Serial

(inherits from Stream)

Serial, Serial1, Serial2, Serial3, Serial4, Serial5

• (1) Serial2 on the Photon and Electron uses the same pins as the RGB status LED, and cannot be used without physically disconnecting the status LED on the device by removing the LED or current limiting resistors.
• (2) Serial1 on the Tracker One shares the same pins as Wire3 on the external M8 connector.
• Serial is a USB serial emulation, not a hardware UART.
• USBSerial1 is available on Device OS 0.6.0 and later, and is a second USB serial emulation.

There are also other interfaces that can be used for communication:

Serial: This channel communicates through the USB port and when connected to a computer, will show up as a virtual COM port.

// EXAMPLE USAGE - NOT RECOMMENDED
void setup()
{
  Serial.begin();
  Serial.println("Hello World!");
}

// EXAMPLE USAGE - PREFERRED
SerialLogHandler logHandler;

void setup()
{
  Log.info("Hello World!");
}

Instead of using Serial directly, you should use it using the the SerialLogHandler if you are writing debugging messages. Using the Log method makes it easy to switch between Serial and Serial1 (or both!) as well as providing thread-safety. It also allows log messages to be intercepted by code, and even saved to things like SD cards, with additional libraries.

You should also avoid mixing the use of Serial.printlnf and Log.info (and similar calls). Since Serial.print is not thread safe, it can interfere with the use of Log calls.

Serial1: This channel is available via the device's TX and RX pins.

Gen 3 Devices (B-Series SoM, Tracker SoM, Tracker One, Boron, Argon, and E404X):

P2 and Photon 2 Devices:

Serial2: On the P2 and Photon 2, this channel is available. It uses the same pins as SPI1, so you can only use Serial2 or SPI1, not both.

On the Photon, this channel is optionally available via pins 28/29 (RGB LED Blue/Green). These pins are accessible via the pads on the bottom of the PCB See PCB Land Pattern. The Blue and Green current limiting resistors should be removed. If the user enables Serial2, they should also consider using RGB.onChange() to move the RGB functionality to an external RGB LED on some PWM pins.

On the Electron, this channel is shared with the RGB Green (TX) and Blue (RX) LED pins. If used for Serial2, the LED or current limiting resistors should be removed. As there are no test pads for these LED pins on the Electron, Serial2 will be difficult to use.

On the P1 and E-Series, this channel is shared with the RGB Green (TX) and Blue (RX) LED pins. Since you supply your own LEDs on these devices, you can move them to other pins using RGB.mirrorTo().

Other devices do not support Serial2. On the Argon and Boron, the hardware port is used to communicate with the network coprocessor (NCP) and is not available for user use.

To use Serial2, add #include "Serial2/Serial2.h" near the top of your app's main code file.

Serial3: This channel is optionally available on the P2 and Photon 2 only. It optionally supports hardware flow control. To use Serial3, add #include "Serial3/Serial3.h" near the top of your app's main code file.

Serial4: This channel is optionally available via the Electron and E-Series C3(TX) and C2(RX) pins. To use Serial4, add #include "Serial4/Serial4.h" near the top of your app's main code file. This port is not available on other devices.

Serial5: This channel is optionally available via the Electron and E-Series C1(TX) and C0(RX) pins. To use Serial5, add #include "Serial5/Serial5.h" near the top of your app's main code file. This port is not available on other devices.

USBSerial1: Available on Gen 2 (Photon, P1, Electron, E-Series) with Device OS 0.6.0. and later: This channel communicates through the USB port and when connected to a computer, will show up as a second virtual COM port. This channel is disabled by default.

To use the Serial1 or other hardware UART pins to communicate with your personal computer, you will need an additional USB-to-serial adapter. To use them to communicate with an external TTL serial device, connect the TX pin to your device's RX pin, the RX to your device's TX pin, and ground.

// EXAMPLE USAGE
void setup()
{
  Serial1.begin(9600);

  Serial1.println("Hello World!");
}

// EXAMPLE USAGE Serial4 on Electron and E-Series
#include "Serial4/Serial4.h"

void setup()
{
  Serial4.begin(9600);

  Serial4.println("Hello World!");
}

To use the hardware serial pins of (Serial1, etc.) to communicate with your personal computer, you will need an additional USB-to-serial adapter. To use them to communicate with an external TTL serial device, connect the TX pin to your device's RX pin, the RX to your device's TX pin, and the ground of your device to your device's ground.

NOTE: Please take into account that the voltage levels on these pins operate at 0V to 3.3V and should not be connected directly to a computer's RS232 serial port which operates at +/- 12V and will damage the device.

NOTE: On Windows 10, using USBSerial1 on the Electron, E-Series, and P1 may not be reliable due to limitations of the USB peripheral used for those 2 devices. Characters may be dropped between the computer and device. USBSerial1 is reliable on other operating systems and also on the Photon. USBSerial1 is not available on Gen 3 devices (Argon, Boron, B-Series SoM, and Tracker SoM).

For more information about serial ports, see learn more about serial.