Arduino Pushbutton Controlling VB6 shape fill color - arduino

Question

I'm creating a program where if I click push button in Arduino the shape fill color in VB6 will change to red and if I click the pushbutton again the fill color will change to green. I am having problems reading serial data sent by my Arduino to VB6.
Here's my Arduino code:
int pbuttonPin = 7;// push button
int LED = 8; // LED
int val = 0; // push value from pin 2
int lightON = 0;//light status
int pushed = 0;//push status
void setup()
{
Serial.begin(9600);
pinMode(pbuttonPin, INPUT_PULLUP);
pinMode(LED, OUTPUT);
digitalWrite(LED, HIGH);
}
void loop()
{
val = digitalRead(pbuttonPin);// read the push button value
if(val == HIGH && lightON == LOW){
pushed = 1-pushed;
delay(100);
}
lightON = val;
if(pushed == HIGH)
{
Serial.print("Color Red\n");
digitalWrite(LED, LOW);
delay(100);
}
else
{
Serial.print("Color Green\n");
digitalWrite(LED, HIGH);
delay(100);
}
}
Here's my VB6 code,
Private Sub Form_Load()
With MSComm1
.CommPort = 8
.Settings = "9600,N,8,1"
.Handshaking = comRTS
.RTSEnable = True
.DTREnable = True
.RThreshold = 1
.SThreshold = 1
.InputMode = comInputModeText
.InputLen = 0
.PortOpen = True
End With
Timer1.Enabled = True
End Sub
Private Sub Timer1_Timer()
If MSComm1.Input = "Color Red" Then
Shape1.FillColor = vbRed
Shape1.FillStyle = vbSolid
End If
If MSComm1.Input = "Color Green" Then
Shape1.FillColor = vbGreen
Shape1.FillStyle = vbSolid
End If
End Sub
Thank you very much for offering your assistance on the upcoming

Answer 1

There is no guarantee the data from the serial port will not be broken down into multiple parts so you should implement a buffer to keep track of all the parts received. Also, since MSComm1.Input returns and removes characters from the receive buffer, your second If statement will never contain any data. You should read the data once and store it in a variable. Here's some code that implements this:
Dim m_sBuffer As String
Private Sub Form_Load()
' Initialize Serial Port
With MSComm1
.CommPort = 8
.Settings = "9600,N,8,1"
.Handshaking = comRTS
.RTSEnable = True
.DTREnable = True
.RThreshold = 1
.SThreshold = 1
.InputMode = comInputModeText
.InputLen = 0
.PortOpen = True
End With
' Initialize FillStyle
Shape1.FillStyle = vbSolid
' Clear buffer
m_sBuffer = ""
' Start timer
Timer1.Enabled = True
End Sub
Private Sub Timer1_Timer()
Dim sReceivedData As String
' Read data from serial port
sReceivedData = MSComm1.Input
' Append Received Data to buffer
m_sBuffer = m_sBuffer & sReceivedData
' Check buffer content
Select Case m_sBuffer
Case "Color Red"
Shape1.FillColor = vbRed
m_sBuffer = "" ' Clear buffer
Case "Color Green"
Shape1.FillColor = vbGreen
m_sBuffer = "" ' Clear buffer
End If
End Sub