Multithreading Serial Port C#

Question

I am currently writing an application that performs 3 basic functions:

1. Send out commands to a 3rd party device
2. Read the byte response of the 3rd party device
3. Analyze response and write analysis to RichTextBox

My application contains a number of test scripts with each one executing a loop of tests such as:

public SerialPort comport = new SerialPort();

private void RunTest()
{
    byte[] arrayExample = { 0x00, 0x01, 0x02, 0x03 };

    // Perform 200 operations and analyze responses
    for(int i=0, i<200, i++)
    {

        // Send byte array to 3rd party device
        comport.Write(arrayExample, 0, arrayExample.length);

        // Receive response
        int bytes = comport.BytesToRead;            
        byte[] buffer = new byte[bytes];
        comport.Read(buffer, 0, bytes);

        // Check to see if the device sends back a certain byte array
        if(buffer = { 0x11, 0x22 })
        {
           // Write "test passed" to RichTextBox
           LogMessage(LogMsgType.Incoming, "Test Passed");
        }
        else
        {
           // Write "test failed" to RichTextBox
           LogMessage(LogMsgType.Incoming, "Test Failed");
        }
    }
}

In the current setup my UI is unresponsive during test scripts (usually lasts 2-3 minutes).

As you can see I am not using a DataReceived event. Instead I am opting to specifically call out when to write/read through the serial port. Part of the reason I am doing this is because I need to stop and analyze the buffer response before writing more data. With that being the case is there a way to still multithread this application?

Answer 1

You need to run it on another thread.

Thread testThread = new Thread(() => RunTest());
testThread.Start();

I assume

LogMessage();

is accessing the UI. Threading you aren't allowed to access the UI directly so the simplest way is anonymous. In LogMessage you would do something like

this.Invoke((MethodInvoker)delegate { richTextBox.Text = yourVar; });