SlowSoftSerial serial library for Teensyduino

SlowSoftSerial is another alternative serial port library for a Teensy 3.x or 4.x board under the Arduino environment.

It was originally created for the Cadetwriter project, because the hardware serial ports on Teensy 3.5 don't work at standard baud rates slower than 1200 baud, and AltSoftSerial doesn't work on the same pins as the Serial1 UART or at all of the needed word length, parity, and stop bit settings.

Features

• Wide range of (slower) baud rates from 1 baud to 9600+ baud, all with essentially perfect accuracy

• RX and TX on ANY two GPIO pins on the Teensy

• Simultaneous receive and transmit

• Full range of data word length, parity, and stop bit settings per the Arduino serial API definition: 5N1, 6N1, 7N1, 8N1, 5N2, 6N2, 7N2, 8N2, 5E1, 6E1, 7E1, 8E1, 5E2, 6E2, 7E2, 8E2, 5O1, 6O1, 7O1, 8O1, 5O2, 6O2, 7O2, and 8O2

• Additional support for 1.5 stop bit modes: 5N15, 6N15, 7N15, 8N15, 5E15, 6E15, 7E15, 8E15, 5O15, 6O15, 7O15, and 8O15

• Additional support for mark and space parity modes: 5M1, 6M1, 7M1, 8M1, 5M15, 6M15, 7M15, 8M15, 5M2, 6M2, 7M2, 8M2, 5S1, 6S1, 7S1, 8S1, 5S15, 6S15, 7S15, 8S15, 5S2, 6S2, 7S2, 8S2

• Arbitrary non-standard baud rates like 45.45 baud or 456.78 baud

• Support for inverted signaling voltages

• Imposes minimal (< 3 microsecond) interrupt latency on other libraries

• Can work simultaneously with USB Serial, hardware UARTs Serial1 - Serial6, and AltSoftSerial

• Standard Arduino Serial API interface, so most everything works the way you expect

• Optional hardware handshaking (CTS) on transmit on any GPIO pin

Limitations

• Sensitive to interrupt latency from other libraries. Speed limit of 9600 baud assumes other libraries impose up to 15 microseconds of interrupt latency. Higher speeds (up to about 28800 on Teensy 3.5 or 115200 on Teensy 4.0) are possible if no other libraries are adding latency.

• Uses two of the Periodic Interrupt Timers (of which there are only four on the Teensy 3.x or 4.0)

• Only one active SlowSoftSerial port at a time is currently supported, but you can have multiple ports defined and switch between them.

• Parity is not checked on receive, because the Arduino API has no way to report parity errors.

• No support (yet) for built-in hardware flow control handshaking on receive (because Cadetwriter does this at the application level).

• No support (yet) for built-in software XON/XOFF flow control in either direction.

• No support for 9-bit or longer characters.

• The first transmitted character after a pause is delayed an extra bit time (half a bit time for 1.5 stop bit modes) just to keep the code prettier. (Buffered characters are sent with no extra delay.)

Installation

Assuming you're already programming a Teensy 3.x or 4.0 board under the Arduino IDE environment,

• Clone or download this repository

• Copy or move the SlowSoftSerial folder into your Arduino libraries directory in your Arduino sketchbook. You can find or change the location of your sketchbook in the Arduino IDE's Preferences, under Settings.

• Restart the Arduino IDE

Documentation

See SlowSoftSerial Design Notes

Testing

A setup for mostly-automated testing of SlowSoftSerial is given in the test directory.

Examples

Example sketches demonstrating SlowSoftSerial port are included in the library. Once you've installed the library, you can open the examples from the Files, Examples menu in the Arduino IDE.

• SendPoemDemo transmits (only) through a SlowSoftSerial port. It first sends the poem in random short bursts, exercising the port's ability to start and stop transmitting on any character boundary. Then it transmits the same poem at full speed, and repeats forever. It simultaneously sends the same characters to the USB Serial port, so you can monitor its progress in the Arduino IDE's serial monitor. The demo enables CTS hardware handshaking on transmit.

• SerialPassthrough connects a SlowSoftSerial port to the USB Serial port, in both directions. Wire up your port to a terminal emulator and you can type back and forth between the terminal emulator and the Arduino IDE's serial monitor. Try pasting a longer text into the terminal emulator (but note, there is no receive flow control built in to SlowSoftSerial at this time).

• DuelingPorts demonstrates the use of multiple SlowSoftSerial ports (with only one being active at a time).

• VariousParameters demonstrates the use of all the various data word length, parity type, and stop bit length parameters supported by SlowSoftSerial. It sends a short text message with each parameter setting, while simultaneously trying to receive with the same setting. You can watch the transmissions with a terminal emulator or serial analyzer, or you can hook up a jumper between the RX and TX pins and see the results in the USB serial monitor.

See also the test setup in the test directory.

License

This project is licensed under GPLv3.

Maturity = Beta

SlowSoftSerial has been bench tested on Teensy 3.5 and Teensy 4.0, and has been successfully integrated with the Cadetwriter firmware. It has been subjected to automated tests of every supported serial port configuration, at standard baud rates from 45.45 to 19200. However, it has not yet been battle tested in the field.