Hello,

In my application, I have a char array defined which can take one of three options: "okay", "high", "low" which are then sent down a serial port to a remote device. I currently have the array sized to take the 4 character words plus carriage return and line feed, but when I have to send "low" I get a null character in the strings, which I am concerned would confuse the host terminal.

array definition

char mod1_status_char[6] = {'0','0','0','0','0','0'};     
char mod2_status_char[6] = {'0','0','0','0','0','0'};     
char mod3_status_char[6] = {'0','0','0','0','0','0'};     

sample of switch case statement:

void DCOKStatus(uint8_t *ptr_status)
{
    uint8_t status = *ptr_status;

    switch (status) 
    {
        case 0x00:
            strcpy(mod1_status_char, "okay");
            strcpy(mod2_status_char, "okay");
            strcpy(mod3_status_char, "okay");
            break; 
        case 0x10:
            strcpy(mod1_status_char, "okay");
            strcpy(mod2_status_char, "okay");
            strcpy(mod3_status_char, "low");
            break;
     }

This is the struct which makes the message string to send

    strcpy(MsgStatus_on.descriptor_msg, "$psu_");
    MsgStatus_on.address01 = hex_addr[0];
    MsgStatus_on.address02 = hex_addr[1];
    MsgStatus_on.space01 = 0x20;
    strcpy(MsgStatus_on.cmdmsg01, "op_en op1_");
    strcpy(MsgStatus_on.statusmsg01, mod1_status_char);
    MsgStatus_on.space02 = 0x20;
    strcpy(MsgStatus_on.cmdmsg02, "op2_");
    strcpy(MsgStatus_on.statusmsg02, mod2_status_char);
    MsgStatus_on.space03 = 0x20;
    strcpy(MsgStatus_on.cmdmsg03, "op3_");
    strcpy(MsgStatus_on.statusmsg03, mod3_status_char);
    MsgStatus_on.CR = 0x0D;
    MsgStatus_on.LF = 0x0A;

and this sends the message

void USARTWrite(char *object, uint32_t size)
{    
    GPIO_SetBits(GPIOB, GPIO_Pin_1);

    char *byte;
    for (byte = object; size--; ++byte)                                                                       
    {                                       
          USART_SendData(USART1,*byte);                                 

    }

Would anyone be able to suggest a good approach to dynamically size the array to one character shorter when I need to send "low"?

Thanks