Home
JAQForum Ver 24.01
Log In or Join  
Active Topics
Local Time 14:55 27 Nov 2024 Privacy Policy
Jump to

Notice. New forum software under development. It's going to miss a few functions and look a bit ugly for a while, but I'm working on it full time now as the old forum was too unstable. Couple days, all good. If you notice any issues, please contact me.

Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Maximite and RobotBASIC

Author Message
MaxUserBill
Newbie

Joined: 13/04/2013
Location: United States
Posts: 4
Posted: 06:27pm 18 Apr 2013
Copy link to clipboard 
Print this post

Question: (And I bet the answer is yes!)

Without knowing a lot about RobotBASIC... (or MMBasic, I am waiting for my new CGCOLORMAX2 board to arrive! )

Will RobotBASIC interface (play nice!) with the CGCOLORMAX2 board?

--------------

Don't shoot me! but my friend wants to know if a Maximite board could be used with LabVIEW? (There is a lot of mixed opinion if LabVIEW is good, bad or ugly! I have used it before and don't love or hate it.)

Thanks for any info,
WillEdited by MaxUserBill 2013-04-20
 
JohnS
Guru

Joined: 18/11/2011
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 3802
Posted: 12:22am 19 Apr 2013
Copy link to clipboard 
Print this post

Er, looks to be an EXE so does it only run on Windoze?
If yes, looks useless for boards without Windoze - which is pretty much all of them.

I see info on RROS and proprietary hardware. No thanks.

JohnEdited by JohnS 2013-04-20
 
CircuitGizmos

Guru

Joined: 08/09/2011
Location: United States
Posts: 1425
Posted: 04:57am 19 Apr 2013
Copy link to clipboard 
Print this post

RobotBASIC is a BASIC that runs on a PC. You can write in BASIC and make a PC program. It runs in an interpreter or can be compiled to be a stand-alone program. RB has the ability to communicate to a MMBasic program through the serial port.

The CGCOLORMAX2 becomes a serial port when connected to a PC via USB. You can write MMBasic that runs on the CGCOLORMAX2 that communicates via this USB connection and write RobotBASIC that runs on the PC and also communicates via the same connection.

There is no direct connection between the languages, other than that they are both BASICS. RB can be used on a PC to make a PC "app" that talks to a CGCOLORMAX2.

RB has 'setcommport', 'serin', and 'serout' serial commands. There are some examples in the RB download.

RB is free.

Despite the "robot" in RobotBASIC, it can be used to write general PC programs.

RROS is a separate entity. It is a bit of hardware/software that works well with RB (or even other PC programs) that is geared toward controlling robots. RROS is a bit of robot controller hardware that reads sensors and controls motors.

Edited by CircuitGizmos 2013-04-20
Micromites and Maximites! - Beginning Maximite
 
StoveMan
Regular Member

Joined: 29/03/2013
Location: United States
Posts: 51
Posted: 05:54pm 20 Apr 2013
Copy link to clipboard 
Print this post

MaxUserBill:
  Quote  Don't shoot me! but my friend wants to know if a Maximite board could be used with LabVIEW? (There is a lot of mixed opinion if LabVIEW is good, bad or ugly! I have used it before and don't love or hate it.)


The Maximite should do fine with Labview. There are no native NI drivers of course but a serial connection can be fed into LabView using their implementation of VISA (Virtual Instrument Software Architecture).

Use a TTL to usb converter (one based on FTDI chips will work with the driver you install with CGColormax) and the port enumerator in LabView NI-VISA should see it.
Opening a Com in MMbasic "as console" will allow you to "print " data right into LV
I have not interfaced MMbasic this way but many other serial devices are quite easy to drive. I have found LV to be a bit slow for anything with a lot of serial data though.

What is your friend intending to link MM and LV for?

If the point is just to collect data then the multi-drop data modules from Terry Weeder (WEEDTECH.com) work great with LV for this and you need no other circuitry.

If you need to crunch/sort/filter/analyze data the LV has this functionality on-board and does a better job at it than the MM will.
That being said... A homebrew program in MMbasic is much more satisfying! Visual drag and drop widget programming has no Soul.
Frank.
 
MaxUserBill
Newbie

Joined: 13/04/2013
Location: United States
Posts: 4
Posted: 01:22pm 21 Apr 2013
Copy link to clipboard 
Print this post

  StoveMan said   MaxUserBill:
What is your friend intending to link MM and LV for?

If the point is just to collect data then the multi-drop data modules from Terry Weeder (WEEDTECH.com) work great with LV for this and you need no other circuitry.

If you need to crunch/sort/filter/analyze data the LV has this functionality on-board and does a better job at it than the MM will.
That being said... A homebrew program in MMbasic is much more satisfying! Visual drag and drop widget programming has no Soul.
Frank.


I think he just wants to use the Maximite as a inexpensive analog and digital interface into LabVIEW (now that the Arduino is popular for that, everyone wants their own chunk of LabVIEW! ) Thanks for the info on those data modules, he might like them.

I couldn't possibly agree more! Visual drag and drop has no Soul!!!
(Then again, I am an old one very into retro-computing! I love emulations of all my old machines, including the Altair, my ZX-Spectrum and SOOO many others! This CGCOLORMAX2 hardware is like a dream becoming physical reality!)

Call me Bill,
Call me Will,
Just DON'T call me late to dinner!
 
Print this page


To reply to this topic, you need to log in.

© JAQ Software 2024