# Nonsensical Arduino serial outputs, no connection on PingViewer

**URL:** <https://discuss.bluerobotics.com/t/nonsensical-arduino-serial-outputs-no-connection-on-pingviewer/13029>\
**Category:** Blue Robotics Software\
**Tags:** ping, sonar, arduino\
**Created:** [October 6, 2022, 11:19pm UTC](https://discuss.bluerobotics.com/t/nonsensical-arduino-serial-outputs-no-connection-on-pingviewer/13029 "2022-10-06T23:19:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jawsh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ea924/32.png) [@Jawsh](https://discuss.bluerobotics.com/u/Jawsh)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2022, 11:19pm UTC](https://discuss.bluerobotics.com/t/nonsensical-arduino-serial-outputs-no-connection-on-pingviewer/13029/1 "2022-10-06T23:19:31Z")

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Hi team, hoping I can get some help pretty urgently.  
Have tried connecting a Ping 1D sonar over the RS485 to serial adapter to two different computers, both running Windows 10. In both cases, the PingViewer application is unable to detect the devices automatically. I can tell what serial port the Ping is connected to, because it disappears when I disconnect the USB port. Manual connection does not work either.

As a second option, I’ve tried connecting using an Arduino Uno with the supplied library, and running the ping1d-simple example sketch. I get the following output over the serial terminal, which doesn’t really make sense to me:

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/uploads/bluerobotics/original/2X/f/f8ab56d8915bff338f433b06a4f130c6366044ea.png)

Any help would be hugely appreciated, because I’m running out of ideas.  
Thanks

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jawsh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ea924/32.png) [@Jawsh](https://discuss.bluerobotics.com/u/Jawsh)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2022, 11:24pm UTC](https://discuss.bluerobotics.com/t/nonsensical-arduino-serial-outputs-no-connection-on-pingviewer/13029/2 "2022-10-06T23:24:58Z")

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Update: changed the baudrate of the Arduino terminal to 115200 and I’m getting some sensible values at last. Still no luck with PingViewer however.

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**Author:** ![EliotBR](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/discuss.bluerobotics.com/eliotbr/32/6937_2.png) [@EliotBR](https://discuss.bluerobotics.com/u/EliotBR)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2022, 2:23am UTC](https://discuss.bluerobotics.com/t/nonsensical-arduino-serial-outputs-no-connection-on-pingviewer/13029/3 "2022-10-07T02:23:23Z")

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Hi @Jawsh, welcome to the forum 🙂

Sorry to hear you’re having issues connecting with your Ping Sonar.

Have you tried our [Ping Viewer Troubleshooting steps](https://docs.bluerobotics.com/ping-viewer/faq-and-troubleshooting/#no-connection-to-the-device)? Given you’ve confirmed the device to be working, I expect you may need to install / update your computer’s FTDI drivers, or there could be some issue with your USB-serial adaptor and/or your USB cable.

It may be helpful to check whether a device appears in the COM port list when it’s plugged in, and perhaps to try on a different computer to confirm whether the adaptor and cable are working as expected.