Expert coder needed

computer guy · 2008-02-13 01:29

Thank you

All is well.

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computer guy · 2008-02-13 03:31

Ok.
With this reading in of information am I doing it right.

I am doing the following.

1. Sending 's' to the prop to get it to call the sendDataSerial function.
2. Reading in the Number of schedules as a byte.
3. doing a For Loop to read in the long one byte at a time.
e.g

For i = 0 To NumSchedules(0).ToString - 1
                SerialPort1.Read(Data, 0, 4) 'Read in 4 Bytes of information and save to buffer Data which is a Byte array

                'Display the data in a textbox
                RichTextBox1.Text += Data(0).ToString
                RichTextBox1.Text += Data(1).ToString
                RichTextBox1.Text += Data(2).ToString
                RichTextBox1.Text += Data(3).ToString
                RichTextBox1.Text += vbCrLf
            Next

4. Display the data as a string.

Thank you

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stevenmess2004 · 2008-02-13 03:39

Yes that is right. I don't know vb so I'm not sure if that's right or not. Should

For i = 0 To NumSchedules(0).ToString - 1

be

For i = 0 To NumSchedules(0) - 1

computer guy · 2008-02-13 04:02

I have tried it both ways and it doesn't make any difference.

Will post the question on a VB forum and see if I get any answers.

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stevenmess2004 · 2008-02-13 04:09

Can you get and display the data if you use the strings we were using with hyperterminal?

computer guy · 2008-02-13 04:10

I will give it a try.

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computer guy · 2008-02-13 05:51

VB can only read in bytes.
With the original method is all the data sent as bytes representing the numbers.
How do you change a byte of 1's and 0's into an actual number again.
All I am doing is getting all four bytes and joining them together and displaying them as text.

Will ask on the VB forums anyway and see if I get any useful information.

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stevenmess2004 · 2008-02-13 06:01

Try something like this

For i = 0 To NumSchedules(0).ToString - 1
                SerialPort1.Read(Data, 0, 1) 'Read in 1 Bytes of information

                'Display the data in a textbox
                RichTextBox1.Text += Data1.ToString
                SerialPort1.Read(Data, 0, 1)
                RichTextBox1.Text += Data.ToString
                SerialPort1.Read(Data, 0, 1)
                RichTextBox1.Text += Data.ToString
                SerialPort1.Read(Data, 0, 1)
                RichTextBox1.Text += Data.ToString
                RichTextBox1.Text += vbCrLf
            Next

computer guy · 2008-02-13 06:09

With the above code I get this.

51525152
77111110100

with this

Time 22:22, Day Monday, Code 01
Time 22:22, Day Monday, Code 01

It is consistent though.

Thank you

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stevenmess2004 · 2008-02-13 06:10

Can you make it put in a space so that we can see what the individual numbers are? Thanks

computer guy · 2008-02-13 06:24

ok it is.

51 52 51 52 
77 111 110 100

Thank you

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stevenmess2004 · 2008-02-13 06:32

Can you set hyperterminal up to show the actual hex values received? If you can do you get the same?

computer guy · 2008-02-13 06:49

With hyper terminal I get

3434Monday01

Have to go to tafe. Will look forward to your response when I get back at 9:00pm.

Thank you

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stevenmess2004 · 2008-02-13 07:03

That is what I would expect as 34 is the BCD equivalent of 22 so there must be something wrong with the VB code. What do you do at tafe?

computer guy · 2008-02-13 11:33

I am learning how to arc weld.
Just started tonight.
Goes from 6 to 10.

Longest 4 hours of my life.

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stevenmess2004 · 2008-02-13 11:42

Have fun, and don't get the stick stuck to the bench, and don't get any slag or splatter on yourself

When I was doing my mech eng adv diploma we did some welding but it was only 2 or 3 hours a week and that was enough

computer guy · 2008-02-13 11:45

I know 4 hours is a long time to be doing the same thing.

Thanks for the advice.

Will keep persevering with this code problem.
I think it is a problem with the conversion from byte to string, could be wrong though.

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stevenmess2004 · 2008-02-13 11:47

Never used a serial port in any of the programming that I've done on a pc and I've never used vb so I really don't know. Maybe see if someone else here can help

I think that there are several people here that know vb.

Computer Geek 101 · 2008-02-13 12:18

what version of VB.net? I have a dll I wrote in vb.net 2005 that controls the serial port. you setup the port number, speed, etc. and an event fires off anytime data is detected. I'll post it if it would help.

computer guy · 2008-02-13 12:19

I found this interesting and it may help people with knowledge of VB.

When I add more entries I get a pattern.

51 52 51 52 
77 111 110 100 
97 121 48 49 
51 52 51 52 
77 111 110 100 
97 121 48 49

is what I get with this.


Time 22:22, Day Monday, Code 01
Time 22:22, Day Monday, Code 01
Time 22:22, Day Monday, Code 01
Time 22:22, Day Monday, Code 01
Time 22:22, Day Monday, Code 01
Time 22:22, Day Monday, Code 01

Thank you

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computer guy · 2008-02-13 12:22

Computer Geek 101,

Thank you, however I am currently using the serial component that comes with Visual Basic 2008 and it works fine with sending.
The only problem is that when receiving the data is getting fragmented and the wrong values are returned.

