Serial Port Communication with electric meter and serial port in c#

Question

I have an Electric meter connected over USB on COM5.

I want to read data from the meter but first check whether it's working or not. Means if I write something over the port I will send and receive again.

So, I am using the SerialPort class and the DataReceived event handler.

My code is below.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.IO.Ports;

namespace Communication
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            const int bufSize = 2048;
            Byte[] but = new Byte[bufSize]; // to save receive data

            SerialPort sp = new SerialPort("COM5");
           sp.BaudRate = 9600;
           sp.Parity = Parity.None;
           sp.StopBits = StopBits.One;
           sp.DataBits = 8;
           sp.Handshake = Handshake.None;
           sp.DtrEnable = true;
           sp.RtsEnable = true;
           sp.Open(); //open the port
            sp.DataReceived += port_OnReceiveDatazz; // event handler

           sp.WriteLine("$"); //start data stream
           Console.ReadLine();
           sp.WriteLine("!"); //stop data  stream
           sp.Close(); //close the port
        }
        //event handler method
        public static void SerialDataReceivedEventHandler(object sender, SerialDataReceivedEventArgs e)
        {
            SerialPort srlport = (SerialPort)sender;
            const int bufSize = 12;
            Byte[] buf = new Byte[bufSize];
            Console.WriteLine("Data Received!!!");
            Console.WriteLine(srlport.Read(buf,0,bufSize));
        }

    }
}

When compiling I get this error:

port_OnReceivedDatazz does not exist in the current context

Please give some suggestion.

Answer 1

There is error port_OnReceivedDatazz does not exist in the current context

The name of your event handler and your event handler method have to correspond!

You have basically 2 Options either rename this line:

sp.DataReceived += port_OnReceiveDatazz; // event handler

to :

sp.DataReceived += SerialDataReceivedEventHandler;

OR rename the method

public static void port_OnReceiveDatazz(object sender, SerialDataReceivedEventArgs e)
{

EDIT:

if you still don't see the desired output it might be that Console.ReadLine() blocks the console and prevents it from printing.

In the MSDN Example they use

Console.ReadKey();

For Reference see this answer.

Just as last remark, you never save your received data permanently since you use a local variable for storing the input:

Byte[] buf = new Byte[bufSize];
srlport.Read(buf,0,bufSize);

You should use the array from this line:

Byte[] but = new Byte[bufSize]; // to save receive data

When you read your data take the but array:

srlport.Read(but,0,bufSize);

EDIT 2:

If you want to print out what you have received you need to print out the content of the array that you fill with the Read method:

//event handler method
public static void SerialDataReceivedEventHandler(object sender, SerialDataReceivedEventArgs e)
{
    SerialPort srlport = (SerialPort)sender;
    const int bufSize = 12;
    Byte[] buf = new Byte[bufSize];
    Console.WriteLine("Data Received!!!");
    int bytes_read = srlport.Read(buf,0,bufSize)
    Console.WriteLine("Bytes read: " + bytes_read);

    // you can use String.Join to print out the entire array without a loop
   Console.WriteLine("Content:\n" + String.Join(" ", bud));


}