Omni insert delay between outgoing serial commands?

[brentj]

I'm sending out ASCII strings via serial port to an Elk MV-480 board.
 
Each message is like 22 characters, longer than allowed message in Omnipro, So I split each into 3 omni messages. 
"start" with fixed first part of message"
"variable part" which differs based on which word is to be spoken
"end" which is just carriage return/line feed ^M^J
 
WHEN voice2
   THEN SEND *Voice Message Start* OUT SERIAL 3
   THEN SEND 103 "Drive" OUT SERIAL 3
   THEN SEND *Voice Message End* OUT SERIAL 3
   THEN SEND *Voice Message Start* OUT SERIAL 3
   THEN SEND 314 "Way" OUT SERIAL 3
   THEN SEND *Voice Message End* OUT SERIAL 3
 
 
 
 
If a trigger just sends one word, it's fine.
if a trigger is to send two or three words strung together, it's quirky on whether 2nd/3rd words get omitted or all 3 said.
 
A 1 second delay inserted between words by turning on a flag for a second seems to work around the quirkiness.
 
Any way to insert a 0.5 second delay?
 
Or otherwise keep the serial messages spaced apart a little?  I tried sending a few "200ms silence" commands to MV-480 between words but that didn't fix the issue. 
 
No way I'm missing to send 22 characters all at once without splitting into 2 (I did 3 for convenience, the way it breaks between fixed and variable parts of the message) messages?
 
Thanks!
Jeff
 
 
 

 

[brentj]

Still no luck on this.  frustrating.  If I send three sounds sometimes I hear one, two or three.  I can't predict.  anyone?  I really wish there was an easy "Delay 0.5 seconds" command to put in the program!

 

[ano]

The Omni multitasks, so there is no reliable way to specify an order unless you make it happen. No 0.5 second delay, the smallest is 1 second.
 
Have you tried something like:
 
EVERY SECOND
   IF XYZ = 1
       THEN INCREMENT FLAG
 
IF FLAG = 1
   Do Something
 
IF FLAG = 2
   Do Something else
 
IF FLAG = 3
   Do Next Thing
 
This will launch actions at one second intervals.