I am working on a senior project that involves a RFID card reader that sends info through the serial port only when a RFID tag is in the readers range. I am wanting to constantly check the serial port for this info but I can only get it to check it and it waits until there is a card. In this period i cannot do anything else. It just sits there and waits. I want it to check it and if no data then go on. Below is what i am doing.
serialPort1.Open();
string names, decoded;serialPort1.ReadTo(
"8");names = serialPort1.ReadTo(
"31");names = names.Remove(0, 16);
//names = "802A546573745F45453438305F463031";
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(); for (int i = 0; i <= names.Length - 2; i += 2){
sb.Append(
Convert.ToString(Convert.ToChar(Int32.Parse(names.Substring(i, 2),System.Globalization.
NumberStyles.HexNumber))));}
decoded = sb.ToString();
decoded +=
"\t\t";decoded +=
DateTime.Now.ToString();decoded +=
"\r\n";textBox1.Text += decoded;
serialPort1.Close();
This code will open the serial port and read in my hex numbers from the card and change them to ascii text. I just want it not to wait there. My friends said i should use a timer to check it every second or so but i do not know how to do that either. Very new and very green. Appreciate all the help i can get.
Thanks
How to poll the serial port to see if there is data and if not go on
Claudio Perrone
Hi
Using a timer, I think you should embed your code where I marked with red.
// // timer1 // this.timer1.Enabled = true; this.timer1.Interval = 1000; this.timer1.Tick += new System.EventHandler(this.Clock_Tick);
private System.Windows.Forms.Timer timer1;public string GetTime()
{
string TimeInString = "";
int day = DateTime.Now.Day;
int month = DateTime.Now.Month;
int year = DateTime.Now.Year;
int hour = DateTime.Now.Hour;
int min = DateTime.Now.Minute;
int sec = DateTime.Now.Second;
string AM = "AM";
string PM = "PM";
TimeInString = (day < 10) "0" + day.ToString() : day.ToString();
TimeInString += "-" + ((month < 10) "0" + month.ToString() : month.ToString());
TimeInString += "-" + ((year < 10) "0" + year.ToString() : year.ToString());
TimeInString += " " + ((hour < 10) "0" + hour.ToString() : hour.ToString());
TimeInString += ":" + ((min < 10) "0" + min.ToString() : min.ToString());
TimeInString += ":" + ((sec < 10) "0" + sec.ToString() : sec.ToString());
TimeInString += " " + ((hour < 12) "" + AM : PM);
return TimeInString;
}
private void Clock_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (sender == timer1)
{
lbTime.Text = GetTime();
schedulerThread(); //this means schedulerThread will run every second OR
int ss = DateTime.Now.Second;
if (ss == 0) //this means schedulerThread will run every minute
{
schedulerThread();
}
}
}
private void schedulerThread()
{
//Do the operation
}
Hope this helps