hello

i recently decided to communicate to arduino via processing. that worked really well, using the arduino library for processing (http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Interfacing/Processing).

i also used as3 to communicate with processing, using the xml socket object in flash, that worked pretty well too.

so i thought i would create myself a processing app to forward the info from flash to arduino. the only problem i encounter is when the data is received from flash, processing seems unable to parse it properly.

i would gladly join a zip of my project, but i dont see that option with my post, so here's the processing code:


// --- --- --- imports --- --- --- //
import processing.net.*;
import processing.serial.*;
import cc.arduino.*;


// --- --- --- variables --- --- --- //
Arduino arduino;
int qtyArduinoDigPins = 13;
int port = 8080;
Server server;
Client client;
byte endByte = 0;
String input;
int pinInput;
String valueInput;


// --- --- --- setup --- --- --- //
void setup (){
 size (320, 240);
 println(Arduino.list());
 arduino = new Arduino(this, Arduino.list()[0], 115200);
 for (int i = 0; i <= 13; i++) {
   arduino.pinMode(i, Arduino.OUTPUT);
 }
 server = new Server (this, port);
 loop ();
}

void draw () {
 readDataFromFlash ();
}

void loop () {
 
}


// --- --- --- functions --- --- --- //
void sendDataToFlash (String dataToFlash) {
 server.write (dataToFlash);
 /*
 the trick is this next line that sends the "0" termination byte unaltered and alone,
 this way it doesn't get evaluated with the other variables being sent
 */
 server.write (endByte);
 /*
 "endByte" is the termination byte, which Flash's XMLSocket uses to figure out when a transmission stream has ended.
 This also means that any variables that are being sent as zero bytes need to be shifted (say +1, for example)
 and evaluated in Flash accordingly, or else Flash will kill the transmission there  
 */
}

void readDataFromFlash () {
 client = server.available ();
 if (client != null) {
   println("- readDataFromFlash -");
   input = client.readString ();
   String[] dataToArduino = new String[2];
   dataToArduino = split(input, ",");
   println("dataToArduino.length: " + dataToArduino.length);
   println("dataToArduino[0]: " + dataToArduino[0]);
   println("dataToArduino[1]: " + dataToArduino[1]);
   
   pinInput = int(dataToArduino[0]);
   println("pinInput: " + pinInput);
   
   valueInput = dataToArduino[1];
   println("valueInput: " + valueInput);
   println("(valueInput == low): " + (valueInput == "low"));
   println("(valueInput == high): " + (valueInput == "high"));
   
   /*
   if (valueInput == "low") {
     println("write Arduino.LOW to pin " + pinInput);
     arduino.digitalWrite(pinInput, Arduino.LOW);
   } else if (valueInput == "high") {
     println("write Arduino.HIGH to pin " + pinInput);
     arduino.digitalWrite(pinInput, Arduino.HIGH);
   }
   */
 }
}


basically, what is wrong is when i try to do that:

println("valueInput: " + valueInput);
println("(valueInput == low): " + (valueInput == "low"));
println("(valueInput == high): " + (valueInput == "high"));

even if valueInput equals to "low", both the println after trace false. any clue for that?

thanks for the quick response, i'll follow your numbering to reply:

1) what do you mean by "you have to parse it additionaly before you handle your protocols"? i send an array to processing from flash {pin, value} and processing reads it properly:
  input = client.readString ();
  println("input: " + input);    // traces input: 1,high
then when i split it into an array:
  String[] dataToArduino = new String[2];
  dataToArduino = split(input, ",");
i can read both indexes from the array but cant make comparisons...

2) i have looked into as3glue, but i did not find documentation for  the serial proxy and could not use it

unfortunately the valueInput.equals("high") did not provide any good results either

println(valueInput);                   // traces: high
println(valueInput.equals("high"));    // traces: false
println(valueInput == "high");         // traces: false

i'm not concerned so much about the interaction with the arduino but more on the interaction with flash. if i create functions in processing that require data from flash, i feel im screwed right now.

i must say i am using an xml socket, i am sending an array through it:

var pin:uint = 1;
var value:String = "high";
var data:Array = [1, "high"];
_socket.send (data);

in the meantime i'll try with the serial proxy

no worries, i use the xml socket because that's the best way i found to communicate with max msp.

no there is tho space before or after "high". i did try this:

input = client.readString ();
dataToArduino = split(input, ",");
pinInput = int(dataToArduino[0]);
valueInput = input.substring((input.indexOf(",")+1), (input.length() - 1));

and that did work... for a while. i did get an error for array out of bound a one point. i just tested it again, and it worked.

but what do i do in the case when i need to pass multiple parameters to my function in processing? i think that it qualifies as a bug in processing if i cannot make comparisons with the values in an array.

Can you post the flash code to send data to processing.
Thank a lot.