Using an interrupt instead of checking serial.available in loop

Using Arduino Programming Questions
#1

I'm implementing a project on the Arduino. The loop function drives two servo motors using data from analog pins.. and is quite long. I'm also reading data from Serial2, using a bluetooth module paired with an Android phone. Currently, the bluetooth is checked at the start of the loop, but the gap between Serial.available() calls is too long. Can I use an interrupt on the tx2/rx2 pins so the arduino knows to read data from the serial at any point during the loop.

void loop()
{
  char recvChar;

  if (blueToothSerial.available())
    { //check if there's any data sent from the remote bluetooth shield
      recvChar = blueToothSerial.parseInt();
      Serial.print(recvChar);

      if (recvChar % 2 == 0)
      {
        Serial.print("east/west:  ");
        Serial.println(east_west);
        Serial.print("north/south: ");
        Serial.println(north_south);
        Serial.print("rotations: ");
        Serial.println(rotations);

      }
     
      else {
        //do nothing
      }
    }
     //read data from analog pins
     //drive servo

}
#2

the gap between Serial.available() calls is too long.

Please post your complete program so that we can see what is taking the time

#3

parseInt() is the one causing delay in your code. It waits until it parses a whole int or it exceeds the timeout.

#4

In the background the Arduino IDE already uses an interrupt to detect when a character arrives and move it to the Serial Input Buffer.

If you write non-blocking code that allows loop() to repeat frequently (hundreds of times per second) then there will be no problem getting data from the input buffer.

Have a look at the examples in Serial Input Basics - simple reliable non-blocking ways to receive data.

...R

#5