Dashboard

[Astronouth7303]

I know, thtat's why I asked. The port is the same, packet is different. So if there are any 'signature' signs, knowing one from the other prevents stuff like translating bytes.

[Kevin Karan]

Update: The last two weeks were very, very bad weeks. The week I announced this, my laptop that I made this on just died. Plus I was very sick. First it was the motherboard, I got a new one in a day or so. Then the hard drive died, causing me to loose the code that I had done... I still dont have the new hard drive in yet. The warrentee center didnt even get in my old one till last thurdsday and I dont know when Im getting my new one back... The good news, I recoded the whole thing yesterday and Im fairly confident that its done and working. I wont get to test it till tomarrow night, so hold on a few more days. The example is done and working so ... blah. Im not making any promices, but I will probably release it wensday or thursday.

[Kevin Karan]

Alright, The test last night went very well. Im going to add it the the whitepapers later tonight or in the morning

[scitobor 617]

Where can I get the source for your program, it looks awsome. If you don't want to give away the source then can you just explain how to recieve data from a serial port.

[Kevin Karan]

Im just about to put it in the white papers. Its a visual basic control that you can just slap into your own dashboard. I included the source and an example with it so hold on a few more minutes.

[Astronouth7303]

Originally Posted by Kevin Karan

Im just about to put it in the white papers. Its a visual basic control that you can just slap into your own dashboard. I included the source and an example with it so hold on a few more minutes.

What's the programic interface?

I'm hopping for properties for each of the items, plus an event when one changes.

[Astronouth7303]

Originally Posted by Kevin Karan

Im just about to put it in the white papers. Its a visual basic control that you can just slap into your own dashboard. I included the source and an example with it so hold on a few more minutes.

¡Ay caramba, señor! Yikes, ouch, whoa.

After looking at that w/VBA, I'm thinking "Whose going to use that?" I'm glad some one did it, but programic interface needs work. Not to mention: No prop pages (like you need it), no com stuff (properties), Bad graphics (not necessary), Bad naming, no toolbox icon, no properties.

I'll e-mail you a revised version when I get time.

[seanwitte]

Originally Posted by Astronouth7303

¡Ay caramba, señor! Yikes, ouch, whoa.

After looking at that w/VBA, I'm thinking "Whose going to use that?" I'm glad some one did it, but programic interface needs work. Not to mention: No prop pages (like you need it), no com stuff (properties), Bad graphics (not necessary), Bad naming, no toolbox icon, no properties.

I'll e-mail you a revised version when I get time.

When someone provides a service free of charge and shares their hard work its customary to say thank you. Be constructive or keep your comments to yourself. Even if you submit a revised version he still did it first and deserves that respect.

[Nick Fury]

Seriously man. That is what open source is all about, you give the other guy credit for writing it first and then you improve it. You don't yell at the guy for writing the program and tell him how lame he is just because you think you can do it better. For one, it's not "gracious professionalism" and for two it just makes you look like an ungreatful arse. I hate to say it man but that crap is irritating, it is the sort of stuff that I see happening with Microsoft employees who have to patch each others code. This sort of stuff doesn't need patching, it needs to be reworked and tweaked to get maximum performance which patching doesn't provide. Many thanks to the guy or gal who gave his code for the dashboard, I think it's great to see some FIRST robotics code being opened.

[Astronouth7303]

Originally Posted by seanwitte

When someone provides a service free of charge and shares their hard work its customary to say thank you. Be constructive or keep your comments to yourself. Even if you submit a revised version he still did it first and deserves that respect.

Originally Posted by Nick Fury

Seriously man. That is what open source is all about, you give the other guy credit for writing it first and then you improve it. You don't yell at the guy for writing the program and tell him how lame he is just because you think you can do it better. For one, it's not "gracious professionalism" and for two it just makes you look like an ungreatful arse. I hate to say it man but that crap is irritating, it is the sort of stuff that I see happening with Microsoft employees who have to patch each others code. This sort of stuff doesn't need patching, it needs to be reworked and tweaked to get maximum performance which patching doesn't provide. Many thanks to the guy or gal who gave his code for the dashboard, I think it's great to see some FIRST robotics code being opened.

