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Possible to program Prop from VB 2010? — Parallax Forums

Possible to program Prop from VB 2010?

eagletalontimeagletalontim Posts: 1,399
in Propeller 1
Hello all once again! I have a project that I would like to be able to provide updates to without the end user downloading the Prop Tool and seeing all my code. I was hoping to use Visual Basic 2010 to check my server for a firmware update and if there is one, download it from my server, then upload it to the EEPROM all through the VB program I have already created. Anyone tackled something like this?

Comments

  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    See:

    http://forums.parallax.com/discussion/comment/919524#Comment_919524
  • eagletalontimeagletalontim Posts: 1,399
    I ran across this thread in my search before I posted this, but all the links are broken :(
  • eagletalontimeagletalontim Posts: 1,399
    well... I did a simple Google search for parallax propellant and it took me right to the tool. I will investigate it from here and see if I can get VB to execute this :)
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    eagletalontim wrote: »
    well... I did a simple Google search for parallax propellant and it took me right to the tool. I will investigate it from here and see if I can get VB to execute this :)

    https://www.parallax.com/downloads/propellent-software


  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    eagletalontim wrote: »
    well... I did a simple Google search for parallax propellant and it took me right to the tool. I will investigate it from here and see if I can get VB to execute this :)

    You don't need VB. See my post from 6 years ago.
    Simple upgrade. You create a zip file containing Propellent.exe, your .eeprom file and your batch file.

    Have the customer unzip the file to c:\updates
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    Here is the batch file:
    zip
    zip
    Yourcode.zip
    244K
  • eagletalontimeagletalontim Posts: 1,399
    I already have a VB program that communicates with the circuit to provide real time information and allows the user to change certain parameters. I wanted to add an option in the VB program for the user to simply "Check for firmware updates" and update it directly from the software designed for my product. :)
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,069
    It is certainly doable. You need to find the source of one of the downloaders and convert it to VB.

    I also thought that propellant could be called from VB.

    BTW PropTool can download a Binary or Eeprom file so no requirement for PropTool to have the source.
  • eagletalontimeagletalontim Posts: 1,399
    I was planning on uploading the eeprom file to my server and update a settings file with the new version. When the software requests for the newest firmware version, it reads the settings file and pulls the newest version number then compares it with the connected device. If the firmware is different, the customer can update the firmware with a click of a button.

    After playing with the propellant tool, I found that it can output to a log file and have no GUI. If I use VB to call the executable and read the file it output's. I can parse the data and display the needed content to them to show success or fail. I was reading there was a way to import the DLL into the actual program and use it, but I have not quite grasped that part yet. If anyone knows how to do this, that would be great if you could help me on that!
  • eagletalontimeagletalontim Posts: 1,399
    Got it figured out using the DLL :) It pulls the file from my server, installs it using the propellent.dll, then deleted the uploaded file. Works like a champ! Thanks everyone for the tips to get me headed in the right direction!
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,069
    Excellent news. I was sure it had been done this way before, but wasn't sure where to look.
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