Description

The Better Serial Plotter is a drop-in replacement for the Arduino serial plotter. You should be able to use code exactly the same way that you would for your Serial Plotter applications, but work with the extended functionality of the Better Serial Plotter. Some beneficial features of the Better Serial plotter include:

- Comport and baud rate selection
- Support for multiple plots
- Change names and colors of variables
- Ability to view a serial monitor in the same application
- Auto-scroll option on serial monitor
- Plots with multiple y-axes
- x vs y plots
- Saving output to a file
- Autoscale plots

Details

BetterSerialPlotter

The Better Serial Plotter is a drop-in replacement for the arduino serial plotter. You should be able to use code exactly the same way that you would for your Serial Plotter applications, but work with the extended functionality of the Better Serial Plotter. Some beneficial features of the Better Serial plotter include:

Comport and baud rate selection
Support for multiple plots
Change names and colors of variables
Ability to view a serial monitor in the same application
Auto-scroll option on serial monitor
Plots with multiple y-axes
x vs y plots
Saving output to a file
Autoscale plots

What your arduino program should look like

This program is intended to work for any program that already uses the built-in Arduino Serial Plotter. That means that you need to open the Serial communication channel in your setup() function using Serial.begin(BAUD_RATE) where BAUD_RATE could be 9600. Make sure you take note of what baud rate you use. Then in every iteration of your loop() function in your arduino code, you should write to the serial monitor with any amount of variables, each separated by either a tab or a space. Before the loop ends, you should output a newline character. See the Example Arduino Code section at the bottom to see how this could look. See the Example Arduino Code section below for an example

Running the application

Make sure that your arduino (or serial-interface device) is plugged into your computer and running. Run the Better Serial Plotter application, and a graphical interface should open up. From there, click on the Serial Port dropdown on the top of the screen. You should see a list of serial devices attached to your PC. Click on the serial port that your device is attached to. Then, you should click the dropdown for the baud rate and select the baud rate that you used in your Serial.Begin() function in your arduino code. If everything is set up properly, you should see your data on the left side of the application, under the Incoming Data section. If you are having trouble, make sure to check out the troubleshooting tips at the end of this page.

As a super-quick config option, you can click the plot all data button, then right-click the plot and click autoscale to get essentially the same experience as the arduino's built in serial plotter.

Configuring Data

The BSP becomes really useful when you want to do some more interesting configurations. Once you are properly connected, on the left side of the screen, you should see a list of all of the variables that you have sent from your arduino code. If you want to configure, the name, plot color, or what plots a variable shows up on, you can right-click the variable name. A context menu should open up as shown below, where you can edit these items. Click on save to make your changes.

Adding and Removing Variables to Plots

There are several options for adding and removing variables to plots. Portions of these are shown in the gif below.

Click and drag variables from the Incoming Data Panel to any plot to add it to that plot. You can also drag variables to a specific axis on any of the plots (x-axis, left y-axis, right y-axis) to add them to a specific axis.
Right-click a variable on the Incoming Data tab, and configure it in the Plots Active section, as shown below. You can both add and remove data using this section.
Right click on a specific plot choose either Add Data or Remove Data based on what you would like to do.

Plot Controls

There are several configuration options to change how to display your plots, including:

Resize the plot by clicking and dragging the bottom of it
Add variables to the plot by right clicking and selecting Add Data
Add variables to the plot by right clicking and selecting Remove Data
Autoscale to make the limits of...

Files

BetterSerialPlotter-v0.1.0-Apple.zip

Unzip the folder and then run the app. After trying to open it, you will need to open Settings - Security and Privacy - click on Open Anyway where it says BetterSerialPlotter was blocked.

x-zip-compressed - 1.55 MB - 09/17/2021 at 23:52

Download

BetterSerialPlotter-v0.1.0-Linux.tar.gz

Unzip the folder and then run the app. You need to run the app with sudo permission because it requires access to the serial port. Note that if you don't run it with sudo, it will still run, but serial ports won't open.

