serial coms - again

[malc-c]

Bruce, thanks for the prompt reply.

I've tried commenting out all but the first vairiable so it is only expecting only one value, but that still caused the thing to run really really slowly ... as does removing the DEC modifier could you provide me with a quick example of how to to a time out to try?

[Bruce]

Hi Malc,

There's an example in the manual, but it works like this;

HSERIN 100,Timesup,[B0]

Timesup:
do something here is data not received

If no character is received in B0 within 100mS it jumps to Timesup.

[malc-c]

cheers Bruce...

Sorry, heat of the moment, quicker to ask than dig out the manual !

[malc-c]

Bruce,

One other thing that has come to light is that I need clear the buffer after

HSEROUT [dec StopHour[0],dec StopMin[0],dec StopHour[1],dec StopMin[1],dec StopHour[2],dec StopMin[2],dec StopHour[3],dec StopMin[3]

I gather this is required so that it places the correct variable in the right location in the application.

Any ideas

[Bruce]

I'm not 100% sure what you're asking Malc?

[malc-c]

To be honest I'm not sure either - I thought if you sent A,B,C through the port it would just loop that over and over again... do PICs have buffers ? I thought they sent data straight out and in ? but then I'm really getting out of my depth with this.

[malc-c]

Whilst undertaking several hours googling I came across a forum that contained a simple example from a two year old post of using VB.net to communicate with a PIC micro using PBP. So far I'm managing to adapt it to include a combo box to choose the comm port and retrieve a set of data from my PIC.

For reference here is the VB code

Imports System.IO
Imports System.IO.Ports
Imports System.Net
Imports System.Data
Imports System
Imports System.Windows.Forms
Imports System.Threading
Imports System.Text


Public Class mMain

    Dim WithEvents serPort As New IO.Ports.SerialPort
    Dim myStringBuilder As New StringBuilder

    Private Sub mMain_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
        For i As Byte = 0 To My.Computer.Ports.SerialPortNames.Count - 1
            Me.ComboBox1.Items.Add(My.Computer.Ports.SerialPortNames(i))
        Next i

        serPort.BaudRate = 115200
        serPort.DataBits = 8
        serPort.Parity = Parity.None
        serPort.StopBits = StopBits.One

        butConnect.Enabled = True
        butDisConnect.Enabled = False
    End Sub

    Private Sub butConnect_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles butConnect.Click
        If (serPort.IsOpen = False) Then
            Try
                serPort.Open()

                lstData.Items.Clear()
                myStringBuilder = New StringBuilder  'Clear any old data

                butConnect.Enabled = False
                butDisConnect.Enabled = True
            Catch ex As Exception
                'Routine to process exceptions like port already open etc.
                MsgBox("Exception error")
            End Try
        End If
    End Sub

    Private Sub butDisConnect_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles butDisConnect.Click
        If (serPort.IsOpen = True) Then
            serPort.Close()
            butDisConnect.Enabled = False
            butConnect.Enabled = True
        End If
    End Sub

    Private Sub serPort_DataReceived(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.IO.Ports.SerialDataReceivedEventArgs) Handles serPort.DataReceived
        Try
            myStringBuilder.Append(serPort.ReadExisting())
            Me.Invoke(New EventHandler(AddressOf update_Data))
        Catch ex As Exception
            MsgBox("Data Error")
        End Try
    End Sub

    Private Sub update_Data()
        lstData.Items.Add(myStringBuilder.ToString)
        myStringBuilder = New StringBuilder  'Flush the old data
    End Sub
End Class

I designed a form to suit the different buttons and combo boxes and this was the result.



The data in the list box came from this section of PBP code

Hserout [DEC Temperatures(0)]
Hserout [DEC Temperatures(1)]
Hserout [DEC Temperatures(2)]
Hserout [DEC Temperatures(3)]
hserout [10]

And as I only have one sensor out of four connected to the input associated with Temperature(2) in use the value of 002610, 002680 etc is right and reflects the 26.1C (rising).

However I would like to split this and place the result into 4 separate text boxes, ie so textbox1 will be updated with just Temperature(0), Textbox2 with Temperature(1) etc. Is there any modification I can do to the PBP code to separate the string to do this.

I know there has been some concerns about discussing VB code on this forum, but IMO when it's related to such a topic this thread covers I feel that it's justified.