DoEvents serial port question.

Hello:

I am using the serial port to send & receive info.
When I send something I need to wait until something comes back (ONcomm event), or a timer timeout occurs (error-->no response), whichever happens first. Otherwise I wait in a while loop waiting for one or the other.

In order to respond to these events I think I must use a DoEvents....however this seems to open up to any event, whci causes bad things to happen.

Is there a way to limit the while loop to respond only to the Oncomm or timout (timer) event, rather than any event in the whole system? The main problem is that new things are getting sent out from various other timers & user clicks before the reception is complete.

Is it possible to wait for a reception or timer timeout, without using Doevents? Nothing else needs to happen during this lull in waiting.

You can set a Global variable in OnComm() and in Timer() events.

Code:

---

Public OnCommHappened as Boolean
Public TimeoutHappened as Boolean
'in _OnComm()
...
  OnCommHappened = True
...
'in _Timer()
  TimeOutHappened = True
...
'in your loop
 If TimeoutHappened or OnCommHappened then Exit While

---

The only problem I see, I think without the DoEvents no OnComm() event would be raised...

You would need to have something like a busy flag that is set to true when you start your wait and then in the events that you do not want to fire a check of that flag that will exit the event if busy. Or you could disable your form while busy which would stop the user from clicking any controls or entering data while you are waiting.

It sounds like you are saying I DO need DoEvents...but is there a way to limit them?

I only want to respond to a timeout (generate an error message) or an incoming MScomm message (data coming in). I really don't want to use doevents, but is there any other way. Doevents seems to allow other things to happen such as sending new messages before replies to old ones have been rcvd. Thus things get out of sync.
S=send R=recieve reply

instead of: SA RA SB RC SD RD SE RE....YOU MIGHT GET SA RA SB RB SC SD RC RD
creating quite a mess.

Well, you can poll the MSComm in your loop, then you do not need to use the OnComm().

Code:

---

  dim a$, tmo&
  tmo = 100000
  do
      a$=MSComm.Input
      if a$="" then tmo = tmo -1
  loop until a$<>"" or tmo = 0

---

This loop will run until either a character arrived at the com port, or the counting down of tmo has reached 0.
After that loop you check if a$="" then we have timeout
This runs completely without DoEvents, but the timeout counting is not so elegant...
You'd have to work out the constant yourself. I only put tmo = 100000 just out of thin air. Maybe it is to short a timeout.

thanks Wof !!!

I was thinking of using a sleep(xxx) to cause a delay in the receive/wait loop, but then you can't exit "immediately" when something is received.

...I saw an example of using a system api that was somthing like tickcount or count ticks, that could be used to measure a delay (rather than forceing you to wait for a sleep to expire)...

Do you happen to know what function I'm referring to? I should have paid more attention to it, but now can't seem to find it.

http://allapi.mentalis.org/apilist/GetTickCount.shtml

Quite a good Idea. Better'n counting.
I'll be back later to help if you can't work it out. Look at the samples anyway.

Thanks Wof

by the way I'm posting an interesting question about doevents.

Ok, I shall look at it.
Here is how I would implement a timeout using gettickcount

Code:

---

Private Declare Function GetTickCount Lib "kernel32" () As Long
Private Const Max_TimeOutTicks = 5000 'approx. 5 seconds

Private Function GetComChar() As Long
  Dim begin&, c$
  begin = GetTickCount
  Do
    c$ = MSComm.Input
  Loop Until c$ <> "" Or GetTickCount - begin > Max_imeOutCount
  If c$ <> "" Then GetComChar = Asc(c$) Else GetComChar = -1
End Function

---

The function would return -1 if timeout occured, otherwise it would return the Asc of the character received.
As the return value is a long you wouldn't get conflicts. You can (if it is not -1) convert it to chr$() without problem. -1 instead would indicate timeout.