Dashreader.dll: A Visual Basic .NET user control to read the dashboard port
 

Go to http://www.first293.com/dashreader.html to download the dll so you can begin writing custom dashboard programs in VB .NET.

Here's how you use it:

1. Download dashreader.dll
2. In your VB .NET project, right click on "Windows Forms" in the Toolbox
3. Select "Customize Toolbox"
4. Click on the ".NET Framework Components" tab
5. Click "Browse"
6. Find and select "dashreader.dll"
7. Draw the dashreader anywhere on the form--it disappears at runtime.

The "Port" property determines which port it tries to connect to. Use the "start()" method to actually connect to that port. The "NewPacket()" event is raised whenever a new packet of data is read. There are methods that return values for all of the data sent to the dashboard port (except for mode variables--I don't know how to interpret them).

If I have time, I'm going to modify the control so it inherits from the Timer Class and doesn't take up any space on the form at design-time. For now I'm too lazy :P

If you have any questions, PM me, IM me at RenegadeOfMonks, or e-mail me at krodh293@yahoo.com. Do the same if you have bugs to report, or if you want the source code.

are you going to release this open source? I would just like to see how you read from a serial port. I'm self taught, so source code is my way of learning

If you want to read from a serial port, I wrote a whitepaper on it.

The source is now in the white papers.

Thanks alot. This will save me alot of time.