Control Panel stuff

steprog

Hello Guys,
Can anyone give me a simple way to use the prop for my internal processor and use the USB and PC for a control panel. I know this is a very basic problem, but I build instrumentation and ever since RS-232 fell out of fashion, Ive been a little lost. I tried to jump ahead and use embedded webserver stuff with Luminary Arm 3m but that is proving to be a nightmare for me. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Greg

CounterRotatingProps

Hi Greg

you might want to take a serious look at Hanno Sander's "Viewport" software - you can build custom panels with it pretty fast.

http://mydancebot.com/viewport/features.php

cheers
- Howard

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steprog

Thanks for the reply Howard,
I started digging around and read the review in Robot magazine and Im coming around to that conclusion.
Thanks,
Greg

Bob Lawrence (VE1RLL)

Have a look at this. You can download the 30 day trial software.

mydancebot.com/viewport/dkhelp.php

CounterRotatingProps

You're welcome, Greg.

Hanno hangs out here on the forums too - and many of us use Viewport. It's well written and the docs can get you going, but if you have questions, just post 'em and you'll get some assistance.

- H

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steprog

Thanks everyone. I got the eval last night and starting to work through it. It looks pretty good.

Agent420

What did you use before?

In some ways, not much has changed...· Many apps still communicate via serial methods, albeit through a usb pipe using devices like the FTDI chips used with the Prop boards.· You might be able to simply reference a virtual usb comm port in your development software.

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steprog

I was wondering that. I should be able to connect through the some .net software to the FTDI serial hooks. I just haven't done it before. Any recommendations for examples?

Agent420

^ Sorry, I'm still in VB6 land.· I would think there's got to be a generic serial reference for .net out in Googleland.

edit -

I would start with these code examples right from the horse's mouth...

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Post Edited (Agent420) : 9/15/2009 5:39:07 PM GMT

Hanno

Hi Greg,
In addition to the "Development Kit"- which let's you build custom widgets in .NET that you and others can include inside ViewPort views you can also use the built in "Designer" to graphically customize a view by arranging existing widgets inside a view. ViewPort ships with lots of images and widgets that should allow you to build a really nice looking gui. One of my videos illustrates this.

And finally, ViewPort v4.2- (there's a beta link on my site and v4.2 is a free upgrade to all) includes a DDE client/server. This allows you to easily integrate other monitor/control software with ViewPort. A client kit which comes with sample code in these languages:
C#, VB.NET, Excel, Matlab and Python is here: mydancebot.com/viewport/clients.php - also a video there...

Feel free to ask more... Good luck!
Hanno

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Download a free trial of ViewPort- the premier visual debugger for the Propeller
Includes full debugger, simulated instruments, fuzzy logic, and OpenCV for computer vision. Now a Parallax Product!

steprog

Thanks Hanna,
Im short on time and hoping to get what I need done fast. Is there a list of tutorials for your stuff that I can get to. I saw the examples with viewport but no discussion.