Pyqt5 GUI with Thread for Serial Communication Arduino

Pyqt5 is a Python binding for the Qt application framework that allows developers to create graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for their applications. In this article, we will discuss how to create a Pyqt5 GUI that can communicate with an Arduino board via serial communication using threads.

Setting up the Pyqt5 GUI

First, we need to install the Pyqt5 library. You can do this using pip by running the following command:

pip install PyQt5

Next, create a new Python file for your Pyqt5 GUI application and import the necessary modules:

import sys
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import QApplication, QMainWindow, QLabel, QPushButton

Now, we can create a basic Pyqt5 GUI window with a label and a button:

class MainWindow(QMainWindow):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()
        
        self.setWindowTitle('Pyqt5 GUI with Thread for Serial Communication Arduino')
        self.setGeometry(100, 100, 400, 200)
        
        self.label = QLabel('Click the button to start serial communication with Arduino', self)
        self.label.move(50, 50)
        
        self.button = QPushButton('Start', self)
        self.button.move(150, 100)
        self.button.clicked.connect(self.start_serial_communication)
        
    def start_serial_communication(self):
        # Add code here to start serial communication with Arduino

Creating a Thread for Serial Communication

In order to prevent the Pyqt5 GUI from freezing when communicating with the Arduino board, we need to use threads. A thread is a separate flow of execution that runs concurrently with the main program.

We can create a new thread class for handling serial communication with the Arduino board:

import threading

class SerialThread(threading.Thread):
    def run(self):
        # Add code here to handle serial communication with Arduino

Next, we need to start the thread when the user clicks the button in the Pyqt5 GUI:

    def start_serial_communication(self):
        serial_thread = SerialThread()
        serial_thread.start()

Handling Serial Communication

Now that we have a thread for serial communication, we can add the necessary code to open a serial connection to the Arduino board and send/receive data:

import serial

class SerialThread(threading.Thread):
    def run(self):
        with serial.Serial('COM3', 9600) as ser:
            while True:
                # Add code here to send/receive data with Arduino

Make sure to replace ‘COM3’ with the port where your Arduino board is connected.

Conclusion

In this article, we have discussed how to create a Pyqt5 GUI that can communicate with an Arduino board via serial communication using threads. By using threads, we can prevent the GUI from freezing while handling serial communication. You can now expand upon this example to create more complex applications with Pyqt5 and Arduino.