x-gzip - 1.57 MB - 09/17/2021 at 23:52

Download

BetterSerialPlotter-v0.1.0-Windows.zip

Unzip the folder and then run the app. When running the app and it tells you that Windows Protected your PC, click More Info, then Run Anyways.

x-zip-compressed - 924.26 kB - 09/17/2021 at 23:52

Download

BetterSerialPlotter-0.1.0.tar.gz

Source code

x-gzip - 669.95 kB - 09/17/2021 at 23:52

Download

BetterSerialPlotter-0.1.0.zip

Source code

x-zip-compressed - 679.57 kB - 09/17/2021 at 23:52

Download

Discussions

Mattias wrote 03/28/2024 at 08:28

Love this program!
Have searched long time for a plotter with this kind of easy zoom/pan, and also with multiple y-axis!

I am missing a connect/disconnect button. Right now I have to close the program every time I want to upload new code to the microcontroller over uart. This is troublesome since the config loading of label names dosnt work every time. Will have a look in your code to find a way to do this =)

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aysekesginn wrote 02/20/2024 at 17:57

Hello, this is a great project

I want to take measurements with AD8232 sensor and arduino. But I couldn't run my code here, the band speed is correct and the connections of the microprocessor are fine. Can you help me what could be my problem? Thank you :)
Here is my code

const int ecgPin = A0;

int upperThreshold = 100;

int lowerThreshold = 0;

int ecgOffset = 400;

float beatsPerMinute = 0.0;

bool alreadyPeaked = false;

unsigned long firstPeakTime = 0;

unsigned long secondPeakTime = 0;

unsigned long rrInterval = 0;

int numRRDetected = 0;

bool hrvStarted = false;

bool hrvUpdate = false;

bool hrvComplete = false;

unsigned long hrvStartTime = 0;

unsigned long rrIntervalPrevious = 0;

float rrDiff = 0.0;

float rrDiffSquaredTotal = 0.0;

float diffCount = 0.0;

float rmssd = -1.0;

void setup() {
Serial.begin(115200);
pinMode(LED_BUILTIN, OUTPUT);

}

void loop() { int ecgReading = analogRead(ecgPin) - ecgOffset; // Measure the ECG reading minus an offset to bring it into the same
// range as the heart rate (i.e. around 60 to 100 bpm)

if (ecgReading > upperThreshold && alreadyPeaked == false) { // Check if the ECG reading is above the upper threshold and that
// we aren't already in an existing peak
if (firstPeakTime == 0) {
// If this is the very first peak, set the first peak time
firstPeakTime = millis();
digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, HIGH);
}
else {
// Otherwise set the second peak time and calculate the // R-to-R interval. Once calculated we shift the second
// peak to become our first peak and start the process
// again
secondPeakTime = millis();
// Store the previous R-to-R interval for use in HRV calculations
rrIntervalPrevious = rrInterval;
// Calculate new R-to-R interval and set HRV update flag
rrInterval = secondPeakTime - firstPeakTime;
firstPeakTime = secondPeakTime;
hrvUpdate = true;
numRRDetected = numRRDetected + 1;
digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, HIGH);
}
alreadyPeaked = true;
}

if (ecgReading < lowerThreshold) {
// Check if the ECG reading has fallen below the lower threshold
// and if we are ready to detect another peak
alreadyPeaked = false;
digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, LOW);
}

// Calculate the beats per minute, rrInterval is measured in
// milliseconds so we must multiply by 1000
beatsPerMinute = (1.0/rrInterval) * 60.0 * 1000;
// Once two consecutive R-to-R intervals have been detected, // start the 5 minute HRV window
if (!hrvStarted && numRRDetected >= 2) {
hrvStarted = true;
hrvStartTime = millis();
}
// If a new R-to-R interval has been detected, update the HRV measure
if (hrvUpdate && hrvStarted) {
// Add the square of successive differences between // R-to-R intervals to the running total
rrDiff = float(rrInterval) - float(rrIntervalPrevious);
rrDiffSquaredTotal = rrDiffSquaredTotal + sq(rrDiff);
// Count the number of successive differences for averaging
diffCount = diffCount + 1.0;
// Reset the hrvUpdate flag
hrvUpdate = false;
}

