MSCOMM inBufferCount issue

[2Tricky]

Hello. I'm wondering whether there is an easy answer to why the following only partly works.

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$MsComm = ObjCreate("MSCOMMLib.MsComm.1")
$MsComm.CommPort = 1
$MsComm.Settings = "9600,N,8,1"
$MsComm.Handshaking = 0
$MsComm.InBufferSize = 1024
$MsComm.InputLen = 1
$MsComm.PortOpen = 1

While 1
    MsgBox(0,"Testing",_MsgIn())
    Sleep(2000)
WEnd
Func _MsgOut($str)
    $MsComm.OutBufferCount = 0
    $MsComm.InBufferCount = 0
    If $MsComm.PortOpen = True Then
        $MsComm.Output = $str
    EndIf
    $MsComm.InputLen = 0
EndFunc
Func _MsgIn()
    $TIMEOUT = 1000 ;1000
    $nTimeCtr = 0
    $sBuffer = ""
    Do
    $nTimeCtr += 1
    If $MsComm.InBufferCount > 0 Then
         $sBuffer = $sBuffer & $MsComm.Input
        EndIf
        Sleep(500)
    Until StringInStr($sBuffer,@CR) OR $nTimeCtr > $TIMEOUT
    If $nTimeCtr < $TIMEOUT Then
        $nI = StringInStr($sBuffer,@CR)
        Return StringLeft($sBuffer,$nI)
    Else
        Return "Error"
    EndIf
EndFunc

SORRY, THIS WILL BE IN CAPS AS IPHONE HAS THROWN A WOBBLY TOO!

FROM A WIN 7 PC, THIS LARGELY 'BORROWED' CODE (THANKS BY THE WAY) DOESN'T QUITE WORK. HAVING GOT AROUND MANY OBSTACLES, I CAN RUN THIS BUT IT FALLS OVER AT THE POINT WHERE THE INBUFFERCOUNT IS TESTED FOR > 0. IT NEVER BECOMES GREATER. I SAW MENTION OF USING A NULL CABLE BUT THIS WAS WRITTEN WITH 2 COM PORTS AVAILABLE WHICH I DON'T HAVE. I HAVE TRIED THE ALTERNATIVE NETCOMM... WRAPPED ACTIVEX BUT HAD THE SAME OUTCOME. THE AUTHOR (OF NETCOMM) SPECIFICALLY STATED THAT IN WIN 7 IT NEEDED ADMIN RIGHTS - THOUGH HE DIDN'T KNOW OF AUTOIT. I HAVE TO SAY THAT IN WIN 7, MY USUAL APPROACH IS TO RUN WITH ADMIN RIGHTS (AND FAST!).

IF ANYONE HAS A CLUE I'D BE V GRATEFUL.

MANY THANKS.

NB MY 'REAL' AIM IS TO FEED ASCII COMING INTO COM 1 FROM A DEVICE TO MY OWN AUTOIT WINDOW AND EVENTUALLY EXCEL 2000.

[water]

Seems you borrowed the code from this So maybe the might be useful and help you with your problem.

[2Tricky]

Seems you borrowed the code from this So maybe the might be useful and help you with your problem.

Water I chose to start a new thread because the 'doner' thread seemed to have become diluted and I needed to clear the blackboard. Thanks for the alternative UDF idea but I have a problem here too again and that thread is unfortunately quite old to add to.

If you have experience in this subject in relation to Win 7 I'd be grateful for your input. Specifically (with your UDF idea) I get a vilolation of the array boundary after completing "stage 2" as written to the console in the latest example included in the thread. Actually I think this is simply that the array isn't an array i.e. the instantiation did not occur properly at all because of some earlier issue. My difficulty is that I don't know much about Com ports (though I wrote my own code in C years ago - long forgotten and probably doesn't travel well to here). My quest goes on but I feel that in order for me to progress I have to have some success to build on and I don't feel I've reached that point.

I'm all ears for any ideas - thanks a lot.

[water]

Hi 2Tricky,

unfortunately I can't help you with this subject.

When I read your post I just remembered that there was an UDF for this kind of task.

But I think the UDF thread is quite active because the author (martin) just answered a few days ago. Maybe you can post the questions you have regarding the UDF there and I'm quite sure you'll get some answers.

Good luck!