title: Serial data logging with python
body: <p><strong>Intro:</strong></p>
  
  <p>I need to write a small program that reads serial data in real-time and writes it to a text file. I have made some progress with reading the data, but I haven't had any success storing this information in a new file.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Here's my code:</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>from __future__ import print_function
  import serial, time, io, datetime
  from serial import Serial
  
  addr = "COM1" ## serial port to read data from
  baud = 9600 ## baud rate for instrument
  
  ser = serial.Serial(
      port = addr,\
      baudrate = baud,\
      parity=serial.PARITY_NONE,\
      stopbits=serial.STOPBITS_ONE,\
      bytesize=serial.EIGHTBITS,\
      timeout=0)
  
  
  print("Connected to: " + ser.portstr)
  
  ## this will store each line of data
  seq = []
  count = 1 ## row index
  
  while True:
      for i in ser.read():
          seq.append(i) ## convert from ACSII?
          joined_seq = ''.join(str(v) for v in seq) ## Make a string from array
  
          if i == '\n':
              print("Line: " + str(count) + "" + str(datetime.datetime.now()) + joined_seq) ## append a timestamp to each row of data
              seq = []
              count += 1
              break
  
  ser.close()
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>Thanks!</strong></p>