Dacta control panel and VB using lego.ocx

[BManCan]

I wish i had more than one of these, then i could experiment with controlling multiple CLI's. They seem to be as rare as hens teeth to get hold of now.

I agree that the CLIs are getting more difficult to find but they do show up on E$Bay and Bricklink from time to time. I somehow managed to put together a collection of 9 CLIs and also 5 sets of the 9701 Control Lab Building set (it is a classic).

Your photo showing the CLI connected to a microcontroller is very interesting. Do you have an electronics background?

BManCan

[skaako]

I agree that the CLIs are getting more difficult to find but they do show up on E$Bay and Bricklink from time to time. I somehow managed to put together a collection of 9 CLIs and also 5 sets of the 9701 Control Lab Building set (it is a classic).

Your photo showing the CLI connected to a microcontroller is very interesting. Do you have an electronics background?

BManCan

Wow, 9 of them. Thats impressive, it would be fun to see how many you could use at one time. Maybe something like a com port multiplexer would do the trick. The thing that hinders me from buying overseas is the cost in getting it here to NZ.

Actually i still count electronics as a hobby as it is not my main job, but i have made or taken part in developing commercial/industrial products.

Mike

Edited June 9, 2010 by skaako

[BManCan]

it would be fun to see how many you could use at one time. Maybe something like a com port multiplexer would do the trick.

I actually ordered a 4 port RS232 Serial to Ethernet server NETRS232-4 so that I can connect to my CLIs anywhere through a network connection (or even an internet connection )

BManCan

[skaako]

I actually ordered a 4 port RS232 Serial to Ethernet server NETRS232-4 so that I can connect to my CLIs anywhere through a network connection (or even an internet connection )

BManCan

Cool, please let me know how you get on with that, sounds very interesting.

What sort of things do you use your CLI's for?

Mike

[Burf2000]

Ebay UK had a few selling a little time ago and were going for around £6 each

I got 2 units. I be interested in checking out the vb.net control and seeing if it works better than my vb6 one

[skaako]

Ebay UK had a few selling a little time ago and were going for around £6 each

£6 thats amazing. I thought i was getting a good deal when i paid $95NZD for mine : )

[Burf2000]

I am re-looking at this project, has anyone worked out how to read the sensor inputs for rotation and light? I get a string back which I convert to hex. Not sure that is correct

[skaako]

I am re-looking at this project, has anyone worked out how to read the sensor inputs for rotation and light? I get a string back which I convert to hex. Not sure that is correct

I found reading a sensor such as the light sensor was not too hard.. i also hooked up a variable resistor and used that to make sure i was converting the data correctly. I still havn't got a rotation sensor to try with it yet though. As i remember there are 2 bytes.. one has the 8 lower bits.. and the other byte has 2 bits that make up the 10 bit resolution.. i cant remember exactly how it goes but its something like this.

[Burf2000]

So if I have 0f ff I need to convert that to 1024?

[skaako]

So if I have 0f ff I need to convert that to 1024?

Hi, it sounds right but only 2 bits are used from that first byte 0f ff = 00001111 11111111 so i think it just uses the first 2 bits. and the value will convert to 1023 ie 11 11111111 in binary or 3h ffh in hex.

[Burf2000]

If you can find out any more info on this I would be very very very very happy mate :)

[skaako]

If you can find out any more info on this I would be very very very very happy mate :)

Hi again :) Yea i'll dig up the info i got when i was working on this last year.. its on my other computer so i wont be able to get for a day or two.. i see the site is down from where i got my info from but i think i made a copy of the info on my computer.

I hope it will help :)

[Burf2000]

Yeah it really would help mate, thanks in advance, putty the original site is down now :(

[skaako]

Hi, i didn't get the chance to look on the other computer yet but i managed to find a program i wrote for reading the inputs. Its been a while but luckily i left enough notes in the code to find may way around again

- The program loops and checks the com port until 19 bytes are available (These 19 bytes contain all the data from the inputs)

(In the program i only used input 0 which is contained in bytes 13 and 14)

(Byte 13 contains the 8 most significant bytes of the 10bit value, in byte 14, the 2 most significant bytes are the 2 least significant bytes of the 10bit value)

ie Byte 13 Byte 14 = Input 0

00000000 00xxxxxx

MSB LSB (of 10bit value)

- Convert and add the bytes together to get the value of the input.

I hope this helps

[skaako]

Yeah it really would help mate, thanks in advance, putty the original site is down now :(

Hi again, i emailed Anders Isaksson, the author of the site and he gave me the new link to the information found here at

http://blockcad.net/dacta/

Edited October 5, 2011 by skaako

[Burf2000]

Hi again, i emailed Anders Isaksson, the author of the site and he gave me the new link to the information found here at

http://blockcad.net/dacta/

Oh thank you so much mate :) Brilliant !

