Visual Basic

CKnig17-Dec-07 22:53

CKnig

17-Dec-07 22:53

It's a (long) while back but I think there used to be a ActiveX/OCX gadget for serial I/O.
The parallel port is a pain ( I think you can only write a device driver to access it).

IMHO a project like this (exotic hardware) should still be done in VC++ where you have the whole WinAPI at your fingertips (ever had to write some .net 1.1 wrappers for the serial port ?) and most 3rd party SDKs for their hardeware are still in C/C++.

Luc Pattyn17-Dec-07 23:55

17-Dec-07 23:55

Hi, I don't know how to control the control lines of a serial port without the help of
the .NET SerialPort class, but I am confident there are some articles on this site that
could help you; otherwise Google knows it all.

Smile | :)

Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [My Articles]

Sorry for any delays in replying, I currently don't always get e-mail notifications.

meki_211825-Dec-07 5:55

25-Dec-07 5:55

hi again. I've been thinking if you could help me to control the parallel port in VB .Net. I've already change the language that I'm going to use in my program and I used the VB .Net 2008.

I'm really glad if you can help.

Thanks.

Luc Pattyn26-Dec-07 8:28

26-Dec-07 8:28

meki_2118 wrote:
VB .Net

much better than VB6

meki_2118 wrote:
control the parallel port

The SERIAL port has a couple of control lines, which can easily be written/read
using the SerialPort class. There is no .NET support for parallel ports, and I
have no experience whatsoever with parallel port (my PC does not have one either).

Smile | :)

Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [My Articles]

Happy Holidays!

meki_211827-Dec-07 19:22

27-Dec-07 19:22

Do I still need to download the inpout32.dll to make the Serial Port work? Because I've read that you should first to install that to make the parallel port work. Is it also the same in the serial port? I would really like to control my electronic lock within two weeks because I'm getting close to the deadline of my thesis and its only 50% finished. Can help me how to control the serial port. I will really appreciate your help.

Thanks.

Happy Holidays! Smile | :)

Luc Pattyn28-Dec-07 2:39

28-Dec-07 2:39

meki_2118 wrote:
Do I still need to download the inpout32.dll to make the Serial Port work?

No. To use the .NET classes you need the .NET Framework, nothing else.

meki_2118 wrote:
my thesis and its only 50% finished

Time to move ahead then. This thread is 9 days old, what serial port experiments have
you performed since? Is your hardware ready? Did you check the number of lines you
need, the voltage levels, the currents?

Smile | :)

Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [My Articles]

Happy Holidays!

meki_211828-Dec-07 7:05

28-Dec-07 7:05

Luc Pattyn wrote:
Time to move ahead then. This thread is 9 days old, what serial port experiments have
you performed since? Is your hardware ready? Did you check the number of lines you
need, the voltage levels, the currents?

This is the first time for me to program a hardware and it's also the first time for me to use the PC's port for programming. I'm really a newbie about this hardware programming. My hardware is still not ready because I'm planning to experiment it first with a LED light. I've heard that accessing the PC ports are dangerous and there's a risk burning your M.Board and I really don't want to happen that right now. And about the "number of line" your talking about I'm really clueless about that. I think I must first study how the serial port work. Am I right?

Thanks again for your help. Smile | :)

Luc Pattyn28-Dec-07 7:31

28-Dec-07 7:31

meki_2118 wrote:
I must first study how the serial port work. Am I right?

yes.
whatever it is you will be using, you must study it.

meki_2118 wrote:
the "number of line" your talking about I'm really clueless

each serial port offers a few output lines and a few input lines.
you must determine how many you need for your target hardware; if the port has fewer,
it won't help you.

meki_2118 wrote:
I'm planning to experiment it first with a LED light

That is good. An LED will take some 10 mA and it sure needs a series resistor (say 1K).
When it works, it shows your software is probably OK. But that might be the smaller
part of the job.

Before you implement something, you should:
1. study the technologies you are considering;
2. make a design.
In your case: check number of lines, voltage levels, current requirements.
Example: if your door lock needs 1 Amp to operate, the serial or parallel port will not
be capable of supplying that, hence you would then need a power supply, a relay, and
probably a transistor to control the relay. (A relay probably will need more than a
few volts, and being inductive, I would not connect it to a PC directly).

