Read Array from Serial

[najossmith]

Nothing right now, I assumed (incorrectly) that I could write to the serial port and then read that same value without anything in between. I'm setting up an echo with an Arduino soon.

[RavensFan]

Then that's the problem.

You should google and read up on how serial ports work.  If you could read what you wrote out, the data being transmitted would get mixed up with any data being received.  You have two buffers: write buffer, read buffer.  The write buffer sends data to the transmit pin.  The read buffer gets data from the receive pin.

If you used a serial loop back adapter, then the transmit pin is connected to the receive pin and the signal will loop back so you can read it.  With an Arduino connected, then you need to write a program to read the serial port on it and write it back out.

[əʞɐſ]

Flatten to binary string will let you send anything you want across serial. I was sending audio earlier today as a test for another project. Also no need to buy an adapter, you should just be able to jump pins 2 and 3 of the 9 pin serial which will let you do loop back. Note that for this to work you will need to correctly initialize your serial port.