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Unread 31-07-2007, 04:45
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6600gt 6600gt is offline
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6600gt is a jewel in the rough6600gt is a jewel in the rough6600gt is a jewel in the rough
Interactive DashBoard

Hi everyone, it has been over a year and I am finally ready to release a beta version. I hope you guys like it.

I knew that no matter how much I begged and screamed, the robot would never be completed with enough time for any decent programming time left. I knew many were on the same boat. Thus, I embarked on developing a program that would allow for more to be accomplished in less time. You never have enough time for programming! Debugging was the most time consuming part of the software development. Since the IFI hardware restrictions don’t allow for the use of In-circuit debuggers, I realized that viewing variables values as they progressed through a function was the best way to debug. This application is intended to improve debugging efficiency by reducing the number of code downloads, allowing to view 10 different variables simultaneously and graph 5 of them, view tons of camera data, and directly control PWMs for hardware diagnostics, all at the same time and in real time. No re-flashing is required to change which variable is being viewed in each column!

This program has been in development for over a year. The DataView has been field tested during the 2007 season and proven to be very effective. It has been the most complex project I have ever worked on with a combination of RC hardware and software along with Visual C++ application development. I have tried to maintain efficiency and reliability in the RC code. But on the Visual C++ application side I only worried about reliability since the PC processor is far more capable and thus, easily able to process application code.

CAUTION: I have tried my best to put the highest priority on safety. The PWM control has not been field tested, thus I cannot guarantee %100 safety while using the PWM. Yet the system has many fail-safes. If the program cord is disconnected, serial port turned off, or the RESET/STOP is clicked, the pwms, relays, and joysticks controls will all reset to default (127 or 0).

NOTE: The reason for its current release is to see if people are interested, and for me to understand problems other might have with their RC or PC while implementing this setup. Right now only the DataView (without data logging), Camera, and PWM work. If people are interested and not too many serious problems are experienced, then a more complete package will be released.

If you want to test it out first, I have included a compiled hex file for the 06-7 RC with the source code. Download this to the RC using the IFI loader and fire up DashBoard for testing. You still need to follow instructions 1 and 2 from “How to get started” in the DashBoard_readme.doc


Requirements:
PC:
.NET Framework 2 or above
MPLAB
RC:
Kevin Watson’s Serial Port
Kevin Watson’s Camera Code (if using the camera feature)
Up the RX1 buffer to 64 in serial_ports.h

If you guys have critiques on anything, please let me know. This is my first release ever so I really don't know what I am doing. I need to give a special thanks to Kevin Watson for all his marvelous code.
Attached Thumbnails
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Name:	DataView.jpg
Views:	323
Size:	98.6 KB
ID:	5644  Click image for larger version

Name:	PWM.jpg
Views:	233
Size:	96.6 KB
ID:	5645  
Attached Files
File Type: zip DashBoard.zip (2.59 MB, 168 views)
File Type: doc Dashboard_Readme.doc (50.5 KB, 137 views)
File Type: zip DashBoard_code.zip (1.31 MB, 141 views)
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