Using Serial Port to Read String

[elektronika]

Dear All,

I have an application in Electronics to communicate with serial port. With using VB I have succesfully read a character using

Serialport1.ReadByte

or

Serialport1.ReadChar

. Does anybody know how to read a whole string directly?

Regards,




Elektronika

[jmcilhinney]

What other members does the SerialPort class have? I can see three other methods that all start with "Read". Have you read the documentation for those to see if they are suitable for what you want to do?

[elektronika]

Actually I -last time- use this code in a timer :

SerialPort1.Write("A")
kalimatarray(d) = SerialPort1.ReadExisting
RichTextBox1.Text = RichTextBox1.Text & g & vbNewLine

The Electronics will send just a "HELLO" string to the PC, if it receives an "A" from the PC. This works but the vbNewLine is never there on the RichTextBox1.

I am using the PC to receive some string of numbers, like :
"1235 3303 2101 3030"

First time I send them byte per byte and it is rather slow to read.

Now I am considering making them a string and just send them in one step only. Do you have any Idea? I am new in VB so I don't understand 100% about the classes.

[cmkessell]

Wouldn't the SerialPort.ReadLine method be more appropriate?

Also does your electronics sends a newline character at the end of the string to mark the end of it?

[elektronika]

I will try it. . .and will post the result soon.

[elektronika]

Nope, still not working (working if I put "\nHELLO\n") and even after some time it freezes. (the electronics software is in C, and I have set everything correct there.)

I have another idea. Does anyone knows on how the serial port knows that it has data on its buffer, so it is like polling (always check the buffer) and if something goes inside, it reads it immediately. What happens in my experiment is the data get deposited inside the buffer. (I realize it when I unplug the electronics, serialport1 still reads for some time, before actually freezes, and the longer I deposit the data, the longer I can have it read without the electronics.)

Regards,




Elektronika

SerialPort1.Write("A")
'I think of putting some code here, to check whether the buffer already has some data
RichTextBox1.Text = RichTextBox1.Text & SerialPort1.ReadLine & vbNewLine