[simpits-tech] Arduino and serial I/O

[dabigboy at cox.net]

Any of you guys dealing with reading and writing data to an Arduino? I can SEND data just fine, and I can RECEIVE data just fine, but if I have a board on which I need to do both: ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE. I presume the fact that I have basically zero experience with serial communication has something to do with it. At any rate, I've done extensive google'ing and experimentation, and I have found anything even remotely advanced to be unreasonably difficult. Seems like there's got to be a library or something out there that allows you to easily read and write to the same Arduino.

After many sleepless nights and probably 20+ hours of tearing my hair out over this, I have for now completely given up and am using one Arduino for each task....for instance, right now I have one Uno that does nothing but read two rotary encoders. I will have another one that does nothing but drive 3 or 4 analog gauges. At $15 per board (good deal on some decent-quality clones on ebay), it's simply not worth my time and frustration to try to do multiple tasks with one board.

Matt