Serial Transmit

Transmit data over Arduino serial port

Add-On Required: This feature requires the Simulink Support Package for Arduino Hardware add-on.

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Libraries:
Simulink Support Package for Arduino Hardware / Common

Description

Use the Serial Transmit block to transmit a Nx1 array of data of variable length over the Arduino^® serial port to the serial device.

During simulations without the hardware, this block does not transmit the data. If you use this block in a Simulink^® model that has the Standard Servo Read, Standard Servo Write, or Continuous Servo Write block, use longer sample times to avoid overruns.

Warning

Do not connect the serial port pins to an RS-232 serial interface, such as the DE-9M connector on a computer, without limiting the voltage. The RS-232 standard allows higher voltages that can damage your hardware. For more information, read the documentation for your Arduino hardware.

Note

For Arduino Uno, Mega, and Nano boards, the double data type occupies 4 bytes. For Arduino SAMD, Due, ESP32 compatible, Teensy, and Nano 33 BLE hardware boards, the double data type occupies 8 bytes.

Ports

Input

Data — Input data

[Nx1] array

The block inputs the data it transmits over the Arduino serial port to the serial device.

Data Types: single | double | int8 | int16 | int32 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32 | Boolean

Parameters

Serial port — Arduino port number for serial communication

0 (default) | positive integer

Specify the serial port number to which you have connected the Arduino board. For more information on the fixed ports and the allocated pins for the block, see Pin Mapping for Arduino Timer Independent Blocks.

You can assign a Serial Transmit block and a Serial Receive block to the same serial port. Do not assign more than one Serial Receive block to the same Arduino serial port. Do not assign the Arduino pin numbers used by the serial port to other blocks within the same Simulink model.

The XCP over Serial Communication interface uses serial port 0 in the monitor and tune mode, and as a result, you cannot use this port in the Serial Transmit block. You can select any other communication interface or use the build and deploy mode to use serial port 0.

Send mode — Data transmission mode

write (default) | print | println

Select the mode to transmit data over the Arduino serial port.

• write — Writes raw binary data to the Arduino serial port.

• print — Prints data to the Arduino serial port as ASCII text.

• println — Prints data to the Arduino serial port as ASCII text followed by a carriage return character '\r' and a newline character '\n'.

Use the print and println options to print messages for debugging and logging purposes.

Header — Header for data

numeric array | integer from 0 to 255, inclusive

Specify a header that indicates the beginning of your data block.

The numeric array specified in this parameter is the uint8 integer representation of the corresponding ASCII characters. The exact form of this parameter depends on the type of the ASCII character.

Type of ASCII Character	Example ASCII Character	MATLAB® Command	Parameter Value
Special character	"#"	uint8('#')	[35]
Numeric	"81"	uint8('81')	[56 49]
Alphabet	"Start"	uint8('Start')	[83 116 97 114 116]

You can also specify this parameter using the hexadecimal representation of the ASCII characters.

Dependencies

To enable this parameter, set Send mode to write.

Terminator — Terminator for data

character array (default)

Specify a terminator that indicates the end of your data block.

The numeric array specified in this parameter is the uint8 integer representation of the corresponding ASCII characters. The exact form of this parameter depends on the type of the ASCII character.

Type of ASCII Character	Example ASCII Character	MATLAB Command	Parameter Value
Special character	"#"	uint8('#')	[35]
Numeric	"81"	uint8('81')	[56 49]
Alphabet	"End"	uint8('End')	[69 110 100]

Type of ASCII Character	Example ASCII Character	MATLAB Command	Parameter Value
Special character	"#"	uint8('#')	[35]
Numeric	"81"	uint8('81')	[56 49]
Alphabet	"End"	uint8('End')	[69 110 100]

You can also specify this parameter using the hexadecimal representation of the ASCII characters.

Dependencies

To enable this parameter, set Send mode to write.

Label — Title for data

character vector

Specify a title for that data you want to print over the Arduino serial port.

Dependencies

To enable this parameter, set Send mode to print or println.

Format — Data printing format

Decimal (default) | Hexadecimal | Binary | Octal

Select the format in which you want to print data over the Arduino serial port.

Dependencies

To enable this parameter, set Send mode to print or println.

Precision — Precision of decimal data format

2 (default) | positive integer

Specify the precision of the decimal data format that the Arduino hardware transmits over serial communication.

Dependencies

To enable this parameter, set Send mode to print or println and Format to Decimal.

Version History

Introduced in R2018b