Introduction to Arduino Serial Function

Serial
Used for communication between the Arduino board and a computer or other devices. All Arduino boards have at least one serial port (also known as a UART or USART): Serial

A Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter, abbreviated UART /ˈjuːɑrt/, is a piece of computer hardware that translates data between parallel and serial forms

It communicates on digital pins 0 (RX) and 1 (TX) as well as with the computer via USB. Thus, if you use these functions, you cannot also use pins 0 and 1 for digital input or output.

You can use the Arduino environment's built-in serial monitor to communicate with an Arduino board. Click the serial monitor button in the toolbar and select the same baud rate used in the call to begin().

Following is physical of Arduino Mega:


The Arduino Mega has three additional serial ports: Serial1 on pins 19 (RX) and 18 (TX), Serial2 on pins 17 (RX) and 16 (TX), Serial3 on pins 15 (RX) and 14 (TX). To use these pins to communicate with your personal computer, you will need an additional USB-to-serial adaptor, as they are not connected to the Mega's USB-to-serial adaptor. To use them to communicate with an external TTL serial device, connect the TX pin to your device's RX pin, the RX to your device's TX pin, and the ground of your Mega to your device's ground. (Don't connect these pins directly to an RS232 serial port; they operate at +/- 12V and can damage your Arduino board, because RS232 serial port can operate at -25 V to +25 V)

Physical of RS232 serial port:


Source:
http://arduino.cc/en/Reference/Serial, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_asynchronous_receiver/transmitter

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