Writing to the serial monitor on the Sparkfun ESP8266 Thing

Question

Below is my current code:

#include <Wire.h>
  #include <ESP8266WiFi.h>
  #include <BlynkSimpleEsp8266.h>

  // You should get Auth Token in the Blynk App.
  // Go to the Project Settings (nut icon).
  char auth[] = "836addccd2ee4f05b96f0f3ad831249e"; // ***Type in your Blynk Token

  // Your WiFi credentials.
  // Set password to "" for open networks.
  char ssid[] = "_Fast&Furious";// ***your wifi name
  char pass[] = "Mclaren2018";// ***and password
  const int MOTION_PIN = 4; // Pin connected to motion detector
  WidgetLCD lcd(V1);
  void setup()
  {
    Serial.begin(115200);
    Blynk.begin(auth, ssid, pass);
    pinMode(MOTION_PIN, INPUT_PULLUP);
    Serial.println("SETUP");
  }

  void loop()
  {
    Blynk.run();
    int proximity = digitalRead(MOTION_PIN);
  if (proximity == LOW) // If the sensor's output goes low, motion is detected
  {
    Blynk.virtualWrite(5,1023);
    lcd.clear();
    lcd.print(0,0,"Motion detected");
    Serial.println("Motion detected!");
  }
  else
  {
    Blynk.virtualWrite(5,0);
    lcd.clear();
    lcd.print(0,0,"Motion NOT detected");
    Serial.println("Motion NOT detected!");
  }
  }

I am currently trying to simily write some text to the serial console. But when I upload my code it will just write a string of k's to the console. What am I doing wrong to produce such a strange output?

This is a link to the tutorial I have been following: http://designinformaticslab.github.io/productdesign_tutorial/2017/01/24/motion_sensor.html

Any help would be much appreciated!

Answer 1

It all looks good to me, are you sure you have the baud rate set correctly on the serial monitor? I would write a new program real quick that ONLY does serial output and get that working (this simplifies the problem to solve, and makes it more obvious if it is something like serial port speed), then go back to your more complete program and it should work.