clear serial buffer not working

Question

Also asked in forum.arduino.cc

bool receive_command(char answer[]);
void serial_flush(void);

void setup() {
  // put your setup code here, to run once:
  Serial.begin(115200);
  for(byte i=0;i<3;i++){
if(receive_command("OK")) Serial.println("OK found");
 serial_flush();
  }
}

void loop() {}

void serial_flush(void) {
  while (Serial.available()) Serial.read();
}

bool receive_command(char answer[]) {
 unsigned long _time = 0;
  const int max_time = 10000;
  bool flag = 0;

Serial.print("in Serial buffer=");
  Serial.println(Serial.available());
  if(Serial.available()){
  Serial.write(Serial.read());
  Serial.println(" left in serial buffer");}

  while (Serial.available() < 2) {
if ((millis() - _time) > max_time) {
      Serial.println("waited too long nothing received");
  return flag;
    }
    }
  do {
    if (Serial.findUntil(answer, '\n')) return flag = 1;
  } while (Serial.available());

return flag;

}

via serial monitor with CR+LF line ending I`m sending this string: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzOKabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 26chars+OK+26chars+CR+LF=56 chars

Output:

in Serial buffer=0
OK found
in Serial buffer=1
b left in serial buffer
in Serial buffer=0
waited too long nothing received

after OK is found serial_flush() is executed but after second run there serial.available() shows there is something in serial buffer. right at that moment it was char 'b' but it also can show char 'd' and 'c' depending how long it will run.

why serial_flush() is not clearing the buffer?

Thanks.

Answer 1

The processor is somewhat faster than serial input. If you really want to wait for nothing more to arrive you should probably add a short delay (although jsotola's suggestion of looking for a newline is sensible). Something like:

void serial_flush(void) {
 while (true)
   {
   delay (20);  // give data a chance to arrive
   if (Serial.available ())
     {
     // we received something, get all of it and discard it
     while (Serial.available ())
       Serial.read ();
     continue;  // stay in the main loop
     }
  else
    break;  // nothing arrived for 20 ms
   }
}

Answer 2

the second parameter of findUntil(target, terminator) is of type char* not char

your Serial.findUntil(answer, '\n') doesn't work and you patched it with do while.

use Serial.findUntil(answer, "\n")

'a' is read by readUntil, then it returns because of wrong parameter. serial_flush sees no new character. and next you read 'b' from buffer. the sketch runs fast compared to Serial speed. it sees always no or one new character in buffer if the previous was removed