This library is called Shellminator, and it runs on almost any microcontroller. It's incredibly useful in robotics and excellent for debugging. With Shellminator, you can manipulate your system in real-time, eliminating the need to constantly reprogram your board every time you want to tweak something. This is especially handy for tasks like PID tuning.
Additionally, you can query any system parameter or internal variable on the fly. If you have external peripherals like an accelerometer or a temperature sensor, you can easily monitor them—and even adjust their parameters—while the system is running.
It works by allowing you to assign custom commands to the terminal interface, linking hardware functionality to terminal commands. The setup is incredibly simple and takes just a few lines of code.
Once you have a working terminal on your microcontroller, you can interact with it from any computer. You have multiple connection options, including serial port, WebSocket, TCP, and Bluetooth Low Energy.
One of the coolest features is that your terminal and its commands can effectively act as an API backend. So, if you want to build a GUI control panel for your system on a computer, everything is already set up for you. Popular GUI libraries can easily communicate over serial, making it simple to integrate a sleek interface.
I’ve put together a video explaining the concept in more detail:
https://youtu.be/8Rv2eBexAl0
I’ve also spent a lot of time creating clear, well-structured documentation, packed with examples and interactive demos:
https://www.shellminator.org/
Happy coding! And if you have any questions or feature requests, feel free to reach out.