I am in the wrong.

But I must admit, some of the ways he implemented things was difficult. Several issues I fixed in an hour or 2. I'm glad someone did it, and maybe I should think of it as polishing it up. I suppose I had to do some work.

[Kevin Karan]

can I atleast see some of the mods you did to it...

[Astronouth7303]

Originally Posted by Kevin Karan

can I atleast see some of the mods you did to it...

Sure! I still need to put in prop loading/saving, but it's mostly done. (MSDN: VB tutorial on saving prop values)

In addition to graphics (I reversed-engineered IFI's Icon and made a 48x48 for it), I renmed the controls, gave it a more descriptive image, and adjust the MSComm to work on IFI's settings and used binary made instead of string (It outputs an array of bytes). The code has been cleaded up, and I actually put in properties for Port and PortOpen. All the info is retrieved via functions, and events of been consolodated. The defult app, however, doesn't work so well (oops...), but that was second priority. Some prop pages are needed, but for the most part it's as good as any of Microsoft's.

Here's the new project group:

[Kevin Karan]

Originally Posted by Astronouth7303

Sure! I still need to put in prop loading/saving, but it's mostly done. (MSDN: VB tutorial on saving prop values)

In addition to graphics (I reversed-engineered IFI's Icon and made a 48x48 for it), I renmed the controls, gave it a more descriptive image, and adjust the MSComm to work on IFI's settings and used binary made instead of string (It outputs an array of bytes). The code has been cleaded up, and I actually put in properties for Port and PortOpen. All the info is retrieved via functions, and events of been consolodated. The defult app, however, doesn't work so well (oops...), but that was second priority. Some prop pages are needed, but for the most part it's as good as any of Microsoft's.

Here's the new project group:

I was origionaly going to do it in binary mode, but I couldent find a doc about its input buffer, so I stuck to a string since I have always done that (it works ). Im not sure its nessesary to put each value into its own function, but it works. The ifi icon works, but I would rather do somthing less... copywrited (j/k ) Why did you mess with the LED bytes? They worked fine as they were and now it will have to be parsed on the other end. Im not sure why you say the ex app doesnt work, it still does for me, but I did find a small bug when you open the port, but it doesnt realy matter.

[Astronouth7303]

Originally Posted by Kevin Karan

I was origionaly going to do it in binary mode, but I couldent find a doc about its input buffer, so I stuck to a string since I have always done that (it works ).

Now you know.
it's just that the MSCOMM control has to convert it to a string and you convert it back to bytes (in vb, an array of bytes and a string are not the same thing), plus there is a possibility that the letters are confused for the unicode versions. Wouldn't want that.

Originally Posted by Kevin Karan

Im not sure its nessesary to put each value into its own function, but it works.

It's easy (I think) for the developer, plus VB doesn't like strucs much. You could make variable public, but your not suposed to do that.

Originally Posted by Kevin Karan

The ifi icon works, but I would rather do somthing less... copywrited (j/k )

It seemed appropriate. I thought about overlaying the windows COM icon (the cable). didn't get to it.

Originally Posted by Kevin Karan

Why did you mess with the LED bytes?

Personal preference. I can add a sub to get a specific bit (it's as simple as "LED(1) And 2^Index").

Originally Posted by Kevin Karan

They worked fine as they were and now it will have to be parsed on the other end. Im not sure why you say the ex app doesnt work, it still does for me, but I did find a small bug when you open the port, but it doesnt realy matter.

Yeah, that was it. but it is a little important, like saying there's a small bug in kernal32.dll.

[Kevin Karan]

Originally Posted by Astronouth7303

Yeah, that was it. but it is a little important, like saying there's a small bug in kernal32.dll.

I was talking about the options being changed to port 4 afterwords, I never got an error but it doesnt sound good, lol