Dashboard

[Mark McLeod]

Originally Posted by Ian W.

It may be able to read TCP ports though, in which case you can (I think) easily pipe the data through an obscure TCP port that no one else would be using. I'll look into that over the next few days.

Have you looked into using sockets? That's what I'd use for inter-process communication.

[Astronouth7303]

Originally Posted by jacob_dilles

does anyone know anything about accesing ram in flash? i know you can do it in C++... so like instead of writing to a file which has got to be bad; i dont know why its just badl; you just share a couple of bytes in ram. the flash could call the c++.

trying to thing of a way to get around the file I/O

Why??? Creating a file then deleting it doesn't take long; Even in VB, Open a file, writting to it, and closing it doesn't take long.

[jacob_dilles]

its the princaple of the thing. at least use scrachpad ram or something. it works, but that doesnt meen its the right way to do it.

Originally Posted by Astronouth7303

Why??? Creating a file then deleting it doesn't take long; Even in VB, Open a file, writting to it, and closing it doesn't take long.

[Venkatesh]

I wrote a small dashboard interface program in QBASIC, which read the data from the serial port, mangled (processed) it, and stored the output in text files.

Then I wrote a program in Java, which read those text files and displayed the data on screen in a fancily-formatted window. I used the AWT for graphics, 'cause I don't know how to program Swing yet.

Btw, to improve the speed of text-files for communication, I created a RAM disk. The output files are outputted from BASIC into the RAM disk. I find the speed to be no problem.

[jacob_dilles]

Originally Posted by Venkatesh

I created a RAM disk.

lol exactly. thats what im talking about. except theres a way to do it WITHOUT a ramdisk... its called direct access...

but anyway have an old OI and RC (yes i know its diffrent but the princaple is the same) and i have a program in c++ that gets the data realy well. there is an obscure class that lets me write to ram, but getting it from anythign else was a problem.

i may have it use a ramdisk if i cant figure out anything else before richmond.

btw if you wana post your QBASIC it may help some people that dont know the language and need somewhere to start.

[Venkatesh]

Originally Posted by jacob_dilles

btw if you wana post your QBASIC it may help some people that dont know the language and need somewhere to start.

I would post both my BASIC code and the Java code if I still had it. However, it is currently in a location where I won't have access to it for approximately a month. So its not of much use to anybody...

[Ian W.]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

Have you looked into using sockets? That's what I'd use for inter-process communication.

Perhaps that's what I was told we could use last year, I'm not sure.

I've been looking into how easy it'd be to change the dashboard from file I/O to sockets (which is the right term for what I want, I think). I think it should be easy, but I'm still looking for a nice class to do all the hard socket work for me .

[Ian W.]

Did you create a ramdisk under Windows or Linux?

I know how to do it under Linux (well, not exactly, but I know where to look to find out), but I have no idea how to do it under Windows. And for the dashboard program I'm using Windows to appease the rest of my team .

[Venkatesh]

My Ramdisk is running under Windows.

The easiest way (for Windows 95/98) is to place a line for RAMDRIVE.SYS in your config.sys files. PM me if you need help doing what I am talking about.

Under Windows NT, 2000, and XP, you must download a driver from Microsoft. The driver is a sample driver, demo-ing NT-based drivers. It is neither stable nor debugged, but it works for what I am doing.

[Kevin Karan]

Incase anyone was wondering, Im currently porting the reciever code into a visual basic control (ocx) so anyone can just slap it into their own dashboard nice and easy, with this you could make a dashboard interface and a skilled coder could have it up and running in an hour or so. Im still testing and optomizing it and I would like to have a first release by next week. I will release pre-compiled binarys, the source for them, as well as an example app that shows how it would be used. It will differ from other dashbord control moduals in that I WILL be releasing the source and I WILL be parsing all of the data frames allowing for every single bit of usable data to be utilized.

[jacob_dilles]

Originally Posted by Kevin Karan

Incase anyone was wondering, Im currently porting the reciever code into a visual basic control (ocx) so anyone can just slap it into their own dashboard nice and easy, with this you could make a dashboard interface and a skilled coder could have it up and running in an hour or so. Im still testing and optomizing it and I would like to have a first release by next week. I will release pre-compiled binarys, the source for them, as well as an example app that shows how it would be used. It will differ from other dashbord control moduals in that I WILL be releasing the source and I WILL be parsing all of the data frames allowing for every single bit of usable data to be utilized.

*big hug*

[Astronouth7303]

Originally Posted by Kevin Karan

Incase anyone was wondering, Im currently porting the reciever code into a visual basic control (ocx) so anyone can just slap it into their own dashboard nice and easy, with this you could make a dashboard interface and a skilled coder could have it up and running in an hour or so. Im still testing and optomizing it and I would like to have a first release by next week. I will release pre-compiled binarys, the source for them, as well as an example app that shows how it would be used. It will differ from other dashbord control moduals in that I WILL be releasing the source and I WILL be parsing all of the data frames allowing for every single bit of usable data to be utilized.

I LIKE YOU!!!!

[Ryan M.]

Thanks a lot. That will be a lot of fun to play around with, not to mention a great time saver.

[Astronouth7303]

Is there a way to tell (in code) what year's dashboard stuff your getting? Especially post-season, I'm sure we're going to be playing with both (may be in the same thing!), so 1 program would be nice.

[Kevin Karan]

Originally Posted by Astronouth7303

Is there a way to tell (in code) what year's dashboard stuff your getting? Especially post-season, I'm sure we're going to be playing with both (may be in the same thing!), so 1 program would be nice.

This year isnt compatable with previous years, the packet format is different