Unable to control motor and read from serial at same time

Using Arduino Programming Questions
1

Hi, I am trying to read distance data from ESP UWB sensors with Serial. My code works fine when just reading, but when I try to use the distance to control my RoboClaw motor controller, it does not work... any insight on what I can try? Thanks!

Btw... in turn_left, turn_right, etc, even if I do a serial print, it messes up the read and gives me "ERROR: STALE PACKET"

#include "RoboClaw.h"
#include <SoftwareSerial.h>
#include "SerialTransfer.h"


SoftwareSerial serial(10,11); 
RoboClaw roboclaw(&serial, 10000); 

SerialTransfer anchor1_transfer;
SerialTransfer anchor2_transfer;


#define address 0x80

float output1; 
float output2; 


unsigned long starttime;
unsigned long endtime;

void setup() {
  // put your setup code here, to run once:
  Serial.begin(115200); 
  Serial3.begin(115200);
  anchor1_transfer.begin(Serial3); 
  Serial2.begin(115200);
  anchor2_transfer.begin(Serial2); 
  roboclaw.begin(38400); 
}



void read_serial() {

  if(anchor2_transfer.available()){
    uint16_t recSize = 0;
    Serial.println("New Data 2");
    recSize = anchor2_transfer.rxObj(output2, recSize);
    Serial.println(output2);
  }
  else if(anchor2_transfer.status < 0){
    Serial.print("ERROR: ");
    Serial.println(anchor2_transfer.status);
  }

  if(anchor1_transfer.available()){
    uint16_t recSize = 0;
    Serial.println("New Data 1");
    recSize = anchor1_transfer.rxObj(output1, recSize);
    Serial.println(output1);
  }
  else if(anchor1_transfer.status < 0){
    Serial.print("ERROR: ");
    Serial.println(anchor1_transfer.status);
  }
}

void turn_left() {
  roboclaw.ForwardM1(address, 20); 
}

void turn_right() {
  roboclaw.ForwardM2(address, 20); 
}

void forward() {
  roboclaw.ForwardM1(address, 20);
  roboclaw.ForwardM2(address, 20); 
}


void stop () {
  roboclaw.ForwardM1(address, 0);
  roboclaw.ForwardM2(address, 0); 
}


void loop () {
  read_serial();
  
  // when the following is commented out, the readings are fine.
  // when the following is not commented, I get 'ERROR: STALE PACKET'
  if (output1 > 0.5){
      if (output1 - output2 > 0.4){
        turn_right();
      }
      else if (output2 - output1 > 0.4){
        turn_left();
      }
      else{
        forward();
      }    
    }
  else{
    return stop();
  }

}
2

Something like this will end loop(). Why the return?

3

Doesn't that give an error?
You can't return a value from a void function, that a void function doesn't return.

4

Hi, I got rid of the return but it still giving me CRC_ERROR and STALE_PACKET errors.

5

why do change the sketch during the code review ??

6

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