Visual Basic

tmack

Member
I bought VB6 and have been able to figure out with tutorials how to write some little programs to send out serial data to some picaxes to control some robot functions and pan/tilt cameras. I would like to be able to do some more advanced vb programs to monitor my keyboard and hopefully end up using a joystick plugged into my usb port to control the rs232 out on my laptop to control them . Does anyone know of any books that would be able to help me do this. I bought a vb book but it doesn't really seem to be geared towards this type of application.I appreciate any advice.
 

MFB

Senior Member
VB Engineering book

Elektor Electronics produce a book entitled "Visual Basic for Electronic Engineering Applications" (ISBN 978-0-905705-68-2) price £29. I have not seen a copy but it should be more hardware related than those aimed at office applications.
 

ceke

New Member
I'm a longtime VB programmer and switched to c# as it makes working with peripherals and other odd things easier than VB. The .Net languages, especially the free VB and C# express tools are far superior than VB6 and you might consider using on of them. For fun one day I took my PICAXE 08M/433MHz serial port wireless transmitter and a basic stamp project board and made a simple wireless joystick controller for a couple servos:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=q7m7SbAKS6c

The c# program that takes the joystick input and sends it to the com port can be downloaded here:

http://www.cicadvisor.com/MCU/wireless_pc_joystick/wireless_joystick_csharp.zip

A direct serial connection would have been smoother since the cheap little 433 TX/RX's I use only seem to work reliably at 1200 bps. It was a fun project, nothing fancy or refined but does demonstrate the ease with which you can do it.

M
 

moxhamj

New Member
Start with http://www.instructables.com/id/Control-real-world-devices-with-your-PC/ and http://www.instructables.com/id/Worldwide-microcontroller-link-for-under-20/ These examples use VB.Net but it is just the next version of VB6, plus it is free. The examples shown will get your pan and tilt working with servos and not much modification to the code. A joystick reads two pots which are essentially two analog voltages (or at least it can be hacked to do that) and these can control the servos, either directly or via a computer.
 
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