabled | Boolean | true |
send | String | "" |
Gotchas
Data is only sent when the Send value changes. To resend the same value, change it each time, even trivially, or route it through something that varies. A constant string does not re-trigger a send.
Delimiter only matters when Parse Mode is set to comma/semicolon/tab/space splitting. Line mode gives the raw line as-is; JSON mode expects valid JSON from the device and ignores the delimiter.
Watch Connected and Error. A wrong port, a port in use by another app, or an unplugged device shows up there before Values being empty needs investigating.
Worked example
Add a Serial node. Open Port and pick your device from the list. It scans for connected ports automatically.
Set Baud Rate to match what your device firmware uses (115200 is a common default).
Leave Parse Mode on csv if your device sends comma-separated numbers; switch to line or json if it sends something else.
Wire value_0, value_1, etc. into node parameters to drive your graph from the incoming sensor values.
To send data back, wire a string into Send. It transmits whenever the value changes.
See also
MIDI Input · OSC Input · Gamepad Input · Numbers, signals & audio