9 replies to this topic

[BanksySan]

Hia all,

I've been playing with an LCD screen lately (massive high-five to the μLiquidCrystal library. In order to figure out the chip I've been trying to reproduce the library in my own words. It occurred to me, that when you're dealing with complex pin changes it can get quite hard to visualise. Constantly checking the pins with a multimetre or stepping through code can be a pain when you're trying to figure out what the pin configuration should be. It'd be nice to be able to just turn some on and off without having to constantly re-deploy.

I thought a Windows form with coloured lights would do the trick, something like this:

x

I called it HelloDuino, it communicates via a webserver on the N+. I'm having some 'oddities' with the socket.Accept() method. It seems to decide to take an incoming request, but then not allow the thread to continue. It never seems to happen when debugging though, so I suspect it's a race condition. Any suggestions gratefully received!

I thought I would share it, it might be something that helps someone or just a curiosity for someone getting started.

URL: https://bitbucket.or...ySan/helloduino
GIT repo: git clone https://BanksySan@bi.../helloduino.git

I'd love to hear any comments, I'm planning on making it work over USB (does anyone know if this is possible?).

Thanks all

Dave

[smarcus3]

I have made the same type of thing for arduinos to visualize what is happening in a given program. They are ALWAYS helpful.

[Nevyn]

I'm planning on making it work over USB (does anyone know if this is possible?).

Unidirectional communication from the Netduino to the PC is possible using the HID interface. See this example.

Regards,
Mark

[BanksySan]

Unidirectional communication from the Netduino to the PC is possible using the HID interface. See this example.

I'll have a look, I'd read it in passing before, the chap has done a sterling work here! Thanks for pointing it out, I'd forgotten that it was there.

[Geancarlo2]

FYI bidirectional hid is possible, but it would be much easier with a serial->usb bridge on the netduino.

[BanksySan]

FYI bidirectional hid is possible, but it would be much easier with a serial->usb bridge on the netduino.

Thanks for the advise, I haven't looks at either option in anger yet.

Why do you say one is simpler than the other? (Not a loaded question, I promise).

[Geancarlo2]

Simply because for usb HID you probably will need to read the usb specification for the device type you are trying to implement and figure how to interface it on desktop, whereas using a serial to usb converter all you gotta do is use SerialPort class on both netduino and desktop.

[Chris Walker]

Hi Geancarlo2,

Simply because for usb HID you probably will need to read the usb specification for the device type you are trying to implement and figure how to interface it on desktop, whereas using a serial to usb converter all you gotta do is use SerialPort class on both netduino and desktop.

Luckily we already took care of that for you.

Here you go:
http://forums.netdui...tion-using-usb/

Chris

[Nevyn]

FYI bidirectional hid is possible, but it would be much easier with a serial->usb bridge on the netduino.

For some reason I always forget this option when thinkning about USB comms with a PC. I think it's because I classify this as serial comms. This works well and only needs a small amount of additional hardware to implement.

Regards,
Mark

[BanksySan]

Hi Geancarlo2,

Luckily we already took care of that for you.

Here you go:
http://forums.netdui...tion-using-usb/

Chris

Awesome, thanks...

• The instructions say I need to deploy over COM, but I can't find any instructions on how to do that. Can you help?
  
• My N+ config says this: HAL build info: 4.1.2821.0, Netduino Plus by Secret Labs LLC, I assume this is the Firmware version?
• What does 'HAL' stand for? Is it the computer on Space Odessy?

Cheers

Dave