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Visual Basic

PorterPorter Posts: 9
edited 2004-09-10 21:24 in BASIC Stamp
·I have a BS2 project in mind that will require Visual Basic·to communicate with either the serial port or a USB port.· What product am i looking for·with the mscomm routines included.· The learning version dose not include them, I'm sure the·development version does but it's expensive.· What about the Student edition.·

Another thing has Visual Basic be replaced by Visual.net··What version do i need if that is the case.· Need the help don't want to over or under buy and waste money.·

Comments

  • BeanBean Posts: 8,129
    edited 2004-08-26 18:33
    I would definately go with serial comm.

    I think you can download mscomm and install it in the learning version.

    VB.NET has replaced VB 6, but MANY people still use VB 6. VB.NET is kind of a different animal (and VB.NET doesn't have MSComm either).

    I would stick with VB 5 or VB 6 and try to get MSComm installed.

    Bean.
  • JonathanJonathan Posts: 1,023
    edited 2004-08-26 19:13
    Porter,

    I have VB 6, which I bought on E-bay a couple of weeks ago. It has the serial comms, but isn't cheap. I think you can DL the serial comm and add it to the Student edition.

    I have written a very basic GUI for the hydrogen fuel cell robot, and can do simple serial stuff pretty easily. I am using an EB500 bluetooth module to communicate with the robot. The app can so far monitor the fuel cell, change settings and has a remote control mode to drive the robot and use the pan/tilt sensor array with the keyboard.

    Right now though, I am pounding my head trying to figure out how to download and display a picture from a CMUcam.

    Jonathan

    www.madlabs.info



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    www.madlabs.info - Home of the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Robot
  • Tom WalkerTom Walker Posts: 509
    edited 2004-08-26 19:59
    Jonathan,

    I bought a CMUcam a couple of months ago and have yet to hook it up to anything (tells you how busy I am), but if I recall the docs correctly, the cam can only serve up a static buffer representative of some aspect of the image (red, edges, luma, full-frame, etc.). Once you request the image, it will spit it out at the BS2 as a stream of bytes and the Stamp will have to throw those over BlueTooth for the PC to present in a pleasing fashion. I don't know what timing issues you might run in to. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to "play" at some point and can offer some real help. If you are looking for real-time pictures (for tele-operation and the like), I would recommend a simple "spy-cam" setup (got one off of E-bay for under $30).

    Good Luck!

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    If at first you don't succeed

    ...you're about average...
  • KenMKenM Posts: 657
    edited 2004-08-27 02:26
    Speaking of......what is VB.Net?· More InterNET freindly?????

    Or just a different flavor of VB?
    Bean said...
    I would definately go with serial comm.

    I think you can download mscomm and install it in the learning version.

    VB.NET has replaced VB 6, but MANY people still use VB 6. VB.NET is kind of a different animal (and VB.NET doesn't have MSComm either).

    I would stick with VB 5 or VB 6 and try to get MSComm installed.

    Bean.
  • upand_at_themupand_at_them Posts: 61
    edited 2004-08-27 19:09
    The comm stuff is contained in a component library.· The version of VB won't matter, although I'd suggest VB6.· .NET sucks.

    To use the comm control you have to add the component library to your project:

    1) Project menu->Components

    2) Find Microsoft Comm Control (MSCOMM32.OCX) and check the box.



    Mike
  • Jon WilliamsJon Williams Posts: 6,491
    edited 2004-08-27 19:11
    The development version of the MSCOMM control is only included with Professional and Enterprise editions of VB.

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    Jon Williams
    Applications Engineer, Parallax
    Dallas Office
  • Buck RogersBuck Rogers Posts: 2,187
    edited 2004-08-27 19:32
    Hello from Buck Rogers
    I can vouch for that. I have a copy of the Enterprise edition, and yes that is one of the controls installed.

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    Buck Rogers

    www.gregg.levine.name
  • upand_at_themupand_at_them Posts: 61
    edited 2004-08-29 04:08
    You can download the MSCOMM control here:

    http://www.martin2k.co.uk/vb6/ocxs/mscomm32.zip

    Mike
  • WNedWNed Posts: 157
    edited 2004-09-10 16:26
    ·· Slight shift of topic... Is it possible to send a BS2 (on a HomeWork board) a new program from VB? I've got no problem with the serial comm aspect, but I'm guessing I need to set the stamp's state and tokenize the code before sending... yadda, yadda.
    Is there someplace I can read about this?
    ·· Thanks

    ·· And, oh yeah... if you're just learning VB, Try to get version 5. It'll be cheap, and the Help files are far more straight forward! You try a search in VB6 Help, you might as well just go do a google search and sift through the results...
    ··
  • Jon WilliamsJon Williams Posts: 6,491
    edited 2004-09-10 21:24
    Yes, you can find program downloading requirements on our web site ... and a note about NOT shifting thread topics in the forum guidelines....

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    Jon Williams
    Applications Engineer, Parallax
    Dallas Office
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