[time-nuts] ad-hoc I/O

[Don Latham]

Rick, and other interested time-nuts: I think the thing to use is Robot
Basic:
http://www.robotbasic.org/
It's simple, has useful simple graphics, runs on its own (no Windoze .net
stuff) and best of all is free. There are examples to learn from etc. and
a couple of inexpensive books for the novice. It's not as sophisticated as
say Visual Basic 6, but neat. A debugged satisfactory program can be
.exe'd so the Basic program need not be running to use the application.
Also has hooks to a USB interface and net stuff if you need it, and of
course serial interface.
Highly recommended!!! Look it over.
Don Latham

Richard (Rick) Karlquist
> The XT-Nano-XXL looks very interesting, and the price is good.
>
> With these kinds of hardware devices, the question always
> arises as to what to use on the other end to talk to the
> device.  I see that ak-nord has a virtual com port driver,
> which many vendors have.  It would also be interesting to
> see if two of the XT-Nano-XXL devices could talk directly
> to each other without any computers being involved.  The
> manual talks about a "tunnel" mode, but shows the Nano
> connected to the box with 2 serial ports.
>
> The other problem I have with these kinds of devices is
> what to do about software to talk to them.  Some devices
> come with free software that has basic functionality to
> debug the hardware.  What I would really like to do is
> to get an API and build a simple interface program with radio
> buttons, etc that control relays etc.  The problem is
> that I am not a programmer.  I keep looking for a tutorial
> that explains how to do simple Visual Basic or something,
> but I consistently run into two showstoppers.  1.  The tutorials
> cover only the VB or C++ language, and not the mechanics
> of compiling, linking, libraries, and .dll files.  2.
> The tutorials assume the program talks only to the "console"
> (keyboard mouse and monitor).  No discussion of connecting
> to the LAN and interfacing with the hardware.  What I
> have seen written about these topics is incomprehensible
> to me as an analog engineer.
>
> Rick Karlquist, N6RK
>
> Christian Vogel wrote:
>> Hi Dave,
>>
>>> Likewise, there are also versions of MCU's with TCP stacks available
>>> too, as well as things like this...
>>> http://www.lantronix.com/device-networking/embedded-device-servers/xport.html
>>>
>> ...
>>
>>> Basically, an embedded TCP/IP<>Serial adapter, with bells on!  So you
>>> can use existing device designs that would use a serial link to the
>>> host, and "add" network connectivity for that need, with no (well,
>>> little) design overhead.
>>
>> When I was looking for something simmilar, a relative recommended
>>
>>   http://www.ak-nord.de/ak/product_info.php?products_id=33
>>
>> which he uses at work to access interfaces internal to their product
>> during testing. It should be what the "xport" is, but adding i2c and spi
>> ports. Unfortunately, I didn't find time to procure one, or even test
>> it.
>>
>>         Chris
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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-- 
Dr. Don Latham AJ7LL
Six Mile Systems LLP
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