peter howarth

[peter howarth]

problems with getting '"free"" logicator software to run on a toshiba satellite L650 laptop computer or a hewlett packard compaq cq3000 series cq3420an desktop computer with windows premium 7 operating system.. the logicator simply will not run on either machine, has picaxe in the uk absolutely baffled..

surely someone in the uk at least has the same type of computer as I do, and therefore should be able to share as to what hiccups and traps they may have struck in the process of getting logicator to run on their machine.. my 2 computers are less than 12 months old, perhaps my computers are too modern, too fast , I dont know, but any help would be appreciated on this ..

 

[nick12ab]

What do you mean "it does not run"?

If you get the "This application failed to initialize (some error code)" error then you need to install the .NET Framework.

P.S. Thread title is a tad undescriptive.

 

[nick12ab]

Is it working after installing the .NET Framework?

The laptop has a core i5 processor so the issue can't lie within a poor spec computer not being able to run it.

 

[peter howarth]

Thankyou Nick, yes .net framework has been installed, but to no avail, how do I send photos to the forum in order to have people on the forum to better help out with problems described , ... Logicator does come up on my screen, however only with the yellow background behind the start etc flowchart symbols etc and thus I cant use logicator, whereas 2 local fellows who have Dell computers have been able get logicator to run on their machines such that the background colour of logicator is white, and they have also been able to use the drawing pen to join up the symbols in the flowchart.. On my toshiba the flowchart drawing pen on the menu toolbar simply isnt there, not usable, and so logicator is a non-event on my toshiba laptop.. Surely Revolution education has a list of computers and brands of computers that will run logicator straight away, and those brands of computers that have to have programs added etc , in order to get logicator running...

Is the logicator flowchart software actually free over the internet, or do I actually have to travel to the uk and purchase the free logicator software for 12 pounds 77 in order to get logicator running on my laptop., no one from revolution education can give me a straight answer on this..I look forward to your help on the above .. Regards Peter Howarth

 

[nick12ab]

You do not have to buy the software, just go onto the downloads tab of this page.

For attachments, first take a screenshot with the PrtSc button on the keyboard, save that into a jpg file (unfortunately you can't use the superior png format because of silly forum size restrictions on non-jpg images) and attach the image as shown in the attachment.

 

[nick12ab]

More possibilities and suggestions until a professional comes along with suggestions

Re the laptop that won't show you the menu bar, can you right-click flowchart cells to open the context menu with the draw line option on?
[HR][/HR]Re the .NET Framework, this is a previous problem from another member that was caused by a corrupted installation of .NET Framework 1.1: http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showthread.php?19133-Logicator-V5-startup-error&p=178983&viewfull=1#post178983

I also managed to get PIC-Logicator to crash... by randomly clicking everywhere for a while, opening the 'Flowsheet Map View', clicking it, then clicking the flowsheet again. I couldn't reproduce that error again. However, any .NET application crash allows the user (me) to see what version of the .NET Framework the executable has loaded.

As you can see from the attachment, mscorlib (.NET Framework) 2.0 is in use. I also have versions up to 4.0 installed so I can't imagine that it is 'just using the latest version'. Make sure you do have version 2.0 (and 1.1) installed (if you're interested in software development for computers, consider downloading Visual Basic/C# 2010, the installer for which will automatically sort out .NET versions 2.0 to 4.0).

However, I would have expected that without the correct framework installed, an error message would have shown saying that an assembly couldn't be loaded with description like "mscorlib.dll Version=3.5.0.0" or a simple error like "You must install one of the following versions of the .NET Framework to run this application..."

[HR][/HR]Which installer did you use? The "uncompressed msi" or the normal executable? If one doesn't work, try the other. And also try the vcredist_x86.exe update.

[HR][/HR]Re both computers that you own - Logicator should run on any modern computer - sometimes referred to as an 'IBM-compatible PC' or similar. As a result, Logicator runs fine on both my decent computer with a Core 2 Duo processor and a 2004 Celeron laptop bought at a car boot sale for £5. According to PassMark, my processor is better than yours (the compaq PC) so your computer won't be too fast (mine qualifies as 'out of date' anyway). Logicator won't require special AHCI drivers either for a modern computer since Windows deals with that.

Make sure that the copies of Windows 7 you have installed are not broken or corrupted - can you open any control panel item you want and it works? Also, try unplugging and reconnecting all disk drives and reseating the RAM in the computers.

