Hello people :)

So I'm still struggling and any advice is much appreciated.
I'm trying to read a serial port data from a controller and plot it using chart. I could read the data from the controller and see the data in a textbox earlier. Now I'm trying to use a chart along with the textbox. There are complication when I'm trying to use both together. I get an exception because I'm trying "data = sp.ReadLine();" for chart. I'd like to keep the textbox just to verify what I'm plotting, but I understand that I can also do that using putty. There's no response even when I use only the chart to plot. And I cannot pin-point the problem. Because to my understanding I think I have followed the steps to establish it, but then I'm failing anyway! Please do have a look at what I have tried so far and please do let me know if I'm doing something wong.

Chart and Form1 [code] namespace Serial_receive { public partial class Form1 : Form { string t; SerialPort sp; double rt = 0; //Boolean i = false; private string data; private DateTime datetime; public Form1() { InitializeComponent(); Control.CheckForIllegalCrossThreadCalls = false; // User can already search for ports when the constructor of the FORM1 is calling // And let the user search ports again with a click // Searching for ports function SearchPorts(); } private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) { comboBox1.DataSource = SerialPort.GetPortNames(); timer1.Start(); Text = "Serial Channel to FRDM-KW40Z"; } private void TextBox1_TextChanged_1(object sender, EventArgs e) { } private void timer1_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e) { rt = rt + 0.1; } private void chart1_Click_1(object sender, EventArgs e) { ChartArea CA = chart1.ChartAreas[0]; // quick reference CA.AxisX.ScaleView.Zoomable = true; // see small button on the horizontal scroll for reset?? CA.CursorX.AutoScroll = true; CA.CursorX.IsUserSelectionEnabled = true; // var dataBlocks = data.Split('\n'); foreach(var block in dataBlocks) { var numbers = block.Split(new[] { ' ' }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries); rt += 100; //some time interval for (int i = 0; i<numbers.Length; i++) { double n = double.NaN; //represents a value that is Not a Number. Field is constant bool ok = double.TryParse(numbers[i], out n); if (ok) chart1.Series[i].Points.AddXY(rt, n); else { int p = chart1.Series[i].Points.AddXY(rt, n); chart1.Series[i].Points[p].IsEmpty = true; Console.WriteLine("well shoot! try again.."); } } } }[/code] Combox1 for listing available ports and connecting [code] private void button1_Click_1(object sender, EventArgs e) { //comboBox1.Items.Clear(); SearchPorts(); } void SearchPorts() { string[] ports = SerialPort.GetPortNames(); foreach (string port in ports) { comboBox1.Items.Add(port); } } private void comboBox1_SelectedIndexChanged_1(object sender, EventArgs e) { if (sp == null || sp.IsOpen == false) { OpenCloseSerial(); } } private void button2_Click_1(object sender, EventArgs e) { // Catch exception if it will be thrown so the user will see it in a message box OpenCloseSerial(); } void OpenCloseSerial() { try { if (sp == null || sp.IsOpen == false) { t = comboBox1.Text.ToString(); sErial(t); button2.Text = "Close Serial port"; // button text } else { sp.Close(); button2.Text = "Connect and wait for inputs"; // button text } } catch (Exception err) // catching error message { MessageBox.Show(err.Message); // displaying error message } } void sErial(string Port_name) { try { sp = new SerialPort(Port_name, 115200, Parity.None, 8, StopBits.One); // serial port parameters sp.DataReceived += new SerialDataReceivedEventHandler(DataReceivedHandler); sp.Open(); } catch (Exception err) { throw (new SystemException(err.Message)); } } [/code] Textbox and chart data and saving data as text file; [code] private void DataReceivedHandler(object sender, SerialDataReceivedEventArgs e) { if (e.EventType == SerialData.Chars) { if (sp.IsOpen) { string w = sp.ReadExisting(); if (w != String.Empty) { Text += "\r\n"; Invoke(new Action(() => TextBox1.AppendText(w))); } } } data = sp.ReadLine(); chart1.Series["Data1"].Points.AddXY(rt, data); Invoke(new EventHandler(displayData_Event)); } private void displayData_Event(object sender, EventArgs e) { datetime = DateTime.Now; string time = datetime.Day + "/" + datetime.Month + "/" + datetime.Year + "\t" + datetime.Hour + ":" + datetime.Minute + ":" + datetime.Second; //data.AppendText(time + "\t" + data + "\n"); } private void button3_Click_1(object sender, EventArgs e) { SaveFileDialog saveFileDialog1 = new SaveFileDialog(); saveFileDialog1.InitialDirectory = @"C:\Users\varman\Documents\"; saveFileDialog1.Title = "Save text Files"; saveFileDialog1.CheckFileExists = true; saveFileDialog1.CheckPathExists = true; saveFileDialog1.DefaultExt = "txt"; saveFileDialog1.Filter = "Text files (*.txt)|*.txt|All files (*.*)|*.*"; saveFileDialog1.FilterIndex = 2; saveFileDialog1.RestoreDirectory = true; if (saveFileDialog1.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK) { File.WriteAllText(saveFileDialog1.FileName, TextBox1.Text); TextBox1.Text = saveFileDialog1.FileName; } } } }[/code] Thank you very much for your time. Good day.

Cheers,

Ram. Small Bio