VB Program to monitor robot variables

[DanL]

Hey guys. I need to make a VB program to basically moniter robot functions. Getting the variables to the computer they made pretty simple. My question is basically how do I get the variables from the serial link to be recognized by VB. Meaning, we have the variables (either from the robot or from the controller) going to the computer serial link. For you VBers - how do we make the VB program recognize the serial's information as variables inside the program?

[Justin]

Hello,

Basically, I'd imagine the easiest way is to find an I/O control for VB already written for this pupose. It'll probably be in the form of an OCX which u can include in your VB project. Also...I would check out... http://www.mvps.org/vbnet/ I'd be there will be some resources on how to do it there.

-Justin

[DanL]

Hmm, I was hoping someone had already done something like this specifically for the InnovationFirst controller and could just give me the i/o part of it. But thanks, I'll look into that site

[GreenDice]

SuperDanman,

I wrote a VB program called Dashboard Monitor to display and record dashboard output from the Operator Interface module. I am trying to upload the program into White Papers area without success. As soon as it become public, try it out. You might not have to write your own.

Features:
- customizable labels
- recording and playback with single stepping
- cvs converter (coming soon)
- connect to program port to display/record variables in realtime
(i.e. does not use DEBUG statements)

[Nate Smith]

I've got the source code for a decoder OCX laying around somewhere...I'll see what I can dig up...

[DanL]

Greendice, when you say you're uploading the program, do you mean you're uploading the actual program, or the source? Because all I really need is to know how to get the variables from the serial connection to be recognized by the VB program in real time.

[Kevin Watson]

Dan,

I've written an example C program that does this. It's fairly well documented, so it shouldn't take too long to port. You can find the code here: http://www.cvhsrobotics.org/resources.htm . It's in the "Dashboard Data Viewer Project Stuff" section. Feel free to e-mail me if you have questions.

Kevin

[Ameya]

I had downloaded this file last year, and since Nate hasn't posted it in this thread yet and I found it lying around on my computer, I thought I'd post it