[skaako]

Oh thank you so much mate :) Brilliant !

You're welcome mate :) I actually decided to order some rotation sensors and a temp sensor off bricklink to try myself too.. i always wanted to get it working with the control lab but never got round to getting them in the past.

From looking at the info from the rotation sensor i think it wouldn't be too hard to get it working with some decent resolution. I have figured from the data that the status bits are not really required as the 10bit value contains the different voltage levels from the sensor indicating each quarter turn. 100% 75% 35% and 50% for steps 1 to 4. However the first status bit is handy as it looks like it goes to 1 as the sensor is in its transition phase.

[Burf2000]

You're welcome mate :) I actually decided to order some rotation sensors and a temp sensor off bricklink to try myself too.. i always wanted to get it working with the control lab but never got round to getting them in the past.

From looking at the info from the rotation sensor i think it wouldn't be too hard to get it working with some decent resolution. I have figured from the data that the status bits are not really required as the 10bit value contains the different voltage levels from the sensor indicating each quarter turn. 100% 75% 35% and 50% for steps 1 to 4. However the first status bit is handy as it looks like it goes to 1 as the sensor is in its transition phase.

So what you saying is very soon your be able to actually tell me what I need to do, to be fair I was busy with George the robot and a large UK show. I will get back to this project very soon and anything I can do to help, let me know.

[skaako]

So what you saying is very soon your be able to actually tell me what I need to do, to be fair I was busy with George the robot and a large UK show. I will get back to this project very soon and anything I can do to help, let me know.

Thanks too :) It made me decide to finish what i started, which was a motorized gantry crane. I got to the point of being able to control it with the Dacta CLI by using the computer keyboard to move the 2 axis plus the gripper.. and then got too busy with other things. I also added a variable resistor to one of the inputs to control the speed of one of the motors to test the inputs worked correctly. I would have really liked to automate it with rotation sensors and touch sensors for limit switches.. when the sensors arrive i'll have to get started.. maybe i can finally finish it :)

[Burf2000]

Thanks too :) It made me decide to finish what i started, which was a motorized gantry crane. I got to the point of being able to control it with the Dacta CLI by using the computer keyboard to move the 2 axis plus the gripper.. and then got too busy with other things. I also added a variable resistor to one of the inputs to control the speed of one of the motors to test the inputs worked correctly. I would have really liked to automate it with rotation sensors and touch sensors for limit switches.. when the sensors arrive i'll have to get started.. maybe i can finally finish it :)

Remind me again, what have you programmed it in? I am using VB6 but seen there is a VB.net port out there.

[skaako]

Remind me again, what have you programmed it in? I am using VB6 but seen there is a VB.net port out there.

I originally wrote it in Liberty Basic 4 so will probably stick with this.. i dont really do too much programming so i find this easy to get back into after a long time away from it. Its set up really nice for serial comms and really quick to write programs.

[Burf2000]

I originally wrote it in Liberty Basic 4 so will probably stick with this.. i dont really do too much programming so i find this easy to get back into after a long time away from it. Its set up really nice for serial comms and really quick to write programs.

Is it free, maybe when your done I could look at your source?

[skaako]

Is it free, maybe when your done I could look at your source?

Hi again :) Yea i'm pretty sure you can download the software free.. i think the free version doesn't let you compile programs as standalone programs but you can execute them from within the software no problem. It has no problem running with Windows XP or 7 with comm ports too. Let me know if you find it useful.

And yea sure you can use the source code if you like :)

Heres a link to their website

Edited October 6, 2011 by skaako

[skaako]

Is it free, maybe when your done I could look at your source?

Hi again :) My sensors have arrived and i have made a few small programs in LB to test the sensors. There are 2 links below that shows the source code.. one program is just to read the values from all inputs.. and the other is for testing the rotation sensor.

For the rotation sensor i used a 9V motor (Newer type) set to the lowest speed from Port A output. At this speed it can read all steps, at the next speed it misses 1 or 2, above that it misses too many to be reliable. I think this is more of a limitation with the sensor. I think for reading the sensor, using the Value from the port and the lowest bit from the second byte.. this bit seems to show 0 when the reading is stable.

Feel free to ask any questions.. i didn't put many comments to describe the program.

Read Inputs

Rotation Sensor Test

[Burf2000]

Hey mate

About to fly to Budapest for work for 4 days, soon as I am back I will grab your stuff and see if I can get it working. Then I plan to blog the VB stuff so that people can use it to!

Lets bring the old Dacta back to life!