winforms: Reading from serialport and plotting real time data. Many errors/bugs - winforms

Question

I'm trying to acquire data from an MCU, save them to a file and plot them. The code functions properly for some time, then just hangs randomly (sometimes after 1 sec, sometimes after 1 minute ...!). Also the serialport timeouts are not respected, i.e. I'm not receiving any timeout exceptions. I'm using an FTDI232RL chip. The only time I get a timeout exception is when I unplug it while the program is running.
Code:
private: System::Void START_Click(System::Object^ sender, System::EventArgs^ e) {
seconds=0;
minutes=0;
hours=0;
days=0;
t=0;
if((this->comboBox4->Text == String::Empty)||(this->textBox2->Text == String::Empty)||(this->textBox3->Text == String::Empty)){
this->textBox1->Text="please select port, save file directory and logging interval";
timer1->Enabled=false;
}
else{ // start assigning
w=Convert::ToDouble(this->textBox3->Text);
double q=fmod(w*1000,10);
if(q!=0){
MessageBox::Show("The logging interval must be a multiple of 0.01s");
}
else{
period=static_cast<int>(w*1000);
this->interval->Interval = period;
try{ // first make sure port isn't busy/open
if(!this->serialPort1->IsOpen){
// select the port whose name is in comboBox4 (select port)
this->serialPort1->PortName=this->comboBox4->Text;
//open the port
this->serialPort1->Open();
this->serialPort1->ReadTimeout = period+1;
this->serialPort1->WriteTimeout = period+1;
String^ name_ = this->serialPort1->PortName;
START=gcnew String("S");
this->textBox1->Text="Logging started";
timer1->Enabled=true;
interval->Enabled=true;
myStream=new ofstream(directory,ios::out);
*myStream<<"time(ms);ADC1;ADC2;ADC3;ADC4;ADC5;ADC6;ADC7;ADC8;";
*myStream<<endl;
chart1->Series["ADC1"]->Points->Clear();
chart1->Series["ADC2"]->Points->Clear();
chart1->Series["ADC3"]->Points->Clear();
chart1->Series["ADC4"]->Points->Clear();
chart1->Series["ADC5"]->Points->Clear();
chart1->Series["ADC6"]->Points->Clear();
chart1->Series["ADC7"]->Points->Clear();
chart1->Series["ADC8"]->Points->Clear();
backgroundWorker1->RunWorkerAsync();
}
else
{
this->textBox1->Text="Warning: port is busy or isn't open";
timer1->Enabled=false;
interval->Enabled=false;
}
}
catch(UnauthorizedAccessException^)
{
this->textBox1->Text="Unauthorized access";
timer1->Enabled=false;
interval->Enabled=false;
}
}
}
}
private: System::Void backgroundWorker1_DoWork(System::Object^ sender, System::ComponentModel::DoWorkEventArgs^ e) {
while(!backgroundWorker1->CancellationPending){
if(backgroundWorker1->CancellationPending){
e->Cancel=true;
return;
}
t+=period;
if(t<10*period){
this->chart1->ChartAreas["ChartArea1"]->AxisX->Minimum=0;
this->chart1->ChartAreas["ChartArea1"]->AxisX->Maximum=t+10*period;
}
else {
this->chart1->ChartAreas["ChartArea1"]->AxisX->Minimum=t-10*period;
this->chart1->ChartAreas["ChartArea1"]->AxisX->Maximum=t+10*period;
}
*myStream<<t<<";";
for (int n=0;n<8;n++){
adc_array[n]= this->serialPort1->ReadByte();
}
Array::Copy(adc_array,ADC,8);
for(int f=0; f<8; f++){
*myStream<<ADC[f]<<";";
}
*myStream<<endl;
backgroundWorker1->ReportProgress(t);
}
}
private: System::Void backgroundWorker1_ProgressChanged(System::Object^ sender, System::ComponentModel::ProgressChangedEventArgs^ e) {
chart1->Series["ADC1"]->Points->AddXY(t,ADC[0]);
chart1->Series["ADC2"]->Points->AddXY(t,ADC[1]);
chart1->Series["ADC3"]->Points->AddXY(t,ADC[2]);
chart1->Series["ADC4"]->Points->AddXY(t,ADC[3]);
chart1->Series["ADC5"]->Points->AddXY(t,ADC[4]);
chart1->Series["ADC6"]->Points->AddXY(t,ADC[5]);
chart1->Series["ADC7"]->Points->AddXY(t,ADC[6]);
chart1->Series["ADC8"]->Points->AddXY(t,ADC[7]);
}
the user is allowed to define intervals in seconds for data acquisition (in the code this interval is w after conversion to double). In this case, the program sends a pulse to the MCU requesting a new data transmission. So far, I have been testing this for 1 second intervals (note, during each interval the MCU sends 8 frames, each representing an ADC). However, I need to get this to run for 10ms intervals at some point. Will this be possible? Any idea on how to solve the few problems I mentioned at the beginning?
Thanks in advance
UPDATE
Just to give you an idea of what's happening:
I commented the charting part and ran the program for about 5 minutes, with a reading interval of 1s. So I expected to get around 5x60=300 values in the output file, but I only got 39 (i.e. starting from 1s till 39s). The program was still running, but the data were not getting stored anymore.
Testing was done in release mode and not debug mode. In debug mode, setting a break point under serialport->readbyte(), does not reproduce the problem. My guess is it's a timing issue between program and MCU.

Answer 1

You are making several standard mistakes. First off, do NOT unplug the cable when the port is opened. Many USB emulators don't know how to deal with that, the FTDI driver is particularly notorious about that. They just make the port disappear while it is in use, this invariably gives code that uses the port a severe heart attack. An uncatchable exception is common.
Secondly, you are accessing properties of a class that is not thread-safe in a worker thread. The Chart control was made to be used only in a UI thread, accessing the ChartAreas property in a worker is going to buy you a lot of misery. Getting an InvalidOperationException is pretty typical when you violate threading requirements, it is however not consistently implemented. Nastiness includes random AccessViolationExceptions, corrupted data and deadlock.
Third, you are setting completely unrealistic goals. Pursuing an update every 10 milliseconds is pointless, the human eye cannot perceive that. Anything past 50 milliseconds just turns into a blur. Something that is taken advantage of when you watch a movie in the cinema, it displays at 24 frames per second. The failure mode for that is unpleasant as well, you'll eventually reach a point where you are pummeling the UI thread (or the Chart control) with more updates than it can process. The side effect is that the UI stops painting itself, it is too busy trying to keep up with the deluge of invoke requests. And the amount of memory your program consumes keeps building, the update queue grows without bounds. That does eventually end with an OOM exception, it takes a while to consume 2 jiggabytes however. You will need to prevent this from happening, you need to throttle the rate at which you invoke. A simple thread-safe counter can take care of that.
Forth, you are accessing the data you gather in more than one thread without taking care of thread-safety. The ADC array content is being changed by the worker while the UI thread is reading it. Various amounts of misery from that, bad data at a minimum. A simply workaround is to pass a copy of the data to the ReportProgress method. In general, address these kind of threading problems by using pull instead of push. Get rid of the fire-hose problem by having the UI thread pace the requests instead of trying to have the UI thread keep up.