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Servo control with vb after packaging problems

M

Mitch__

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi all
this might be better asked in a vb group, but i would like to ask here
as well..
I am controlling servos via lpt with VB
Just giving servo 5v and pulsing out lpt line to servo with following
code

Dim icount As Integer
For icount = 1 To 75
Call PortOut(888, 1)
Threading.Thread.Sleep(0.8)
Call PortOut(888, 0)
Next icount
Return

Everything works great when i run project within VB

but the servos do not work correctly if i run from a Build or Publish
of project,,
any ideas?
TIA
Mike
 
B

Bob Masta

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi all
this might be better asked in a vb group, but i would like to ask here
as well..
I am controlling servos via lpt with VB
Just giving servo 5v and pulsing out lpt line to servo with following
code

Dim icount As Integer
For icount = 1 To 75
Call PortOut(888, 1)
Threading.Thread.Sleep(0.8)
Call PortOut(888, 0)
Next icount
Return

Everything works great when i run project within VB

but the servos do not work correctly if i run from a Build or Publish
of project,,
any ideas?
TIA
Mike

I'm not a VB user, but I wonder what version of Windows
you are using. The direct I/O commands should be fine
in Win9x, but NT and later need a special Ring 0 driver
for direct access. So, assuming you are runing a recent
Windows version, can it be that the required driver is
built into VB, but is not automatically included in Build
or Publish versions? This is what I'd expect, since (as far
as I can tell) the driver has to be loaded like other drivers,
at system start-up, not at run time like a DLL.

If this is what is really happening, and VB doesn't
provide a stand-alone port access driver, the two
that I've heard of are GIVEIO and USERPORT.
Maybe your code will run with one of those intalled.

Best regards,




Bob Masta

D A Q A R T A
Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis
www.daqarta.com
Scope, Spectrum, Spectrogram, Signal Generator
Science with your sound card!
 
M

Mitch__

Jan 1, 1970
0
I'm not a VB user, but I wonder what version of Windows
you are using. The direct I/O commands should be fine
in Win9x, but NT and later need a special Ring 0 driver
for direct access. So, assuming you are runing a recent
Windows version, can it be that the required driver is
built into VB, but is not automatically included in Build
or Publish versions? This is what I'd expect, since (as far
as I can tell) the driver has to be loaded like other drivers,
at system start-up, not at run time like a DLL.

If this is what is really happening, and VB doesn't
provide a stand-alone port access driver, the two
that I've heard of are GIVEIO and USERPORT.
Maybe your code will run with one of those intalled.

Best regards,

Bob Masta

D A Q A R T A
Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis
www.daqarta.com
Scope, Spectrum, Spectrogram, Signal Generator
Science with your sound card!- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -


Im runing xp pro, and i had to install a dll
io.dll for my program to work correctly
when i run the packaged exe, the servos move but not very much and not
even 1/4 of the amount that they do when i am actually running from
within VB
...
thanks for the reply..
 
A

Anthony Fremont

Jan 1, 1970
0
Mitch__ said:
Hi all
this might be better asked in a vb group, but i would like to ask here
as well..
I am controlling servos via lpt with VB
Just giving servo 5v and pulsing out lpt line to servo with following
code

Dim icount As Integer
For icount = 1 To 75
Call PortOut(888, 1)
Threading.Thread.Sleep(0.8)
Call PortOut(888, 0)

Don't you need some delay here as well? I assume you're trying to make some
kind of wave form here. If so, you need some idle time on the bottom as
well. Otherwise your waves are going to have only the smallest low time.
The EXE version would run faster making the pulse low time almost
nonexistent.

To drive a standard RC servo, you want the pulse width to be between 1 and 2
mS with 1.5mS width representing the center position of the servo motor. If
I understand, the SLEEP thing above is only pausing for 750uS (like I really
believe that windos can successfully do that, repeatedly ;-). Seems like
you should change the .8 to 1.5 and also add another SLEEP for about 50mS
after the second call to PortOut to give the servo a rest. This would give
you an update rate of a bit under 20 pulses per second, something the servo
would like to see I'm sure. ;-)
Next icount
Return

Everything works great when i run project within VB

Maybe this will help you too:
http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=158127

Every once in a while I do something with VB and then when the project
starts getting the slightest bit complicated, I remember why I don't use it
much. IT DOESN'T WORK RIGHT, ARGHHHH! ;-)
 
M

Mitch__

Jan 1, 1970
0
Don't you need some delay here as well? I assume you're trying to make some
kind of wave form here. If so, you need some idle time on the bottom as
well. Otherwise your waves are going to have only the smallest low time.
The EXE version would run faster making the pulse low time almost
nonexistent.

To drive a standard RC servo, you want the pulse width to be between 1 and 2
mS with 1.5mS width representing the center position of the servo motor. If
I understand, the SLEEP thing above is only pausing for 750uS (like I really
believe that windos can successfully do that, repeatedly ;-). Seems like
you should change the .8 to 1.5 and also add another SLEEP for about 50mS
after the second call to PortOut to give the servo a rest. This would give
you an update rate of a bit under 20 pulses per second, something the servo
would like to see I'm sure. ;-)



Maybe this will help you too:http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=158127

Every once in a while I do something with VB and then when the project
starts getting the slightest bit complicated, I remember why I don't use it
much. IT DOESN'T WORK RIGHT, ARGHHHH! ;-)

thank you very much.
 
G

Gilles Kohl

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi all
this might be better asked in a vb group, but i would like to ask here
as well..
I am controlling servos via lpt with VB
Just giving servo 5v and pulsing out lpt line to servo with following
code

Dim icount As Integer
For icount = 1 To 75
Call PortOut(888, 1)
Threading.Thread.Sleep(0.8)
Call PortOut(888, 0)
Next icount
Return

Everything works great when i run project within VB

but the servos do not work correctly if i run from a Build or Publish
of project,,
any ideas?

Might be speed differences between running in the IDE and running the
compiled version. Note that Thread.Sleep accepts an integer argument,
not a floating point number. You can't reliably specify microseconds
in there. (Might work in the current example because the 800uS get
rounded to 1mS.)

Regards,
Gilles.
 
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