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), and some have several.
On Uno, Nano, Mini, and Mega, pins 0 and 1 are used for communication
with the computer. Connecting anything to these pins can interfere with
that communication, including causing failed uploads to the board.
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()
.
Serial communication on pins TX/RX uses TTL logic levels (5V or 3.3V
depending on the board). Don’t connect these pins directly to an RS232
serial port; they operate at +/- 12V and can damage your Arduino board.
To use these extra serial ports 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.