Parsing Data in Processing thru Serial Port from Arduino + Pixy Cam

Processing Electronics (Arduino, etc.)
3

Thank you so much, jb4x!! I apologize for the super late response – I’ve been working hard over here. Your suggestion helped me so much! I tried splitTokens before with “:” and for some reason didn’t even think about using spaces.

My new code (see below) is working pretty well. Now, I think I’m ready to go onto more complex stuff. But, I’m really pleased with where I am right now.

Like I said, I’m a beginner, so I’m commenting the heck out of this so I don’t forget how things are working the way they are…

import processing.serial.*; //// import data from serial
Serial myPort;  //// defines the serial port
Boolean firstContact = false;
float block; //// defines a global float for "block", and other values from the port below..
float sig;
float xpos;
float ypos;
float blockWidth;
float blockHeight;
float age;

void setup() {
  myPort = new Serial(this, Serial.list()[2], 115200); //// tell myPort to call from Port2
  background(0);
  size(800,800);
}

void draw() {
 //fill(random(255),random(255),random(255));
 fill(0);
 stroke(random(255),random(255),random(255)); //// colors the stroke from full spectrum of RGB values
 strokeWeight(random(255)); //// varies the stroke weight randomly
 ellipse(xpos,ypos,blockWidth,blockWidth); //// draws an ellipse using the floats I defined globally
 fill(0,20); //// draws a translucent rectangle the size of the screen to cause a fade effect
 noStroke();
 rect(0,0,width,height);
}

void serialEvent( Serial myPort) {
  ////put the incoming data into a String - 
  ////the '\n' is our end delimiter indicating the end of a complete packet
  String val = myPort.readStringUntil('\n'); // val = all info coming in thru the port
  ////make sure our data isn't empty before continuing
  if (val != null) {
    ////trim whitespace and formatting characters (like carriage return)
    val = trim(val);
    //println(val);
    //val = String(val);
    String[] splitText = splitTokens(val, " "); // splits val at each "space," creating an array

    //// the exact contents of the string array, splitText:
    //// splitText[15] = [0]="block:", [1]=block, [2]="sig:", [3]=sig, [4]="x:", [5]=x,
    //// [6]="y:", [7]=y, [8]="width:", [9]=width, [10]="height:", [11]=height, [12]="index:",
    //// [13]=index, [14]="age:", [15]=age
    
    if(splitText.length > 15) //// ONLY if the serial port reports a FULL string of data, then...
    {                         //// print certain items in the array to the console:
    println("block = " + splitText[1] + "\n" + "sig = " + splitText[3] +
    "\n" + "x = " + splitText[5] + "\n" + "y = " + splitText[7] +
    "\n" + "width = " + splitText[9] + "\n" + "height = " + splitText[11] +
    "\n" + "age = " + splitText[15]);
    
    //// and turn each string of numbers into a float:
    block = float(splitText[1]); ////the block value currently still includes ":" so I need to fix that..
    sig = float(splitText[3]);
    //xpos = float(splitText[5]);
    //ypos = float(splitText[7]);
    //// and map the x and y positions to the width and height of the canvas
    xpos = map(float(splitText[5]),0,319,0,width); //// the hightest x value from Pixy is 319, lowest = 0
    ypos = map(float(splitText[7]),0,199,0,height); //// the hightest y value from Pixy is 199, lowest = 0
    blockWidth = float(splitText[9]);
    blockHeight = float(splitText[11]);
    age = float(splitText[15]);
  }
    
    //println("split version" + splitText);

    //// look for our 'A' string to start the handshake
    //// if it's there, clear the buffer, and send a request for data
    if (firstContact == false) {
      if (val.equals("A")) {
        myPort.clear();
        firstContact = true;
        myPort.write("A");
        //println("contact");  
      }
    } else { //if we've already established contact, keep getting and parsing data
      //println(val);

      // when you've parsed the data you have, ask for more:
      myPort.write("A");
    }
  }
}
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