Thank you

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Unsoundcode · 2008-02-13 16:39

Hi computer guy, for VB display purposes you can use the DataReceived event of the serial port and capture the characters as they come. First set up a delegate that will actually write to the text box

Public Delegate Sub capture(ByVal sData As String)

·Private Sub Text_Out(ByVal sData As String)
······· RichTextBox1.Text = RichTextBox1.Text & Chr(sData) 'this will write the ASCII code as a character
End Sub

then invoke the delegate from within the datareceived event

Private Sub SerialPort1_DataReceived(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.IO.Ports.SerialDataReceivedEventArgs) Handles SerialPort1.DataReceived

······· Do
············ Dim in_data As String
············ Dim capture_delegate As New capture(AddressOf Text_Out)
············ in_data = SerialPort1.ReadByte
············ RichTextBox1.Invoke(capture_delegate, in_data)
········ Loop Until SerialPort1.BytesToRead < 1·····

End Sub

you will probably have to drop a LF or CR in there somewhere, it should work with your data.

Jeff T.

computer guy · 2008-02-13 20:20

Hi Jeff,

Your code results in this data.

444444444444

the code on the prop side is

PUB sendDataSerial|i,time,data
  data := (NumScheduleItems/10)<<4+NumScheduleItems//10
  ser.tx(data)'So that you know how many items there are
  i:=1
  repeat while i<numScheduleItems
    time:=schedule[i]
    ser.tx(time.byte[noparse][[/noparse]0])
    ser.tx((time.byte/10)<<4+time.byte//10)
    ser.tx((time.byte/10)<<4+time.byte//10)
    ser.tx(time.byte)

    i++ 
[/i]

This is the original VB code I had and is the way I would like it done.

        Try
            RichTextBox1.Text = ""
            Dim NumSchedules As Byte() = New Byte(1) {}
            Dim Data As Byte() = New Byte(1) {}
            Dim i As Integer = 0
            SerialPort1.Open()

            SerialPort1.Write("s")
            SerialPort1.Read(NumSchedules, 0, 1)
            Label1.Text = NumSchedules(0)
            For i = 0 To (NumSchedules(0) - 1)
                SerialPort1.Read(Data, 0, 1) 'Read in 1 Bytes of information

                RichTextBox1.Text += Data(0).ToString + " "
                SerialPort1.Read(Data, 0, 1)
                RichTextBox1.Text += Data(0).ToString + " "
                SerialPort1.Read(Data, 0, 1)
                RichTextBox1.Text += Data(0).ToString + " "
                SerialPort1.Read(Data, 0, 1)
                RichTextBox1.Text += Data(0).ToString + " "
                RichTextBox1.Text += vbCrLf
            Next
            SerialPort1.Close()
        Catch
        End Try

Thank you

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Post Edited (computer guy) : 2/13/2008 8:28:05 PM GMT

Unsoundcode · 2008-02-14 01:00

Hi computer guy, my mistake, I thought you were sending an ASCII·string from the prop when I saw the ASCII codes for Monday 01( 77·111·110·100·97·121·48·49·) .

So you should be able to display the day with the following modification to the way you want to do it.

RichTextBox1.Text·+=·Chr(Data(0).ToString)·+·"·"

That·should give you·part of your data but not all.

Jeff T.

stevenmess2004 · 2008-02-14 01:13

Okay, that makes it simple. Yoy forgot to comment out the case statement in sendDataSerial

computer guy · 2008-02-14 05:20

Jeff,

The code you provided didn't help.
It have worked after the modifications I made, however since I don't need that code to get it to work I have left it out.

@Jeff and Steven

The solution was this.

1. Upload the up to date code to the propeller chip.
This includes changing sendDataSerial back to.

 data := (NumScheduleItems/10)<<4+NumScheduleItems//10
  ser.tx(data)'So that you know how many items there are
  i:=0
  repeat while i<numScheduleItems
    time:=schedule[i]
    ser.tx(time.byte[noparse][[/noparse]0])
    ser.tx(time.byte)
    ser.tx(time.byte)
    ser.tx(time.byte)
[/i]

2. Add the following just above the code that receives the data from the buffer.

                Data(0 To 3) = 0
                System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(100)

This blanks out the Byte Array and then pauses to give the prop time to send the new values (this is what was causing the random values).

3. Change the VB code back to what I had originally.

          For i = 0 To (NumSchedules(0) - 1)
                Data(0 To 3) = 0
                System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(100)
                SerialPort1.Read(Data, 0, 4) 'Read in 1 Bytes of information

                'Display the data in a textbox
                RichTextBox1.Text += Data(0).ToString + " "
                RichTextBox1.Text += Data(1).ToString + " "
                RichTextBox1.Text += Data(2).ToString + " "
                RichTextBox1.Text += Data(3).ToString + " "
                RichTextBox1.Text += vbCrLf
            Next

Not needed but the code is allot simpler this way.

Like magic... It works.

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Post Edited (computer guy) : 2/14/2008 5:43:04 AM GMT

JoMo · 2008-02-14 05:34

Just a note:
It's good practice to close/flush· (check if not null first) sockets or database connections etc. in a Finally block.
Just declare·them as null·object·above the Try and close·them in the Finally.
This way, if they don't connect or throw an exception, before the method is exited an attempt will be made to close them.
Have fun!

-Joe

Post Edited (JoMo) : 2/14/2008 5:39:36 AM GMT

computer guy · 2008-02-14 05:40

Joe,

Thank you, It is in a "Try Finally" block.

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stevenmess2004 · 2008-02-14 06:31

Glad you finally got it working. Now you just have to do it all over with the MatchPort

computer guy · 2008-02-14 06:33

Yea, The reason I wanted to get it going with VB.net is because working with the Matchport and Java will be allot easier if I have a starting point.

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Expert coder needed

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