Morse Code Translator - Play Audio & Image Sequentially Issue

The Morse Code Translator is for a school project. I'm fairly inexperienced with coding. I'll try to explain the program the best I can.

There are 2 Textboxes and 1 Button. Input a character, word or sentence into TextBox1, Click the Translate Button, and then TextBox2 will show those characters in Morse Code.

The button also plays Audio from my resources. (If I type A and click the button, a 'dit + dah' (.-) will play)
The button also flashes a picturebox with an image of a light that corresponds to the dits and dahs.

The Problem

When there are 2 or more characters entered, only the audio for the last letter plays. (Type CAT, only audio for T plays)

I countered this by using WaitToComplete instead of Background

My.Computer.Audio.Play(My.Resources.MorseA, _
AudioPlayMode.WaitToComplete)


And it worked, it played the audio for C, A then T. BUT WaitToComplete stops executing code, and now my pictureboxes won't flash. I've tried using timers and progressbars, but I'm really struggling to get it right.

Is there a way to play the audio files sequentially, without stopping the code from executing, allowing the pictureboxes to flash with the audio?

This is probably not a great explanation, but please do ask questions if you don't understand something. And thanks in advance for the help!

try a BackgroundWorker for playing the audio. put the code for it in the DoWork event. that will run it on a secondary thread. leave the rest of the code that deals with images where it is at behind the button click.

-tg

I tried doing a bit of research on background workers, but I still don't understand how to use them although it possibly could be a solution.
The audio is in the DoWork event but I'm not sure how to use it.


Here's The Code before I tried using BackgroundWorker ---- For Morse A and B... etc.

Code:

---

Function EngToMorse(ByVal ToMorse As String) As Boolean
        Select Case ToMorse

            Case "A"
                TextBox2.Text = TextBox2.Text & " " & A

                My.Computer.Audio.Play(My.Resources.MorseA, _
                AudioPlayMode.Background)


            Case "B"
                TextBox2.Text = TextBox2.Text & " " & B

                My.Computer.Audio.Play(My.Resources.MorseB, _
        AudioPlayMode.Background)

Dim A As String = ".-"
Dim B As String = "-..."

Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        Dim text As String = TextBox1.Text.ToUpper()            'Convert the text entered to upper case       
        TextBox2.Text = ""                                                'Refresh the Output Textbox

        For i As Integer = 0 To text.Length - 1
            EngToMorse(text.Chars(i).ToString())                    'Grabs letters sequentially

        Next
    End Sub

---

Definitely not the most efficient way.
Also, I'm not worrying about the images right now. Just getting audio to play for each character in the textbox without WaitToComplete.
But where and how do I get the BackgroundWorker to Play Audio?

something like this:

Code:

---

Imports System.ComponentModel

Public Class Form1

    Private WithEvents bgw As New BackgroundWorker

    Private Delegate Sub appendTextCallBack(ByVal text As String)
    Private Sub appendText(ByVal text As String)
        If TextBox2.InvokeRequired Then
            TextBox2.Invoke(New appendTextCallBack(AddressOf appendText), text)
        Else
            TextBox2.Text &= " " & text
        End If
    End Sub

    Private Delegate Sub showImageCallBack(ByVal img As Bitmap)
    Private Sub showImage(ByVal img As Bitmap)
        If PictureBox1.InvokeRequired Then
            PictureBox1.Invoke(New showImageCallBack(AddressOf showImage), img)
        Else
            PictureBox1.Image = img
            PictureBox1.Refresh()
        End If
    End Sub

    Private Sub bgw_DoWork(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.ComponentModel.DoWorkEventArgs) Handles bgw.DoWork
        Dim text As String = e.Argument.ToString

        For i As Integer = 0 To text.Length - 1
            appendText(text.Chars(i).ToString())
            showImage([yourImageFile])
            My.Computer.Audio.Play(DirectCast(My.Resources.ResourceManager.GetObject("Morse" & text.Chars(i).ToString()), IO.Stream), _
            AudioPlayMode.WaitToComplete)
        Next

    End Sub

    Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        Dim text As String = TextBox1.Text.ToUpper()            'Convert the text entered to upper case       
        TextBox2.Text = ""                                                'Refresh the Output Textbox

        bgw.RunWorkerAsync(text)
    End Sub

End Class

---

Almost... I figured the image handling could remain in the main thread, and only handle the audio portion from the BGW. I'm guessing that there's more than one image involved, as far as I know PictureBoxes don't show animated images (I could be wrong) and so in order to show even a simple "dat" it would have to swap in the "on" image, then swap in the "off" image. But the playing of the audio files interferes with that, which is why I suggested offloading the audio to the alternate thread.

-tg

Pictureboxes can show animated gifs but they tend to lag...

That's cool, I didn't know that... it's been sometimes since I've done anything "that fancy pants". There isn't usually much call for animation in enterprise software.

-tg

I've taken some time to understand your code .paul. and it's working great! Just had to adapt it a bit to fit the project. But there were a few problems, and some I could luckily solve on my own. But there are 2 big issues I don't know how to get around.

1. When I use a space " " or any other character that is not a letter "," or " ' " in the textbox, the program crashes. I think it's because there isn't a file audio file for those characters. Is there a way to make exceptions for every other character, so it does not search for an audio file?

(Crashes at the audio line below)

Code:

---

        For i As Integer = 0 To text.Length - 1
            appendText(text.Chars(i).ToString())
            showImage(My.Resources.YellowLight)
            My.Computer.Audio.Play(DirectCast(My.Resources.ResourceManager.GetObject("Morse" & text.Chars(i).ToString()), IO.Stream), _
                AudioPlayMode.WaitToComplete)
        Next

---

2. If you click the button to translate again, while bgw is doing its work, it crashes and says the bgw is busy. Is there a way to cancel the bgw with the same button or another button.

Thanks for your patience everyone!

Each of your problems can be dealt with using a conditional statement.

In the first case if you only have audio for the upper case letters A through Z the condition could be something like the following which skips anything outside the limits.

Code:

---

Dim mychar As Integer = Asc(text.Chars(i).ToString)

        If mychar > 64 AndAlso mychar < 91 Then  'decimal values A through Z
         
                My.Computer.Audio.Play(DirectCast(My.Resources.ResourceManager.GetObject("Morse" & text.Chars(i).ToString()), IO.Stream), _
                AudioPlayMode.WaitToComplete)

        End If

---

The second condition can be used to cancel the BGW or wait until it has finished.

Code:

---

Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        If BackgroundWorker1.IsBusy Then

        Else

        End If
    End Sub

---