Console application question, controlling a stepper motor

I have a console application that controls a stepper motor. Currently, the motor is controlled by issuing a series of signals through the parallel port to move the stepper motor through its steps. Each of these steps requires a 15ms delay between each call, therefore i am utilizing Thread.Sleep to pause the main thread while i issue the commands.

I would like to give the script an abort feature. Example: "Press any key to abort this action". once the key is pressed, i need to execute a few lines of code to turn off all ports used in the parallel port so i don't burn up the motor.

Can anyone offer direction on how to implement this type of behavior? can you offer a simple "hello world" example of how to implement this thread? would it require the use of threads?

I have attempted to place the business logic used in powering the motor in its own thread, but since i have to call Thread.Sleep during it's execution, the thread quits on its own.

Thanks for any advice.

You will need to do the moving in a loop in another thread so that the UI stays 'alive'. Just set a boolean value "_continue" in the button click handler and check it at the top of your motor command loop.

Code:

---

void ContinuousMove
{   
    while( true )
    {
        if( _continue )
        {
            // run motor
        }
        else
        {
            //disable motor, whatever you need to do
        }
    }
}

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