App Designer serial runs

Hi,

I am still struggling through app designer and i still cannot get my app to run again. I have attached the code but I am at a road block and need help trouble shooting. I currently am hard coding hte arduino connection in so it has to be within my while loop. I basically want it to start again and draw another line but after it pops up the figure it will not. Any help is greatly appreciated!

classdef app2 < matlab.apps.AppBase

    % Properties that correspond to app components
    properties (Access = public)
        UIFigure               matlab.ui.Figure
        RUNButton              matlab.ui.control.Button
        STOPButton             matlab.ui.control.Button
        UIAxes                 matlab.ui.control.UIAxes
        COMPortEditFieldLabel  matlab.ui.control.Label
        COMPortEditField       matlab.ui.control.EditField
        SaveAsEditFieldLabel   matlab.ui.control.Label
        SaveAsEditField        matlab.ui.control.EditField
    end

    
    properties (Access = private)
        stop;
        port;
        done=0;
        timeLogs;
        forceLogs;
        timeSecs;
        filename;
        T;
        h;
        a;
        starttime;
        t;
    end

    methods (Access = private)
    
        function reset(app)
            app.h=0;
            app.starttime=0;
            app.t=0;
            app.stop=false;
        end
        
    end
    

    methods (Access = private)

        % Code that executes after component creation
        function startupFcn(app, a)
            app.a=arduino('Com5','uno');
        end

        % Value changed function: COMPortEditField
        function COMPortEditFieldValueChanged(app, event)
            value = app.COMPortEditField.Value;
            app.port=value;
        end

        % Button pushed function: RUNButton
        function RUNButtonPushed(app, event)
          
            figure
            app.h=animatedline;
            ax=gca;
            ax.YGrid='on';
            ax.YLim=[0 80];
            
            app.stop=false;
            app.starttime=datetime('now');
            
            while ~app.stop
                % Read current voltage value
                voltage1 = readVoltage(app.a,'A0');
                voltage2 = readVoltage(app.a,'A1');
                %     Calculate force from voltage (based on data sheet)
                %     Flipped for ease of use
                force1=-(13.499*voltage1)+68.534; %from calibration with standard weights
                force2=-(9.9586*voltage2)+49.882; %from calibration with standard weights
                force=force1+force2;
                % Get current time
                app.t = datetime('now') - app.starttime;
                % Add points to animation
                addpoints(app.h,datenum(app.t),force)
                % Update axes
                ax.XLim = datenum([app.t-seconds(15) app.t]);
                datetick('x','keeplimits')
                drawnow
                % Check stop condition
                app.stop = app.done;
            end
            
        end

        % Button pushed function: STOPButton
        function STOPButtonPushed(app, event)
            app.done=1;
            [app.timeLogs,app.forceLogs] = getpoints(app.h);
            app.timeSecs = (app.timeLogs-app.timeLogs(1))*24*3600;
            app.T = table(app.timeSecs',app.forceLogs','VariableNames',{'Time_sec','Force_N'});
            % Write table to file
            writetable(app.T,app.filename)
            
            [app.timeLogs,app.forceLogs] = getpoints(app.h);
            app.timeSecs = (app.timeLogs-app.timeLogs(1))*24*3600;
            plot(app.UIAxes,app.timeSecs,app.forceLogs)
            
            reset(app)
            
        end

        % Value changed function: SaveAsEditField
        function SaveAsEditFieldValueChanged(app, event)
            value = app.SaveAsEditField.Value;
            app.filename=value;
        end

        % Value changing function: COMPortEditField
        function COMPortEditFieldValueChanging(app, event)
            changingValue = event.Value;
            app.port=changingValue;
        end
    end

    % App initialization and construction
    methods (Access = private)

        % Create UIFigure and components
        function createComponents(app)

            % Create UIFigure
            app.UIFigure = uifigure;
            app.UIFigure.Position = [100 100 640 480];
            app.UIFigure.Name = 'UI Figure';

            % Create RUNButton
            app.RUNButton = uibutton(app.UIFigure, 'push');
            app.RUNButton.ButtonPushedFcn = createCallbackFcn(app, @RUNButtonPushed, true);
            app.RUNButton.BackgroundColor = [0 1 0];
            app.RUNButton.Position = [388 22 100 31];
            app.RUNButton.Text = 'RUN';

