TelephoneBill
Well-known member
This may be an obvious comment to many - but it took me a while to realise that it is possible to use the SERIAL window in the IDE as a long term data logger. I recently logged data over 5 hours and then copied it to a file for later analysis. (I use a Windows 7 and Windows 10 OS).
The simple trick to enable data to be copied from the SERIAL window is to first "uncheck" the AUTOSCROLL checkbox. Then click your mouse anywhere in the data window in order to "put the focus" into that window. You will not see any cursor in the window even though it has the focus, but if you then use the keyboard shortcut of "CNTRL-A", you will see that all the data logged so far will become "highlighted in blue". Even data that is not currently visible will also be "highlighted". This then allows you to use "CNTRL-C" to copy that data onto the so-called clipboard. You can then transfer all that data to a text file using a paste with "CNTRL-V" (textfile easily created with NOTEPAD). You can then re-check the AUTOSCROLL checkbox to go back to watching data being added into the window.
If you are collecting data over a long period, it pays to make intermediate copies of the data at periodic intervals. This is just in case you inadvertently close the window by mistake (and its easily done!) - in which case you lose everything logged so far.
There are lots of free text editors that you can also use for logging data, but the above method is very convenient when you are in a hurry.
The simple trick to enable data to be copied from the SERIAL window is to first "uncheck" the AUTOSCROLL checkbox. Then click your mouse anywhere in the data window in order to "put the focus" into that window. You will not see any cursor in the window even though it has the focus, but if you then use the keyboard shortcut of "CNTRL-A", you will see that all the data logged so far will become "highlighted in blue". Even data that is not currently visible will also be "highlighted". This then allows you to use "CNTRL-C" to copy that data onto the so-called clipboard. You can then transfer all that data to a text file using a paste with "CNTRL-V" (textfile easily created with NOTEPAD). You can then re-check the AUTOSCROLL checkbox to go back to watching data being added into the window.
If you are collecting data over a long period, it pays to make intermediate copies of the data at periodic intervals. This is just in case you inadvertently close the window by mistake (and its easily done!) - in which case you lose everything logged so far.
There are lots of free text editors that you can also use for logging data, but the above method is very convenient when you are in a hurry.