PC serial port funny

[mister_e]

O.K. i'll look at that. So you're using a 16F628 right? for serial comm, i would suggest you to use a crystal. To make sure to don't miss incoming stuff, i always suggest to use a USART interrupt.

this

["aa", stepcnt]

can't work because it will send a WORD ascii character... wich is impossible. So instead, you should work around and use

["aa", #stepcnt]

but use VAL on the VB side.

I'll do a little something here, totally different, so you could use some part of it in your actual code.

[nicjo]

Thanks, I,m using a Xtal, found that out the hard way, could'nt work out why there were so many errors, after puting xtal in cct, errors disappeared. And yes, I'm using a 628.

I kind of figured that "aa" stepcnt was a word representation of stepcnt and that on the other end it would need to be split in two to find the original values. I started off with #stepcnt but on the vb side after sending a whole bunch of words, errors started appearing. Never thought of the VAL function though. I just placed the value from the PIC straight into a txt box. Anyway, I hope my code is not to painfull.

Thanks again

John

[mister_e]

OK then, so i'll stop it here and skip the USART interrupt. In meantime, maybe you could use/read some part of what i've include.

What i did is to use a fixed string format using DEC5 modifier on the PIC side

hserout ["aa",DEC5 WordA]

So it always send 7 bytes to the PC

and on the PC side, i split the incoming string in 2 parts

        sWichOne = Mid(IncommingData, 1, 2)     ' get the header (two first character)
        wValue = Val(Right(IncommingData, 5))   ' get the value (5 last character)

Where IncommingData = MSComm1.Input, sWichOne hold the "aa", "bb" or else 2 character header, wValue hold the decimal value after the header.

no big deal.

[mister_e]

Bah, why not after all. This one use the USART interrupt. Thanks to Darrel instant interrupts... reduce indeed RTFM sessions to a minimum

[nicjo]

Thanks Steve,

I've just opened up the files the files you sent and begin to incorporate into my project. I'll let you know how I went, hopefully all good.


Cheers

John

[nicjo]

Thanks Steve. Eventually got back to my project. (To much time spent on this thing, so the missus says). Anyway, it works a treat. Iv'e added a couple more things to it as now the comms side of it works fine. I am considering using the picf88 for its ADC to measure battery voltgae.

Thansk again Steve,

John

[SteveB]

...To much time spent on this thing, so the missus says...

Listen to her! Mister_e (and Darrel Taylor) can attest to the "life ruining power " of the humble PIC if not dealt with in moderation.

LOL,
SteveB

"Problems lead to Learning...Learning leads to Feature Creeep... Feature Creep leads to Obsession...
Obsession leads to the Dark Side of the the PIC"