Serial Port Interface

Communication using the serial port interface

Serial communication is the most common low-level protocol for communicating between two or more devices. Normally, one device is a computer, while the other device can be a modem, a printer, Arduino^® hardware, another computer, or a scientific instrument such as an oscilloscope or a function generator. For many serial port applications, you can communicate with your instrument without detailed knowledge of how the serial port works. Communication through a serial port is established with a serialport object, which you create in the MATLAB^® workspace. For information about creating a serialport object, see Create Serial Port Object.

Before you can write or read data, the serialport object and the instrument must have identical communication settings. For information, see Configure Serial Port Communication Settings.

Functions

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Connect and Configure

`serialportlist`	List of serial ports connected to your system
`serialport`	Connection to serial port
`configureTerminator`	Set terminator for ASCII string communication with serial port
`configureCallback`	Set callback function and trigger condition for communication with serial port device
`serialportfind`	Find serial port connections (Since R2024a)

Read and Write

`read`	Read data from serial port
`readline`	Read line of ASCII string data from serial port
`readbinblock`	Read one binblock of data from serial port
`write`	Write data to serial port
`writeline`	Write line of ASCII data to serial port
`writebinblock`	Write one binblock of data to serial port
`writeread`	Write command to serial port and read response

Control Pins and Memory

`serialbreak`	Send break to device connected to serial port
`flush`	Clear serial port device buffers
`getpinstatus`	Get serial pin status
`setRTS`	Set serial RTS pin
`setDTR`	Set serial DTR pin

Apps

Serial Explorer

Communicate with devices connected to serial port (Since R2021b)

Blocks

Serial Configuration	Configure parameters for serial port
Serial Receive	Receive binary data over serial port
Serial Send	Send binary data over serial port

Topics

Serial Port Overview
Basic features of serial port communication.
Create Serial Port Object
Establish a connection between MATLAB and the device using the serial port.
Configure Serial Port Communication Settings
Set properties associated with the device baud rate and serial data format.
Write and Read Serial Port Data
Write and read both text and binary data with a serial port device.
Use Callbacks for Serial Port Communication
Enhance instrument communication by executing a callback function when a specified event occurs on the device.
Use Serial Port Control Pins
Signal the presence of connected devices and control the flow of data using control pins.
Transition Your Code to serialport Interface
Connect to serial port devices using serialport instead of serial.