How to generate non-blocking commands to a serial device

[juanmanuelparrilla]

I have a serial device which accepts non-blocking commands. This is, if you send a command that takes 1 minute, while this happens, you can send more commands and they will be executed. Once a command is done, it sends back a code that relates to that command, so you know it is finished.

I have a VI which tries to communicate with this serial device (see attachment). It does work, but it blocks the execution until a command is finished. So I can send commands one by one, but not in parallel, or in a delayed non-block way. The problem is the while loop which waits until the device outputs something.

I need to do something similar, but non blocking. The VI should be able to send several commands while others are executed.

This subVI is controlled from a main VI, which is just a State Machine with a few states, where each state is some action which is sent to this subVI, and then to the serial device.

[crossrulz]

Use another loop that does nothing but read from the serial port.  Report the data to whoever needs it with a Queue.

[juanmanuelparrilla]

I see, the problem is that with the way I have done the main VI, if I put a while true loop there, it would block my main VI in that point forever (see attachment). (the subVI from the first message is the green homemade icon here)

I am learning labview, so I am more than willing to change it if necessary.