Python run on Raspberry Pi (and PC running Ubuntu) to plot serial data from ESP8266/NodeMCU

Last post show a simple program run on ESP8266/NodeMCU to read Analog Input and send to Serial. And display the data on Raspberry Pi 3 using Arduino IDE Serial Plotted. This post show a Python example run on Raspberry Pi 3/Raspbian Jessie with PIXEL, to plot the serial data graphically using matplotlib library.

pyserialplot.py

import numpy as np
import matplotlib as mpl
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.animation as animation
import serial
import platform

print("Python version: " + platform.python_version())
print("matplotlib version: " + mpl.__version__)

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
line, = ax.plot(np.random.rand(10))
ax.set_ylim(0, 1030)
xdata, ydata = [0]*100, [0]*100
SerialIn = serial.Serial("/dev/ttyUSB0",9600)

def update(data):
    line.set_ydata(data)
    return line,

def run(data):
    global xdata, ydata
    x,y = data
    if (x == 0):
        xdata = [0]*100
        ydata = [0]*100
    del xdata[0]
    del ydata[0]
    xdata.append(x)
    ydata.append(y)
    line.set_data(xdata, ydata)
    return line,

def data_gen():
    x = 9
    while True:
        if (x >= 9):
            x = 0
        else:
            x += 0.1
            
        try:
            inRaw = SerialIn.readline()
            inInt = int(inRaw)
        except:
            inInt = 0
            
        yield x, inInt

ani = animation.FuncAnimation(fig, run, data_gen, interval=0, blit=True)
plt.show()

This python example can be run on both Python 2 and 3. To run this on Raspberry Pi/Raspbian Jessie with PIXEL, matplotlib library is need.

For Python 2:
$ sudo apt-get install python-matplotlib

For Python 3:
$ sudo apt-get install python3-matplotlib

In the following code, we have to get the port connected.
SerialIn = serial.Serial("/dev/ttyUSB0",9600)

In Raspberry Pi/Raspbian Jessie with PIXEL, it is /dev/ttyUSB0 normal. We can check it with:
$ ls /dev/ttyUSB0*

---

Run on Ubuntu:

The Python script work on PC/Ubuntu also. This video show running on Ubuntu 17.04/Payton 3.6 (actually behind Windows 10/VirtualBox).


In order to run with newest Python 3.6 on Ubuntu 17.04, you have to install Python 3.6 and corresponding IDLE and pip.

And install packages using command:
$ sudo python3.6 -m pip install numpy
$ sudo python3.6 -m pip install matplotlib
$ sudo python3.6 -m pip install pyserial

---

About Saving graph of matplotlib:

Suppose I can click the Save button on matplotlib navigation toolbar to save the graph to file (reference: matplotlib - Interactive navigation).

But when I test it on Raspberry Pi with matplotlib 1.4.2, it is not work.

When test it on PC running Ubuntu 17.04/Python 3.6 with matplotlib 2.0.2, I can save the graph. But the navigation toolbar disappear after saved.