This library is a drop-in replacement for the Serial Arduino library that manages I/Os through a remote console over wifi.
Simply include the SerialToWifi.h, configure your host address and port and all the calls to the Serial library will be redirected to your host via wifi. Commands like Serial.println() and Serial.readStringUntil() are all supported.
The connection is initiated by your Arduino/ESP board to your host computer. This means that as long as your host's TCP port is reachable, the device will send its data over standard Serial commands, wherever the board is on your local network or the Internet.
To revert to the original Serial behavior, simply comment out the header file.
To restart debug outputs to the TCP console after a connection loss , a reset of the device is required. See the RECONNECT option to change this behavior.
Please read the "Options" section for potential impact of the library on performance.
- In the Arduino IDE, navigate to Sketch -> Include Library -> Manage Libraries
- The Library Manager will open.
- Then search for SerialToWifi using the search bar.
- Select the latest version and install it.
Example code is available in Sketch -> Examples -> SerialToWifi
You need to install a TCP listener as a display console to manage the input/output from the library. We recommend using NCat from the nmap project. Any other similar TCP listener should work fine. If you are running Windows, a precompiled standalone version is available here: https://github.com/cyberisltd/NcatPortable For other platforms, it can be downloaded from the nmap open source project and is available in the package binaries: https://nmap.org/download.html
Use this command line to have ncat listen on port 6767 on your host machine
ncat -k -l -p 6767
Add the following to your code.
#include <SerialToWifi> // Comment this line to go back to the original Serial library behavior
#ifdef SERIALTOWIFI
#define SERVER "YOUR_HOST_IP"
#define SERVER_PORT 6767
SerialToWifi serialToWifi(SERVER, SERVER_PORT, TIMESTAMP); // use TIMESTAMP | RECONNECT for both options
// TIMESTAMP: Displays a timestamp at the beginning of each line
// RECONNECT: Will try to reconnect if the host becomes unreachable at some point and gets back online. Default behaviour is to stop output after a connection loss.
#endif
void startWifi()
{
// launch WiFi
WiFi.mode(WIFI_STA);
WiFi.begin(SSID, PASSWORD);
if (WiFi.waitForConnectResult() != WL_CONNECTED)
{
//Connection Failed! Stop ...
while (1)
delay(1000);
}
}
void setup()
{
startWifi();
Serial.begin(115200);
Serial.println("Starting");
}
Options for the SerialToWifi object are:
TIMESTAMP : Displays a timestamp at the beginning of each line similar to the one in the Arduino console. This option is disabled by default.
RECONNECT : By default, the library does not attempt to reconnect to the console after a failed attempt or connection loss and a reset of the device is required to resume output. The RECONNECT option will attempt reconnection on each call but can add significant delays to your program's execution.