Receiving Data From Serial Port & Starting a Timer - Visual Basic Express

[Ryan Fitzgerald]

Alright. So I'm building a small timing system as a "beta" for a local racetrack. I know that the VB Timer is inaccurate .. But that's why it's a beta. I'm using Visual Basic Express 2010

I'm taking an infrared sensor, and connecting it to a microcontroller. The microcontroller will read the input of the sensor (whether it's broke or not) and then decide what it needs to do.

Here's how it's SUPPOSED to work together:

You choose how many laps of qualifying you would want to do on the VB program. 1 lap or 2 laps. The VB program will then send a string to the microcontroller saying whether it's 1 or 2 laps. Next, the microcontroller checks to make sure the infrared is not broke, and it's reflecting off of the reflector. If it is reflecting, the program will wait until the infrared beam is broke. Now it will send a string to the VB program. The VB program will decide what that string is supposed to mean. (Start or Stop the timer). The problem I'm having is getting the VB program to receive the data being sent, and doing something with it. Here is the code i'm using to send data to the microcontroller:

Private WithEvents serialPort As New IO.Ports.SerialPort
 
 
 
serialPort.Write("1") ' ThPrivate Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
If serialPort.IsOpen Then
serialPort.Close()
End If
Try
With serialPort
.PortName = "COM5"
.BaudRate = 9600
.Parity = IO.Ports.Parity.None
.DataBits = 8
.StopBits = IO.Ports.StopBits.One
.Handshake = IO.Ports.Handshake.None
End With
serialPort.Open()
Catch ex As Exception
MsgBox(ex.ToString)
End Try
 
End Sub
 
Private Sub OneLap_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles OneLap.Click
 
'When you click OneLap it will show a bunch of labels, and other buttons.
 
PictureBox2.Visible = True
Label1.Visible = False
Button1.Visible = False
Button2.Visible = False
Button3.Visible = True
OneThousandths.Visible = True
OneHundredths.Visible = True
OneTenths.Visible = True
OneDP.Visible = True
OneSeconds.Visible = True
Button4.Visible = True
Button6.Visible = True
Label2.Visible = True
Label15.Visible = True
Label16.Visible = True
CheckBox1.Visible = Truee microcontroller reads "1" as 1 Lap Qualifying
 
End Sub

This code above only shows what would happens when you click a button for 1 Lap Qualifying.

Here's what I need the VB Program to do:

When the Microcontroller sends a string of "1" it needs to start the timer. When it receives the string of "2" it needs to stop the timer.

(if it's two laps)

When the Microcontroller sends a string of "3" it needs to start the Lap One timer. When it Receives the string of "4" it needs to stop the Lap One timer and Start the Lap Two timer. When it receives the string "5" it needs to stop the Lap Two timer.

I am fairly new to this, so how would I do it??

Any help is appreciated!!

-Ryan