BillYo, yes, I test fire it with the Legacy remote before I try to trigger it with my program.
Here's the current version of my core code, and still no luck. There's alot of other code, mostly superfluous I think (borrowed from Google searches), but since I'm getting a response in the SER when I try to write to the com port, I think the rest is fine. My guess is the error lies in this part of my code. I shamelessly borrow from public code snippets, so no credit for coming up with what I do have all on my own! I've also gotten some coaching from Harvy Ackermanns, many thanks to him!
Sub TestEngine66RearCoupler()
intPortID = 3
Call Terminate 'make sure port is available
Call Initialize(intPortID) 'open port
TMCC1String = "11111110"
EngineNum = Dec2Bin(66, 7) 'convert engine number to binary
CommandVal = "00110"
CmdString = "00" & EngineNum & "00" & CommandVal
CmdStringLeft = Left(CmdString, 8) 'parse string into two bytes, number 1
CmdStringRight = Right(CmdString, 8) 'parse string into two bytes, number 2
CmdByte(1) = bin2Byte(TMCC1String) 'try to convert byte string into a byte array - THIS IS WHERE I THINK MY ERROR IS
CmdByte(2) = bin2Byte(CmdStringLeft) 'try to convert byte string into a byte array - THIS IS WHERE I THINK MY ERROR IS
CmdByte(3) = bin2Byte(CmdStringRight) 'try to convert byte string into a byte array - THIS IS WHERE I THINK MY ERROR IS
Call ComPortCmd(intPortID, CmdByte) 'Call the routines that send the message
Call Terminate
End Sub
Function bin2Byte(ByVal s As String) As Byte() 'THIS FUNCTIONS CONVERTS THE STRING INTO THE BYTE ARRAY
Dim bitsIn As Long
bitsIn = 8
Dim i As Long
'pad with zeros
If Len(s) Mod bitsIn <> 0 Then
For i = 1 To bitsIn - Len(s) Mod bitsIn
s = "0" & s
Next i
End If
i = Len(s)
Dim bytes() As Byte
Dim byteCount As Long
byteCount = -1
Dim sByte As String
Do While LenB(s) > 0
byteCount = byteCount + 1
ReDim Preserve bytes(byteCount)
sByte = Mid$(s, Len(s) - bitsIn + 1)
'sByte = Mid$(s, 1, bitsIn)
For i = 0 To 7 Step 1
bytes(byteCount) = bytes(byteCount) + CLng(Mid$(sByte, 8 - i, 1)) * 2 ^ i
Next i
s = Mid$(s, 1, Len(s) - bitsIn)
's = Mid$(s, bitsIn + 1)
Loop
bin2Byte = bytes
End Function
