Project 2.03 ASCII Values

The Arno and the PC communicate by sending series of bits through the USB cable (look back at the discussion of variables in the Programming section for more on bits).  Each set of eight bits is called a byte.  A byte sent through a serial connection can be interpreted as being either a number or a character.  For example, the byte 01000001 equals the number 65 (0 + 26 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0  + 20 = 65).  The number is converted to a character using a standard protocol called the ASCII table (search for “ASCII” on the internet for more information).  Going back to our example, 65 is interpreted as ‘A’.  In this project we print the ASCII table through the serial monitor. The conversion between a number and a character (also called a glyph), is simple; when we declare a char variable, the Arno interprets the variable’s value as a character.


Concepts:  ASCII, binary

Circuits: none

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