How do I display different sensor readings from aduino on different static texts on MATLAB GUI?

As the title says, how do I display different sensor readings from aduino on different static texts on MATLAB GUI? The idea is when I press a pushbutton on matlab gui, each readings will be displayed on their respective static texts. Is there another syntax than 'fscanf' because it seems fscanf gets all the data from arduino. I'll show the code on my arduino and matlab. Below is the arduino code:

        const int trig1 = 6;
        const int echo1 = 7;
        const int trig2 = 8;
        const int echo2 = 9;
        const int trig3 = 10;
        const int echo3 = 11;

        long time, dist, tank1, tank2, tank3;

        void setup()
        {
          pinMode(trig1,OUTPUT);
          pinMode(echo1,INPUT);
          pinMode(trig2,OUTPUT);
          pinMode(echo2,INPUT);
          pinMode(trig3,OUTPUT);
          pinMode(echo3,INPUT);
          Serial.begin(9600);    
        }

        void loop()
        {
          SonarSensor(trig1,echo1);
          tank1 = dist;
          SonarSensor(trig2,echo2);
          tank2 = dist;
          SonarSensor(trig3,echo3);
          tank3 = dist;

          Serial.print(tank1);
          Serial.print(" cm");
          Serial.print(tank2);
          Serial.print(" cm");
          Serial.print(tank3);
          Serial.println(" cm");

          delay(50);

         if(Serial.available()!=0)
         {
           char command = Serial.read();
           if(command=='w')
           digitalWrite(13,HIGH);
           if(command=='x')
           digitalWrite(13,LOW);
         }

        }
        void SonarSensor(int trig,int echo)
        {
          digitalWrite(trig,LOW);
          delayMicroseconds(2);
          digitalWrite(trig,HIGH);
          delayMicroseconds(10);
          digitalWrite(trig,LOW);
          time = pulseIn(echo, HIGH);
          dist = (time/2) / 29.1;
        }

I want to display the readings of tank1, tank2 and tank3. This is what my MATLAB code looks like (at the press of a pushbutton):

a = serial('COM5');
fopen(a);

for i=1:20
p = fscanf(a);
set(handles.text1,'String',p);
end

I would like to display the readings of sensor1 in static text1, sensor2 in static text2, and sensor3 in static text 3. Please help me guys or at least give me an idea how to do it. Hoping for your kind considerations. :\

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

for i=1:20
p123 = fscanf(a,'%d cm%d cm%d cm');
  set(handles.text1,'String',p123(1));
  set(handles.text2,'String',p123(2));
  set(handles.text3,'String',p123(3));
end

[asdf asdf]

thanks, i'll give it a try. What do you think about this?

i=0;
while i==0
p123 = fscanf(a,'%d cm%d cm%d cm');
  set(handles.text1,'String',p123(1));
  set(handles.text2,'String',p123(2));
  set(handles.text3,'String',p123(3));
pause(0.5);
end

[Walter Roberson]

If you want an infinite loop, the convention is that you should use

while true

You should also program some condition for stopping, such as creating a STOP pushbutton whose value you check. For example,

drawnow();   %give a chance for interruptions
while true
  need_to_stop = get(handles.stop_togglebutton, 'Value');
  if need_to_stop > 0; break; end
  p123 = fscanf(a,'%d cm%d cm%d cm');
  set(handles.text1,'String',p123(1));
  set(handles.text2,'String',p123(2));
  set(handles.text3,'String',p123(3));
  pause(0.5);
end

Normally you need to drawnow() each time before checking the value of a uicontrol, but pause() also allows graphics interruptions to occur so it is not necessary to drawnow() as well.

[asdf asdf]

Thanks!!

[Filipe Nonato Rocha Coelho]

Hi, I have a similar problem here, but I didn't understand how I would stop the while loop. My goal is to save the values to a variable (instead of showing them, so I wouldn't use the "pause". But I can't stop my while loop, would you show me how is the functions that saves the stop_tooglebutton? thanks!!

[Walter Roberson]

Filipe Nonato Rocha Coelho : use drawnow() instead of pause()

Your stop_togglebutton does not need a callback. It will be assigned the value 1.0 when it is "on" and it will be assigned the value 0.0 when it is "off". It will continue to hold that value until it is changed, either by the user clicking on the button again, or by the code using

st(handles.stop_togglebutton, 'Value', 0)   %or 1