OK. If you have about 10 digits per data line the total time to transmit all 21 lines would be around 0.3-0.4 seconds, provided the instrument does not pause between lines. Then you have more than half a second with nothing coming in. Here is how I would handle something like this:
1. Put empty string into shift register. Set timeout counter to zero (also in a shift register).
2. Read all available bytes with a timeout of 0.1 s. Append bytes read to string.
3. Did Read timeout?
If timeout then increment counter, else go to 2.
4. If counter >=3, then exit loop, else go to 2.
Then put string into Spreadsheet String to Array to get 21 element array. If the data contains non-numeric characters, set the datatype of the array to string.
This would work even if the strings are almost twice as long as what I estimated above. The timeout and count can be adjusted to meet the specifics of your system.
Lynn