// Once five minute window has elapsed, calculate the RMSSD
if (millis() - hrvStartTime >= 300000 && !hrvComplete) {
rmssd = sqrt(rrDiffSquaredTotal/diffCount);
hrvComplete = true;
}

// Print the final values to be read by the serial plotter
// RMSSD will print -1 until the 5 minute window has elapsed
// Important notes on using this code:
// 1. RMSSD can be significantly affected by bad sensor
// readings in short term recordings so ensure to check for // incorrectly detected RR intervals if you are getting // very large RMSSD values.
// 2. Due to the function of the internal Arduino clock, the // real-world elapsed time for HRV computation may exceed 5 minutes. // This should not make a practical difference for RMSSD calculation, // but it is important to note if critical precision is required.
Serial.print(ecgReading);
Serial.print(",");
Serial.print(beatsPerMinute);
Serial.print(",");
Serial.println(rmssd); delay(5);

}

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mkoch44 wrote 01/10/2024 at 05:47

It would be nice to have an input box for a command string, that can be sent to the microcontroller.

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hambo wrote 05/12/2023 at 07:07

Hello. Do you think you could add a feature to apply an offset and gain to the numbers? Would be really convenient way to calibrate sensors. This program has it, but it does not have multi plot like your awesome program:
https://hackaday.io/project/5334-serialplot-realtime-plotting-software

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Chai wrote 01/12/2023 at 23:19

I'm trying to connect a Teensy 4.0 that is sending data over Serial but none of the baud rate settings seem to work. The serial port box turns green after I select the right one but the baud rate one stays red regardless of choice. I wonder if this is because the Teensy emulates Serial over USB instead of having an actual defined baud rate. (The Arduino Serial monitor can read the data regardless of the baud rate I select so they seem to have figured out how to do it there)

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Joao Cury wrote 12/26/2022 at 16:56

Awesome Project! Congratulations!
Just a small question: Is there a reason why I can only save 5k points of data on the .csv file?
Thanks on advance!

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Adam Mościcki wrote 10/28/2022 at 08:37

Load config - 2 problems

1: when files are in a folder with space in the name ..it crashes when loaded. "abc efg" should be renamed to "abc_efg". but sometimes You can not change the name of the folder ... then what ? :(

2: I save Config ... then after restart I can load config - but the Y axis is not restored to the previously saved values. bug ?

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Felix Collins wrote 06/14/2022 at 00:10

Crashed straight away for me on win10. Here is the input data...

GX:0.000000, GY:0.000000, GZ0.000000, AX:0.012444, AY:-0.001220, AZ:1.002840, P:-40.624859, R:-16.227293, Y:191.358368
GX:0.000000, GY:0.000000, GZ0.000000, AX:0.008784, AY:-0.002684, AZ:1.001132, P:-41.068707, R:-16.316492, Y:191.117126
GX:0.000000, GY:0.000000, GZ0.000000, AX:0.008784, AY:-0.002684, AZ:1.001132, P:-41.512890, R:-16.403847, Y:190.867981
GX:0.000000, GY:0.000000, GZ0.000000, AX:0.008784, AY:-0.002684, AZ:1.001132, P:-41.952900, R:-16.488283, Y:190.612961
GX:0.000000, GY:0.000000, GZ0.000000, AX:0.008784, AY:-0.002684, AZ:1.001132, P:-42.393246, R:-16.570589, Y:190.349380
GX:0.000000, GY:0.000000, GZ0.000000, AX:0.011224, AY:-0.004636, AZ:1.002596, P:-42.820705, R:-16.648272, Y:190.085159

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cinarfur wrote 05/13/2022 at 14:43

hey, is it possible to setup the x axis by myself? like wen i do a for loop for my x axis it only shows my y axis values in 10 steps x axis values?

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Better Serial Plotter

Description

Details

BetterSerialPlotter

What your arduino program should look like

Running the application

Configuring Data

Adding and Removing Variables to Plots

Plot Controls