To stop draw() from going on forever, issue a noLoop() instead of exit()!

Thank you GoToLoop for the valuable feedback!

I'm actually still a bit confused... I read through the link that you sent me, but I'm a bit unclear on where I would put the noLoop() and then the loop() commands in my code so that I can continuously create new files as each fills up with 4 lines of serial output.

Any thoughts on where I should add these?

Re-reading it better, seems like you don't really want to pause the script,
but rather, create a new output file after 4 (or 20?) lines are written continuously.

For that, you have to create an extra function where it resets your variables
and selects next file name to be used.

You call that function instead of exit()!

You can use Data = new String[5000]; to reset your array with a clean state, and you must reset the line counter too.

Hi PhiLho & GoToLoop et al.,

I'm trying the suggestions that you've mentioned but I can't seem to make the script work properly :-(

I understand & agree with your suggestions in that I need to reset the data array (thanks PhiLho for the syntax description), as well as the line counter (it is the "n" variable, right?) once the program finishes writing the 20 lines. However, for some reason I can't seem to figure out the exact syntax for this, nor where exactly I should it in the code for both...

I am really liking the Processing software (it seems so useful!), but it is a bit frustrating to figure out its details...!!

Any help would be SUPER appreciated :)

    L.

Hmmm... the more I'm trying to make this code to write a new file each time it saves 20 lines of serial output data, the more confused I get.

I was thinking of trying to add a loop somewhere, but the draw() itself is a continuous loop. Hence, if I try to set the filename within draw, it creates a new file every time a new line of data comes through the serial output...

Any ideas out there that could shed some light on this? :)

Show your best attempt at following our suggestions, we will fix it for you. (Better learn from your errors than from a code we force-feed to you, and that we can't test (serial library for me) and / or have no time to write.)

sure thing... I've been doing some progress I think with some things (e.g.: defining the file name in the draw() section, etc) but I'm still not able to make it record a new file every 20 lines.

Thanks for taking a look at this... I really appreciate the extra "set of eyes"!

The loop() instruction is useless when draw() is already looping.
The int m = 0; is also useless, because you create a new variable hiding the global one, and this new variable just disappears on the next closing brace.
You want a simple m = 0; instead.
And you haven't reset the array content as I shown.

It is hard to test as it would need a serial device to run it... I should move this topic to Core Libraries for this reason...

hey PhiLho!

thank you so much for the pointers you gave me! I was able to actually make the script work with that info... All it took was to reset both the m and n counters, and also reflush the array as you had specified before.

Below is the final working code, in case it might come handy to others. It was a steep learning curve, but super helpful.

Thank you sooooo much again for your assistance!!! And patience... :)

       Luc

1. import processing.serial.*;
   PrintWriter output;
   Serial myPort;
   String myData = null;
   
   String[] Data = new String[5000];
   int n = 0;
   int m = 0;
   
   
   void setup() {
     println(Serial.list());
     String portName = Serial.list()[0];
     // change [0] for the Arduino serial port
     myPort = new Serial(this, "COM3", 57600);
     myPort.bufferUntil('\n'); // SerialEvent for new line
     myPort.clear();
   }
   
   void draw() {
   while ( myPort.available () > 0 ) {
       myData = myPort.readStringUntil('\n');
       if ( myData != null ) {
         Data[n] = myData;
         n++;
       }
     }
   
     while (m < n) {
       if (m == 0) {
         String Name = "c:\\lucas\\data_"+str(month())+"-"+str(day())+"-"+str(year())+"_"+str(hour())+"."+str(minute())+"."+str(second())+".txt";
         output = createWriter(Name);  //create the new file
       }
   
       if ( Data[m] != null) {
         output.print(Data[m]);  //print the data from the serial
         output.flush(); // Writes the remaining data to the file (appends so file grows as time goes by)
         m++; 
       }
     }
   
   
   /******** EDIT THE NUMBER OF LINES HERE!!! ***********/
       if ( m >= 20 ) { // number of data lines in xx time
        
         output.close(); // Finishes the file
         m = 0;  //reset the line counter
         n = 0;  //reset the other counter
     }  
    
    String[] Data = new String[5000];  //reset the array
   
   }
   

Again, you don't reset the array, but create a new array that lives for one line...
And you should reset it when the number of lines is reached:

1. /******** EDIT THE NUMBER OF LINES HERE!!! ***********/
2.     if ( m >= 20 ) { // number of data lines in xx time
3.      
4.       output.close(); // Finishes the file
5.       m = 0;  //reset the line counter
6.       n = 0;  //reset the other counter
7.      Data = new String[5000];  //reset the array
8.   }  

 

Oh, I see... thanks for the tip! I've added that to the script and its working well.

Thank you! :)

Actually, the way the script works, you don't even need this reset, I think: you can recycle the slots in the array, since m <= n ensures you write only fresh new entries.