Recieving Serial Data

[computer guy]

Hi everyone,

I am sending some data from a microcontroller.
I am working on a VB.net program to read in the data.

The data consists of 4 bytes.
They are sent one after the other,

I am using the VB serial object that is in the toolbar.

How can I get the 4 bytes and turn them back into real numbers, then join them together into a string?

Thank you

 

[JohnH]

Does SerialPort class have any events and methods that sounds tempting to you?

 

[computer guy]

What do you mean?

I am currently using the same program to send data to the microcontroller and it is working great.

 

[JohnH]

Start by checking the documentation for the SerialPort class, it has a very interesting DataReceived event, also check its methods and see if there is one you can use.

 

[computer guy]

Ok, I got it working.
One last thing, How do I convert a BCD to a decimal.

Thank you

 

[JohnH]

BCD stores each digit in 4 bits, the smallest data type in VB is Byte (8 bits), so you need some bit operations to extract high and low info from the byte, example:

Dim b As Byte = 147 '= binary 10010011, 1001=9, 0011=3
Dim high As Byte = b >> 4 'high=9
Dim low As Byte = b And &HF 'low=3