Create a file from the Arduino serial communication (using a HMI)

[AyalaOrtiz]

I am trying to create a file with the data that my Arduino sends me from a graphical interface created in Windows Forms App (.NET Framework), currently I already receive the information and I use a graph to show the behavior of these variables type floats but I need to store that information.
Thank you very much.

 private void buttonSaveFile_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            ///crear un archivo
            string path = "./TextData/TestFile.txt";
            if (!File.Exists(path))
            {
                using (StreamWriter sw = File.CreateText(path))
                {
                    while (serialPort1.IsOpen && serialPort1.BytesToRead > 0)
                    {
                        string serialData = serialPort1.ReadLine();
                        
                        try
                        {
                            for (int i = 0; i < 500; i++)
                            {
                              
                                sw.WriteLine(serialPort1.ReadLine());
                            }



                        }
                        catch (Exception error)
                        {
                            MessageBox.Show(error.Message);
                        }

                    }
                    
                }


            }
        }

 

[jmcilhinney]

Are you talking about storing in the app or persisting the data when the app exits?

 

[AyalaOrtiz]

Yes sir, to go adding line by line the data recorded in serial port in a .txt or .cvs. I have achieved this using a python code but I would like to achieve it from the same interface I am building.

 

[Skydiver]

So why not just follow the same approach you had in Python?

It's unclear why in the code yau have above why you read a line on 11, but throw it away, and then on lines 15-19, you are reading 500 lines and writing those out into a file.

Why do you need lines 9-29, when lines 9,10, 18, and 29 would likely suffice? What problem are you trying to solve?

 

[Scottintexas]

Here is how I get the incoming data.

Snippetpublic void DataReceived(object sender, SerialDataReceivedEventArgs e)
{
    string buffer = string.Empty;
    try
    {
        while ((sender as SerialPort).BytesToRead > 0)
        {
            buffer += (sender as SerialPort).ReadExisting();
        }
        (sender as SerialPort).DiscardInBuffer();
        string portName = (sender as SerialPort).PortName;
 
        //Call DataReporter
        DataReporter(buffer, portName);
    }
    catch (InvalidOperationException ex)
    {
        _logger.LogIt($"InvalidOperationException exception thrown at DataReceived {ex.Message}.", LogLevel.Information);
    }
}

The buffer is then passed to a method that sends it back to the MainWindowViewModel (this is running on a background thread so it has to report back to the method to handle the Background Worker Reporting). All I do there is parse the data and upload it to a database. You will have a string you can do anything you want with it. You can open a stream writer and save the string to a file.

 

[Skydiver]

It maybe worth creating a temporary variable to minimize duplication of code (sender as SerialPort):

var serialPort = (SerialPort) sender;

This also has the extra benefit of giving your a hard runtime error of invalid cast exception if sender is not a SerialPort, instead of a mystery null reference exception if sender as SerialPort returns null.

 

[gulshan212]

Hello, this is Gulshan Negi.
Well, I did some search on Google and in my opinion and you need to modify your code as below:

private void buttonSaveFile_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    // Create a file or append to an existing one
    string path = "./TextData/TestFile.txt";
    using (StreamWriter sw = File.AppendText(path))
    {
        // Read the data from the serial port
        while (serialPort1.IsOpen && serialPort1.BytesToRead > 0)
        {
            string serialData = serialPort1.ReadLine();
           
            try
            {
                // Write the data to the file
                sw.WriteLine(serialData);
            }
            catch (Exception error)
            {
                MessageBox.Show(error.Message);
            }
        }
    }

    MessageBox.Show("Data saved to file.");
}

Thanks

 

[Skydiver]

@gulshan212 : Please post code in code tags. I'll edit your post above for you.

 

[Skydiver]

Out of curiosity, why catch exceptions writing to the file, and then continue on?

Also why not catch exceptions trying to read from the serial port?

 

[Skydiver]

@fabierro : The OP is using a file based storage system. He just happens to be writing it out as plain text.