Physical Computing - Week 7 & 8 (24-10-29 & 24-11-04)

Serial Communication

Objectives for these two weeks: Understand serial communication.

Did I get it?
Kind of.
​It's still abstract in how it is applied, but I think I sorta understand the gist of it...?

1. ​We send and receive data in (8 bit) binary which produces a string of eight 0s and 1s, and can produce up to 256 combinations (because 2 to the power of 8 is 256).
2. The 0s and 1s aren't super useful unless you can decode it, so there are a few ways to decode:
   1. Decimal values: if you only need numeric values or a simple linear range, you can use the direct decimal values which are from 0 to 255 
   2. ASCII characters: if you want more variety in output, such as symbols and letters, you can convert the decimal values into ASCII characters
3. It is important to tell the program what format the data is being sent so that the receiver knows what kind of data to listen for. Otherwise the output would be a mess...
   1. This also lends to the bit rate in which the data is read. Learned this lesson with Mozzi library examples when I was working on the midterm project.
4. Only one port can access the serial port at a time!!!
5. Different call functions are used for when you are requesting and interpreting different data. Including the charts from our labs so I have easy access to them in the future!