Hello,
Is it possible with MMBasic to redirect text output, such as OPTION LIST, to a COM port? (PRINT #1)?
I have a printer connected to COM1 and would like to print OPTION LIST.

I don't know, it's not something I've ever wanted to do. I can't think of a way to do it directly from the Pico. OPTION LIST is a console command and displays on the console. Anything that is normally sent to a COM port is from the user's program.

I can print a screen dump, but then I have too much white space on the printout.

how about

  Quote  

OPTION CONSOLE output
Specifies where print statements will output. Valid settings are BOTH (i.e.
SCREEN and SERIAL), SERIAL, SCREEN, NONE. This is a temporary
option that is reset when a program exits.

Edited 2026-10-22 22:30 by Martin H.

  PilotPirx said  

I can print a screen dump, but then I have too much white space on the printout.

Maybe I my memory is confused, but before the WYSIWYG age printing ALWAYS wasted paper before you got it right.
Apple fixed it with the MAC, and soon after that Windows.

Volhout

PilotPirx,

you could try MMCC start/end capture. Everything that prints to the serial console can be captured and processed later, no matter how long the output is (more or less). Very handy IMHO and often used to  document output.

Gerald

"option console serial" uses COM3, but i use COM1.
You can redirect it with OPTION CONSOLE PORT 1, but this causes a reset and its permanent. Thats not a good solution.

  Quote  

Maybe I my memory is confused, but before the WYSIWYG age printing ALWAYS wasted paper before you got it right.

That's true...

Patient: "It hurts when I do this, Doctor."
Doctor:  "Don't do it then. Next please!"

:)

  Quote  

before the WYSIWYG age printing ALWAYS wasted paper before you got it right.

Off topic, but with 3D printers history repeats.

G'day PilotPirx,
This is something that I too have wanted on several occasions in the past, but up until now could not think of a solution.

For PicoMite RP2350 only (I think)

The program below is probably not the ideal way to achieve this but it does work. It allows the output to the console to be read back and the do:loop can be used to store it in a file or sent to a COM port, it could also be saved in a longstring for further manipulation.



This works by poking a 1 to bit 7 of the UARTCR register that enables LOOPBACK for that UART, so everything sent to the serial console is also looped back to the receiver.
This will only work on a serial console. If you are not using the serial console you could enable it and use the same program, DO NOT loop the pins unless it is disabled at the command prompt, it'll loop around forever.

For UART0 (COM1) use address &h40070030 instead. The delays are needed for COM7 @ 9600 baud.

Hope this is useful.

Regards, Lyle.
Edited 2026-10-26 03:07 by mozzie

On non-USB builds you can use OPTION SERIAL CONSOLE command with the both option and you will get the console output on both the USB and nominated serial port.

G'day,
Peter:
that initially sounds counter-intuitive but is of course correct, it does however mean those 2 pins are unable to be used for anything else.
I have now realized the 1024 byte buffer on the console means this is not as useful as hoped, Stepper status over-runs that with ease.

All:
Within the 1024 character limit of the input buffer, this slightly more streamlined version will allow the output of text sent to the console to be captured to a longstring for further analysis or to be saved to a file. I will use this when testing to be able to save diagnostic data to a text file on a system with no PC etc as console.



For RP2350:
UART0 (COM1) = &h40070030
UART1 (COM2) = &h40078030

For RP2040:
UART0 (COM1) = &h40034030
UART1 (COM2) = &h40038030

Regards, Lyle.