>>Viv,
>>
>>>It's not assigning a variable - it's sending the string to the transmit buffer. I guess if you want it to go faster you need a faster baud rate...
>>
>>Correct, but only to a point. Try the following:
>>

>>sendstart = SECONDS()
>>this.mscomm1.output = SPACE(100)
>>buffcount  = this.mscomm1.outBufferCount
>>sendend = SECONDS()
>>outputtime = sendend-sendstart
>>

>>
>>buffcount wil always be 0. Control doesn't return to VFP until the entire output buffer is empty.
>
>ouch :(
>
>the device only seems to operate at 19,600 .
>The buffer size is the vast majority of the time between 75 and 115 characters .
>So now I'm wondering:
> we are polling the device for an ACK , could we short circuit the app by just checking the mscomm object to see if the OUTPUT all went out?

As far as I can tell, once you OUTPUT, you are hung until the buffer is empty. So in effect, you know it went when you can continue to process. A bug IMO. Once your strings exceed the size of the outbuffer, then things begin to work as you might expect - meaning, a subsequent read of the outbuffercount will show some value other than 0.

I think your polling for an ACK would be the only sure way to know that the send completed successfully.