Smile | :)

Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [My Articles]

Happy Holidays!

meki_21183-Jan-08 17:18

Re: USB or Parallel Port [modified]

3-Jan-08 17:18

hi. I've already studied how the serial port work and I already looked at the device I going to use. I think that I'm going to use two lines of the serial port. And my device will work like an florescent light, it is powered by a 220 volts. And the logic here is that my pc will only command the lock to turn on and off. But I don't know what pin to use and will I be still needing a transformer to change the voltage that will run through my pc?

Smile | :)

Happy New Year

Luc Pattyn4-Jan-08 1:23

mdb file with access to many user without SQL Server

4-Jan-08 1:23

Hi,

IIRC the pins DTR and RTS are output pins on the PC's serial port. They are controlled
by the properties SerialPort.DtrEnable and SerialPort.RtsEnable.

RS232C pins carry a DC voltage, anywhere in the range (-15V,+15V). They are capable
of sourcing/sinking some 10 mA and not suited for larger currents, larger voltages, or
direct connection to devices that are powered by the AC mains.

If your door lock is powered by 220V AC mains directly, you will need galvanic isolation
(you can't connect mains to your PC!); it also will need more than 10mA so you need
some switching device, either a transistor/thyristor/triac or a relay, and probably
both. It somewhat depends on the specs of the lock (see documentation!), and the distance
between PC and lock.

[ADDED] Instead of a transistor you could use an opto-coupler, which together with a
relay would be able to control almost anything; the transmitter side of the opto-coupler
would very much ressemble an LED, making your initial LED experiment much more
relevant.[/ADDED]

Smile | :)

Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [My Articles]

Happy 2008!

modified on Friday, January 04, 2008 7:40:49 AM

client server

ra_shieru17-Dec-07 11:20

ra_shieru

17-Dec-07 11:20

i want to create an application server-cliente i found this page

http://elguille.info/colabora/puntoNET/PabloTilli_SocketsVBNET.htm

this article say i have to create two .dll file`s and then a file to run the application, could you help me or do you know a page where i can see a example, thank`s.

stephan060717-Dec-07 10:26

stephan0607

17-Dec-07 10:26

Hello,

It is possible to get access with different user to one Access mdb file without SQL Server.
I have a small application (5 user) and I need access in a small network to one mdb file .
Is that posible ?
If yes, how can I do this without to get troubles or data crash.
I use VB Studio 2005.

Thanks in advance

BR
Stephan

Re: mdb file with access to many user without SQL Server

Dave Kreskowiak17-Dec-07 14:56

Dave Kreskowiak

17-Dec-07 14:56

You could use an Access database to do this, though Access was not designed for a multiuser environment. You WILL have to do maintenance on the database and Compact and Repair it every now and again. You WILL eventually have problems with the database.

If you want less problems and more flexibility, go with an SQL Server version, such Sql Server Express (free!).

Since Access is a file-based database, every user will have to have access rights to the file share and folder on the server where the database will be stored. I hope you know what you're doing when it comes to Windows Networking. If you don't, then you better learn before you start this project. You WILL need to know this stuff.

A guide to posting questions on CodeProject[^]

Dave Kreskowiak
Microsoft MVP
Visual Developer - Visual Basic
2006, 2007

Possible parameters in function

helelark12317-Dec-07 5:38

helelark123

17-Dec-07 5:38

Hello,

I have a function ConnectTo in a class clsMakeConnection.

My code is:

Dim MyCon as new clsMakeConnection()
MyCon.ConnectTo(...)

I would like to get a list of the possible connections.
I mean the list that you get when for example you write:
Dim c as color=
and then you get a list of all the colors as following
Color.AliceBlue
Color.Blue
Color.White
...

Is it possible to do that?

Thank you

Shay Noy

Re: Possible parameters in function

Dave Kreskowiak17-Dec-07 14:53

Dave Kreskowiak

17-Dec-07 14:53

There's several ways of doing this. The most basic is creating an Enum to provide this list of options. But, in all cases, it isn't magically created for you.

Public Enum ConnectionOptions As Integer
    SomeOption = someIntegerValue
    SomeOtherOption = someOtherIntegerValue
    ... and so on for each option ...
End Enum

Then, in your method signature of your Connection class:

Public Class clsMakeConnection
    Public Function ConnectTo(ByVal connectionType As ConnectionOptions) As ...

A guide to posting questions on CodeProject[^]

Dave Kreskowiak
Microsoft MVP
Visual Developer - Visual Basic
2006, 2007

Re: Possible parameters in function

helelark12317-Dec-07 18:38

helelark123

17-Dec-07 18:38

Thank you

Shay Noy

Re: Possible parameters in function [modified]

helelark12317-Dec-07 21:54

helelark123

17-Dec-07 21:54

Is it possible in addition to set a tooltip for each one of the items?

