Getting used to PIO little by little

1

How can I see time stamp in serial monitor?

What are --rts, --dts and --echo options and what effects its various values (1,0,on,off) have?

2

:point_up: :point_up: :point_up:

3 
C:\Users\Maxi>miniterm.py --help
usage: miniterm.py [-h] [--parity {N,E,O,S,M}] [--rtscts] [--xonxoff]
                   [--rts RTS] [--dtr DTR] [--ask] [-e] [--encoding CODEC]
                   [-f NAME] [--eol {CR,LF,CRLF}] [--raw] [--exit-char NUM]
                   [--menu-char NUM] [-q] [--develop]
                   [port] [baudrate]

Miniterm - A simple terminal program for the serial port.

positional arguments:
  port                  serial port name ('-' to show port list)
  baudrate              set baud rate, default: 9600

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit

port settings:
  --parity {N,E,O,S,M}  set parity, one of {N E O S M}, default: N
  --rtscts              enable RTS/CTS flow control (default off)
  --xonxoff             enable software flow control (default off)
  --rts RTS             set initial RTS line state (possible values: 0, 1)
  --dtr DTR             set initial DTR line state (possible values: 0, 1)
  --ask                 ask again for port when open fails

data handling:
  -e, --echo            enable local echo (default off)
  --encoding CODEC      set the encoding for the serial port (e.g. hexlify,
                        Latin1, UTF-8), default: UTF-8
  -f NAME, --filter NAME
                        add text transformation
  --eol {CR,LF,CRLF}    end of line mode
  --raw                 Do no apply any encodings/transformations

hotkeys:
  --exit-char NUM       Unicode of special character that is used to exit the
                        application, default: 29
  --menu-char NUM       Unicode code of special character that is used to
                        control miniterm (menu), default: 20

diagnostics:
  -q, --quiet           suppress non-error messages
  --develop             show Python traceback on error

See above for rts, dts and echo.

RTS and DTS are just another two GPIO lines at your serial adapter which you can control (if it has it). Often times, RTS or DTR is connected to the RESET or FLASH lines (e.g. in an ESP32) so that the serial adapter can reset the MCU and / or put it into bootloader mode without you having to press a button. See e.g. here or here. The other usage of those lines are actually control-flow. See RS-232 stuff here.

Miniterm does not support showing timestamps. Iā€™d suggest third party tools like hterm or cutecom depending on your OS.

1 Like
4

Thanks a lot maxgerhardt for such a detailed reply. It was very helpful.
But I expect the serial port monitor of PIO to be the best of all in near future.:wink::wink: