Actionscript3 to Arduino: sending a 'newline' character after an array of integers - actionscript-3

Question

I want to send an array of integers from an as3 app I'm writing in Flash Pro, to an Arduino Uno which will use them to continuously position and re-position 5 servos. So sending 15 integers will position the 5 servos, then re-position them, then reposition them again, then loop back to the first position and so on. Then I would send a new array replacing the old one whenever I wanted to.
So I've got my tinkerproxy configured between them ok (thanks to Mike Chambers and others) and I've written both sides so they appear to work ok when interfacing with their serial monitors. But I can't get em talking to each other properly.
My problem is simple ... I think ... It's how to get as3 to send a 'newline' or some other 'end' signal with or after the array so that the Arduino sketch (using serialEvent and parseInt to get the integers when they are sent), on receiving it, can jump past parseInt and do something else - in this case go to the loop and control these pesky servos.
Probably far too much code attached and I hope somebody can help. I'm pretty inexperienced, you may have guessed....
ARDUINO
/*
this sketch developed from arduino Tutorials ReadASCIIString + SerialEvent
serialEvent can receive an array - 'buff' - of values from serial monitor
loop can get those values and print some of them to prove it
but I can't get Flash Pro (as3) to send the array: something to do with end of message character?
*/
#include <Servo.h>
int buff[100];//an array to hold integers from serial(arbitrary larger than ever needed size)
int j; //used to increment serial integer receipt in serialEvent
int patternLength;//=# of integers delivered over serial port, if followed by E or newline
void setup()
{
Serial.begin(9600);
Serial.setTimeout(2147483647);//25 days! so parseInt doesn't default to sending zeros every second
Serial.println("ready to go");//prints ok
}
void loop()
{
for(int i=0; i<patternLength-4; i=i+5)//feed sets of 5 integers into 5 servos then repeats
Serial.println(buff[i]);//prints 1st, 5th, 10th etc integer then repeats
delay(1000);//so I can see it happening slowly enough
}//loops indefinitely until serialEvent interrupts to send new buff array values
void serialEvent()
{
while(Serial.available()>0)
{
buff[j] = Serial.parseInt();
Serial.println(buff[j]);//prints all integers sent if eg ','sent after last one
j++;
//if (Serial.read() == '\n')//works if serial monitor is set to 'newline' on sending
if (Serial.read() == 'E')//works if no 'newline' + sending eg 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10E
//BUT how to send the equivalent of one of the above two 'endings' from Flash???
//so that this part of the code executes
{
patternLength = j;
Serial.println("go to loop");
j=0;//reset the index so next array sent replaces this one in 'buff'
}
}
}
FLASH PRO ACTIONSCRIPT as3
/*
Simple Example that connects to an Arduino (via TinkerProxy) and sends
an array of integers for it to use. That doesn't work......
adapted from FlashBlink Created by Mike Chambers:
http://www.mikechambers.com/blog/2010/08/04/getting-started-with-flash-and-arduino/
*/
import flash.events.Event;
import flash.display.Sprite;
import flash.net.Socket;
//import flash.events.IOErrorEvent;
import flash.events.ProgressEvent;
//import flash.events.SecurityErrorEvent;
import flash.utils.Endian;
import flash.events.MouseEvent;
//my example of an array of integers I want to send to the arduino
var pattern:Array = [10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20];
//socket we will use to connect to TinkerProxy
var _socket:Socket;
//Address where TinkerProxy is located. Will usually be
//localhost / 127.0.0.1
var _proxyAddress:String = "127.0.0.1";
//port TinkerProxy is listening on
var _proxyPort:uint = 5331;
function onAddedToStage():void
{
removeEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, onAddedToStage);
//create a Sprite to add to the stage.
//This will be a simple button
var s:Sprite = new Sprite();
//draw a green square in the Sprite
s.graphics.beginFill(0x00FF00);
s.graphics.drawRect(0,0, 200,100);
s.graphics.endFill();
//Add Sprite to the display list
addChild(s);
//position it
s.x = 50;
s.y = 50;
//listen for when the user clicks the Sprite
s.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, onClick);
_socket = new Socket();
//Register for socket events
//socket connected
_socket.addEventListener( Event.CONNECT, onConnect );
//socket closed
_socket.addEventListener( Event.CLOSE, onClose );
_socket.endian = Endian.LITTLE_ENDIAN;
//connect
_socket.connect(_proxyAddress, _proxyPort);
}
//called when we connect to the proxy server
function onConnect(event:Event):void
{
trace("Socket Connected");
}
//called when the user clicks the button on stage
function onClick(event:MouseEvent):void
{
trace("onClick");
//make sure we are connected to the socket
if(!_socket.connected)
{
//if not, don't do anything
trace("You must be connected to send a command to the Arduino.");
return;
}
var ENDOF:String = "E";
for(var j:int = 0; j < pattern.length; j++)
{
_socket.writeUTFBytes(pattern[j]); //send pattern array to Arduino
trace(pattern[j]);//trace what I think I've just sent
}
//then send something as a last character - not an integer.
_socket.writeUTFBytes(ENDOF);//send this string value to arduino
trace("should have just sent an E, and sends an: " + ENDOF);
//but how do I send this E conjoined to the last integer of the pattern array
//so that Arduino responds by jumping out of serialEvent back to the loop?
//flush the socket. Not really necessary, but here for forward compatibility.
_socket.flush();
}
//called when the socket is closed
function onClose(event:Event):void
{
trace("Socket Closed");
}
onAddedToStage();

Answer 1

Your AS3 looks fairly spot on. One minor point, in onAddedToStage() you're removing an event listener from the stage which you never registered for. If you really want that code to only fire once the timeline is added to the stage, replace line 114 with with following:
addEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, onAddedToStage)
As for your Arduino code , I'm not versed in the language it uses (some sort of C?), so feel free to ignore the following if you know better.
You didn't encapsulate your for loop on lines 22 thru 24
You started encapsulating your while loop on line 30, but forgot to close it on line 34
You declared j, but didn't initialized its value until line 44 after it was to be used in your while loop on line 33.
Finally, to answer your core question. You're already aware a newline is written as \n, so it would seem you're having difficulty reading this from Serial.read(). After reading the documentation, I couldn't find any datatype it comes out as, so I'm assuming you're dealing with either a ByteArray or a String. Assuming it's a string, my first instinct would be to just split it into an Array with String.split(), but that's not a function available to String API. Others (however) have written it, and I believe it would simplify the issue, assuming Strings & Ints can happily co-exist in those object types.
Conversely, since you already know the size of these numbers come in quintets, rather than use a while loop (line 29), you could just use a for as follows:
#include <Servo.h>
int buff[100];
int j;
int patternLength;
void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600);
Serial.setTimeout(2147483647);
Serial.println("ready to go");
}
void loop() {
for(int i=0; i<patternLength-4; i=i+5) {
Serial.println(buff[i]);
delay(1000);
}
}
void serialEvent() {
if (Serial.available() > 0) {
// This gaurantees we only pull the first 15 Ints into our buff array
for (int k=0; k<15; k++) {
buff[j] = Serial.parseInt();
Serial.println(buff[j]);
j++;
}
patternLength = j;
Serial.println("go to loop");
j=0;//reset the index so next array sent replaces this one in 'buff'
}
}
If the above misses the mark for you, you may want to debug the value you're actually reading from the Stream and testing for in your if statement on line 37 with:
Serial.println("Reading: " + Serial.read());
Hope it helps.
-Cheers