Arduino: serial.read within ISR - arduino

Question

I am writing a small test program that attempts to perform a serial.write() followed by a serial.read() within an ISR. The code will eventually be used to prompt an external GSM shield to send an SMS on a regular basis.
ISR(TIMER2_OVF_vect) {
Serial.println("AT+CMGS=\"0123456789\""); // Tell Sim900 To prepare sms to number 01...
while(Serial.read()!='>'); // Wait for Sim900 to respond
Serial.print("A text message"); // the SMS body
Serial.write(0x1A); //Confirm send instruction
Serial.write(0x0D);
Serial.write(0x0A);
}
}
What I have found after a lot of testing is that Serial.read() within an ISR is not capable of reading a live serial prompt, instead it will only read any input that was buffered before the ISR was triggered.
Is there any way around this?
The only solution I have found is to place this code instead within the main loop(). But I want to send the SMS using a timer interrupt.
Thank you

Answer 1

You need to place the code in the loop() but using an IF:
float toBeSent = interval;
loop() {
if (millis() > toBeSent) {
Send();
toBeSent = milli() + interval;
}
}
interval is your sending interval in milliseconds.

Answer 2

I had a similar problem a while ago which I managed to resolve by using the Arduino SoftwareSerial library instead of the hardware based Serial.read.
There are some overheads associated with using SoftwareSerial, and you can only read one port at a time, so I leave it up to those with a better understanding of the Arduino platform to tell you if this is a good idea, but one of the benefits of this library is that you can use it within an ISR.
To use the SoftwareSerial library, add the following two lines of code at the top of your sketch remembering to replqce the rx_pin and tx_pin with the corresponding pin values you want to use:
#include <SoftwareSerial.h>
SoftwareSerial mySerial(rx_pin, tx_pin);
Then replace the key word Serial throughout your sketch with mySerial (or whatever name you have chosen to give your SoftwareSerial instance).
An important thing to keep in mind when using SoftwareSerial is that you can only use certain pins on the Arduino so read the documentation first.

Answer 3

If you wanted to live dangerously you could enable interrupts inside the ISR and use a flag to prevent reentry.
int flag=0;
ISR(TIMER2_OVF_vect) {
flag = 1
if (flag){return;}
sei();
Serial.println("AT+CMGS=\"0123456789\""); // Tell Sim900 To prepare sms to number 01...
while(Serial.read()!='>'); // Wait for Sim900 to respond
Serial.print("A text message"); // the SMS body
Serial.write(0x1A); //Confirm send instruction
Serial.write(0x0D);
Serial.write(0x0A);
}
flag = 0;
}