            % Create STOPButton
            app.STOPButton = uibutton(app.UIFigure, 'push');
            app.STOPButton.ButtonPushedFcn = createCallbackFcn(app, @STOPButtonPushed, true);
            app.STOPButton.BackgroundColor = [1 0 0];
            app.STOPButton.Position = [509 22 100 31];
            app.STOPButton.Text = 'STOP';

            % Create UIAxes
            app.UIAxes = uiaxes(app.UIFigure);
            title(app.UIAxes, 'Force vs. Time')
            xlabel(app.UIAxes, 'Time')
            ylabel(app.UIAxes, 'Force')
            app.UIAxes.YGrid = 'on';
            app.UIAxes.Position = [11 72 619 398];

            % Create COMPortEditFieldLabel
            app.COMPortEditFieldLabel = uilabel(app.UIFigure);
            app.COMPortEditFieldLabel.HorizontalAlignment = 'right';
            app.COMPortEditFieldLabel.Position = [44 52 59 22];
            app.COMPortEditFieldLabel.Text = 'COM Port';

            % Create COMPortEditField
            app.COMPortEditField = uieditfield(app.UIFigure, 'text');
            app.COMPortEditField.ValueChangedFcn = createCallbackFcn(app, @COMPortEditFieldValueChanged, true);
            app.COMPortEditField.ValueChangingFcn = createCallbackFcn(app, @COMPortEditFieldValueChanging, true);
            app.COMPortEditField.Position = [118 52 100 22];
            app.COMPortEditField.Value = 'Com';

            % Create SaveAsEditFieldLabel
            app.SaveAsEditFieldLabel = uilabel(app.UIFigure);
            app.SaveAsEditFieldLabel.HorizontalAlignment = 'right';
            app.SaveAsEditFieldLabel.Position = [45 12 54 22];
            app.SaveAsEditFieldLabel.Text = 'Save As:';

            % Create SaveAsEditField
            app.SaveAsEditField = uieditfield(app.UIFigure, 'text');
            app.SaveAsEditField.ValueChangedFcn = createCallbackFcn(app, @SaveAsEditFieldValueChanged, true);
            app.SaveAsEditField.Position = [114 12 214 22];
        end
    end

    methods (Access = public)

        % Construct app
        function app = app2(varargin)

            % Create and configure components
            createComponents(app)

            % Register the app with App Designer
            registerApp(app, app.UIFigure)

            % Execute the startup function
            runStartupFcn(app, @(app)startupFcn(app, varargin{:}))

            if nargout == 0
                clear app
            end
        end

        % Code that executes before app deletion
        function delete(app)

            % Delete UIFigure when app is deleted
            delete(app.UIFigure)
        end
    end
end

Answer 1

[Adam Danz]

In general, always specify axis handles when plotting. This is especially important when creating plots from a GUI. The reason your data aren't appearing on the plot is because animatedline() doesn't know what axes to use. If you specify the axis handle, the problem will be solved. So you'll need to create the axes before creating the animaledline object.

figure
ax = axes;  %don't use gca, it's not specific enough for GUIs.
app.h=animatedline(ax);

[Allison McCrady]

This did not solve the problem. I need it to run another live plot and it will not. The second window pops up but will not collect data. Any ideas?

[Adam Danz]

" I basically want it to start again and draw another line but after it pops up the figure it will not."

My solution fixes that problem. To test my solution, I changed your code so that the axis handle is an input to animatedline() (as shown in my solution above), I commented-out the voltage1 and voltage2 lines, and I gave 'force' a constant value. When I run your app with those changes, the data are correctly drawn on the newly created figure.

It sounds like you now have a new problem. Perhaps your voltage input is malfunctional?

[Allison McCrady]

I got it! It wasn't resetting the done back to 0 so it didn't realize that it was time to go again! Thank you so much for your help! I really think it's starting to make sense! This is the new code at the top of the RunButton Pushed.

app.done=0;
            app.stop=false;
            app.starttime=datetime('now');
            
            figure
            ax=axes;
            app.h=animatedline(ax);
            ax.YGrid='on';
            ax.YLim=[0 80];