lcd serial interrupts servo cycle

Hi everyone, i'm working with a servo which cycles through 3 position for a couple of mins. I along with the servo, i have an lcd hook connected which takes in python messages. I need this serial connection to be open as the messages are coming frequently. The problem lies with the structure of my code. Once the serial connection is made, the servo cycle stops and only the lcd continues to work. I was looking into interrupt commands however i'm not sure as to how to pursue with this. any help on this would be great,

below is the code i am working with.
thank you in advance.

#include "Wire.h"
// LCD
char stringIn[] = {' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', 
                   ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ',
                   ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' '};

/*  10º, 90º, 170º
    Moves servo to 3 different angles
    with a pause of 1 second each.
*/
int ledPin = 13; 
int ledPin1 = 12; 
int ledPin2 = 11;
  
int servoPin = 14;   // servo connected to digital pin 2
int myAngle;        // angle of the servo roughly 0-180
int pulseWidth;     // servoPulse function variable
 
void setup()
{
  pinMode(servoPin, OUTPUT);   // sets pin 2 as output
  pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT); 
  backlightOn();
  clearLCD();
  Serial.begin(9600);
}
 
void servoPulse(int servoPin, int myAngle)    
{      
  pulseWidth = (myAngle * 10) + 600;  // determines delay  
  digitalWrite(servoPin, HIGH);       // set servo high
  delayMicroseconds(pulseWidth);      // micro pause
  digitalWrite(servoPin, LOW);        // set servo low
  delay(20);                          // refresh cycle
}
 
void loop()
{
//wk_1
  digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH);   // sets the LED on
  myAngle = 10;                  // starts at 10º
  for(int i=0; i<3000; i++)             // loops 300 times
  {
    servoPulse(servoPin, myAngle);
  }
  digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW);    // sets the LED off

if (nextByte() == 126) {          // header byte ('~' character)
    char charIn = 0;
    byte i = 0;
    while (charIn != 126) {      // wait for header byte again 
      charIn = nextByte();
      stringIn[i] = charIn;
      i += 1;
      }                           // stringIn is finished
      for (int j=i-1; j<16; j++) {
       stringIn[j] = ' ';        // null out string
      }
      clearLCD();
      delay(2);
      selectLineOne();
      delay(2);
      Serial.println(stringIn);
      delay(10);
    } 
} 
byte nextByte() { 
    while(1) {
      if(Serial.available() > 0) {
          byte b =  Serial.read();
        return b;
       }
    }
}
void selectLineOne(){  //puts the cursor at line 0 char 0.
    Serial.print(0xFE, BYTE);   //command flag
    Serial.print(128, BYTE);    //position
}
void clearLCD(){
    Serial.print(0xFE, BYTE);   //command flag
    Serial.print(0x01, BYTE);   //clear command.
}
void backlightOn(){  //turns on the backlight
    Serial.print(0x7C, BYTE);   //command flag for backlight stuff
    Serial.print(157, BYTE);    //light level.
}

hi,

when is your "header byte (~)" sent? if it's only at the beginning of a new serial message, it's clear why your servo won't do anyting after the first message is sent. i'm not sure if i understand your problem and code correctly. but maybe replace

while (charIn != 126) {
...
}

with something like

while (charIn != 126 && nextByte()) {
...
}

i didn't test this, but the idea is to leave the while loop when the serial message is over. not when the next message starts.

This structure of this sketch is also being discussed in this thread: http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1208832515/6

It may be more helpful if the OP would close one of the threads so that comments were in one place.