[HR][/HR]There's also some alternative free flowcharting software available for PICAXE too - the (discontinued) one built into Programming Editor, and third party programs Yenka PICs and Scratch.

[HR][/HR]Finally, the problem's likely to be specific to some software that you have (or have not) installed on your computers. I'm going to stop at this point as to avoid the potential of clogging the forum with tons of useless information if the solution is simpler.

 

[peter howarth]

Done all the above, how do I go about downloading the free 12pound 77 logicator software from the picaxe website onto my hewlett packard compaq cq3000 series desktop computer.. The people at revolution education are simply not interested in helping me out, and yet they are 100% responsible for [ sorting out ] any problems arising from anybodies attempt to download their free 12 pound 77 software from their website onto any modern computer, such as what I have listed above..Do I have to jump on an airplane , travel to the uk , and bring with me my desktop equipment, in order for revolution education to disprove that their logicator software wont work on my modern computer machine.. Revolution education is obligated to get their free ,advertised as free, 12 pound77logicator flowchart programming software functioning on any modern computer anywhere in the world..

 

[nick12ab]

The "free" £12.77 logicator software is shareware - so you can use it for free and suffer the nag screens or pay for it and go without the nag screens. The nag screens are simply dialog boxes that appear asking you to pay each time you run Logicator, save a flowsheet and download a program.

Click the link below to download PIC-Logicator for free.
http://www.picaxe.com/downloads/lgc001.exe

Remember - to take screenshots, you just use the Print Screen key which you'll find in the top right corner of your keyboard, then open Paint and press Paste. Then save the image. Alternatively, you can use Windows 7's Snipping Tool. The attachment in post 5 shows you how to attach images.

 

[nick12ab]

I did some investigation into PIC-Logicator and different installed .NET Framework versions.

With no .NET Frameowk version installed whatsoever, the program doesn't start at all and just shows the error message below.

With only .NET 2.0 installed, PIC-Logicator crashes at the startup screen every time like this:

With both .NET 2.0 and .NET 1.1 installed, a different error message comes up instead:

But with .NET versions 1.1, 2.0 and 3.5 installed, PIC-Logicator starts correctly and runs flawlessly. However, this could be because the .NET Framework 3.5 installer also installs .NET 2.0 SP1 (service pack 1) and .NET 3.0 SP1. Those service packs may be what's vital to starting PIC-Logicator. Please click the .NET Framework 3.5 link below to download the installer. That should get PIC-Logicator working properly. If not, install the other too as well.

Links to .NET versions below:

• .NET Framework 2.0
• .NET Framework 1.1
• .NET Framework 3.5 with 2.0 SP1 and 3.0 SP1

 

[peter howarth]

thankyou nick, your third last photo screen is what normally happens, most often, when I try to get logicator to run properly, I shall give this a go as soon as I can.. do you know anybody at revolution education?

 

[peter howarth]

nick have tried to do download of shareware logicator, but yet again , the third screen photo syndrome still rears its ugly head..

can i send the equivalent australian currency amount of 12pound77 over to the uk to rev-ed, in order for rev-ed to send back to me a cd rom so as i can load logicator that way, or is there another way of getting logicator to run on my machine over here..

 

[eclectic]

@Peter Howarth
Have you installed the .NET files
as recommended by Nick in post #9?

e

 

[nick12ab]

So now is the only problem remaining the Yes thing being at the top of the Decision symbol? In Logicator, when you draw lines the arrows go from wherever you started and to wherever you finish the line and the direction is indicated by little arrows on the lines.

The first line that you draw from the decision cell gets a Yes and the second line that you draw from the Decision cell gets a No and the line that you draw to the decision cell gets no letter. Therefore for 'Yes' to be at the top of the cell a line must be coming out from the top as shown below.

Below is the above flowchart but laid out with the lines from the decision cell coming out of the sides - well actually it isn't as High and Low are swapped around but that doesn't matter since I'll be telling you how to swap the Yes and No to make the flowchart's operation the same as the one above - well actually the operation will be the same for both of them which is a syntax error since the pins for the High and Low commands have not been set but this post is only explaining about Yes and No so the High and Low commands are unimportant.

To swap the positions of yes and no, right-click the Decision cell and click 'Swap Yes and No'.

Now Yes and No are swapped.