Someone can help?

Shay Noy

modified on Thursday, December 20, 2007 4:49:26 AM

Serialport using in VB.NET

Robert Hsu17-Dec-07 4:05

Robert Hsu

17-Dec-07 4:05

Hello, everyone

I am using VB.NET 2005 to create a project try to monite the PLC device. This project need to send a ASCII string to PLC link <enq>00FFBRAM00001422. I create this string in my program and using SerialPort object to control RS-232 port. I wrote the following code

RS232PORT = NEW system.io.pORT ( "COM6" , 9600 , ....)
RS232PORT.OPEN()...........................This stament execute sucessfull , means RS232port define is ok,
.....
mStr1 = chr(05) & "00FFBRAM00001422"
RS232PORT.WRITE( mstr1 )

and I found the RS-232 port flesh and PLC recive LED also flesh one. But PLC return with nothing. I got another utility and open another com port said COM3, and have null modem connected COM3 & COM6 and RS-232 test utility shows it got a data with 63 5 63 30 63 30 63 46 63 46..... it seems a x63 was added for each character, I wounder why ?

I check the menu say , SerialPort object default use encoding.ASCII format to send data , but why the result seems not,
following is my serial port object setting
? rs232port
{System.IO.Ports.SerialPort}
BaseStream: {System.IO.Ports.SerialStream}
BaudRate: 9600
BreakState: False
BytesToRead: 0
BytesToWrite: 0
CDHolding: False
Container: {System.ComponentModel.Container}
CtsHolding: False
DataBits: 7
DiscardNull: False
DsrHolding: False
DtrEnable: False
Encoding: {System.Text.ASCIIEncoding}
Handshake: None {0}
InfiniteTimeout: -1
IsOpen: True
NewLine: "
"
Parity: Odd {1}
ParityReplace: 63
PortName: "COM6"
ReadBufferSize: 4096
ReadTimeout: -1
ReceivedBytesThreshold: 1
RtsEnable: False
Site: {System.ComponentModel.Container.Site}
StopBits: One {1}
WriteBufferSize: 2048
WriteTimeout: -1

can anyone know where I should change to send data string to PLC normally.

Best regards
Robert

Re: Serialport using in VB.NET

Luc Pattyn17-Dec-07 6:59

help need for removing image from picturebox

17-Dec-07 6:59

Hi Robert,

my personal experience with SerialPort is limited to byte[] communication, I haven't sent
strings yet. But you are not the first to ask similar questions here, from earlier posts
I have got the impression setting the Encoding explicitly once again, maybe after opening
the port, could be useful.

Smile | :)

Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [My Articles]

Sorry for any delays in replying, I currently don't always get e-mail notifications.

Senthil S17-Dec-07 1:11

Senthil S

17-Dec-07 1:11

Hi all,
I am using a picturebox and i am loading Image by means of
PictureBox1.Image=image.FromFile("filepath and name")

if i want to remove the picture using fso.DeleteFile(paths, True) function. i cant able to delete. it show Access Denied error.

Can you give any idea to solve i,e. remove the image from the picture box after it load by using some delte method???

Thanks in advance

Senthil S
Software Engineer

Re: help need for removing image from picturebox

ChandraRam17-Dec-07 1:43

ChandraRam

17-Dec-07 1:43

Senthil S wrote:
I am using a picturebox and i am loading Image by means of
PictureBox1.Image=image.FromFile("filepath and name")

if i want to remove the picture using fso.DeleteFile(paths, True) function. i cant able to delete. it show Access Denied error.

Can you give any idea to solve i,e. remove the image from the picture box after it load by using some delte method???

Using FromFile will not let you delete the file... try some other method of loading the picture into your picture box.

Re: help need for removing image from picturebox

Christian Graus17-Dec-07 10:36

Christian Graus

17-Dec-07 10:36

You need to load the image, make a copy and dispose of the original. That's a bug in GDI+

Why would you delete it while the picturebox is trying to show it tho ?

Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++

"also I don't think "TranslateOneToTwoBillion OneHundredAndFortySevenMillion FourHundredAndEightyThreeThousand SixHundredAndFortySeven()" is a very good choice for a function name" - SpacixOne ( offering help to someone who really needed it ) ( spaces added for the benefit of people running at < 1280x1024 )

Re: help need for removing image from picturebox

Luc Pattyn17-Dec-07 11:40