MegunoLink – Overview
MegunoLink is a customizable interface tool for Arduino sketches. Configure MegunoLink projects from our set of visualizers to send commands and receive data:
- from your Arduino program to control the interface, and
- from MegunoLink to control your sketch.
The MegunoLink window can be reconfigured to suit your application with our dockable visualizers, like Visual Studio or Altium. There are visualizers for:
- Interface panel
- Serial monitor
- Tables
- Plotting
- And more…
Graph your data
Add a single line of code to your sketch and MegunoLink will plot data sent from your Arduino in real-time. For example: Plot.SendData(“Temperature”, GetTemperature());
Graphs help you:
- See what your sensors are measuring,
- Spot trends,
- Compare changes in different sensors, and
- Copy or save graph images and data.
Plots can be easily copied to the clipboard as pictures. And the numerical chart data can be exported into Excel or other software for more analysis.
Build a user interface
It takes a long time to wire up switches and lights then write a program to handle all the inputs and outputs.
Our interface panel lets you control your Arduino with virtual controls sending serial commands, even if you’ve never used a button control before.
It’s a simple 3 step process:
- Drag and drop UI elements using MegunoLink’s custom interface panel designer.
- Give each control a command. Commands are sent when a button is clicked or a value changes.
- Implement command handlers in your program using our Arduino library.
Interface panel controls can trigger measurements, start experiments, configure your creation and retrieve information from your program.
Make a table
Having trouble spotting a variable in a cluttered monitor window? Our Table visualizer lets you tabulate values so that you can monitor their current values easily.
Our Arduino library means one line of code and the table comes to life.
Monitor serial data
Monitor serial communications from your Arduino in real time, much like a stand-alone terminal program that also:
- shows both send and received serial communications,
- displays non-printable characters,
- automatically time stamps each line send/received, and
- features a large, scrollable buffer, that can be copied to the system clipboard or saved to disk.
Supported hardware and connections
MegunoLink supports any hardware that uses serial, Xbee Pro Series 2, Ethernet, and Wireless including (but not limited to):
- Arduino Uno
- Arduino Mega
- Arduino Ethernet Shield (UDP)
- Ether Ten (UDP)
- Arduino Yun
- Arduino Lillypad
- Ethermega (UDP)
- ESP8266 (UDP/TCP)
- ESP32 (UDP/TCP)
- Or any device with serial, ethernet, or XBee connectivity.
MegunoLink supports mDNS (multicast dynamic name resolution). mDNS makes it easier to connect to Ethernet and Wireless devices. Instead of ferreting out their IP address, your device can advertise a name for MegunoLink to discover. mDNS is supported by many wireless Arduino devices including the ESP8266 and ESP32. Check out our examples for more details.
MegunoLink has been downloaded by more than 40,000 engineers and makers.
Check out some of the cool stuff they have been building…
Prototype reflow oven
Scott built his own reflow oven. He’s used MegunoLink to plot the board temperature through the reflow process to check the oven is reaching the right temperature at the right time.
A MegunoLink interface panel visualizer controls the oven with buttons to start and stop the process, gauges to show the current temperature, and a plot to show the actual reflow temperature profile. MegunoLink made it easier to understand what was happening during development and select the right temperature profile for each job.
Love this software. Just built a GUI for my DIY reflow oven.
— Scott Swaaley
Wireless VA meter
George has built an isolated voltage and current meter using an ESP8266. He’s built a GUI with MegunoLink’s Interface Panel visualizers. The GUI includes controls to change filters, set measurement ranges, configure sampling rates and plot the measurements in real-time. The ESP8266 lets MegunoLink communicate with George’s VA meter both wirelessly (over TCP) or with a direct serial connection for flexibility.
Using MegunoLink as a GUI has saved a lot of time allowing George to pack his VA meter with a ton of features.
I have been enjoying the MegunoLink — excellent code and superb documentation.
— George Kontopidis
Ion thruster
Michael has a passion for open-source space vehicles. The founder of Applied Ion Systems, he is currently exploring new propulsion systems for the hobbyist and maker communities. Michael is using MegunoLink for data collection, monitoring and logging. By capturing measurements from his test system with MegunoLink he can load them into other software to test and improve his designs.
I just ran my first official full system test yesterday after a year of preparation. Everything worked fantastic and MegunoLink performed amazingly.
—Michael Bretti (Applied Ion Systems)
