Developing windows form based application in Keil

Borland died as developer of tools for developers the day the ties took over _all_ decision making. Their R&D department wasn't allowed to acknowledge bugs because such actions would damage the perceived value of the company. A developer who does not see any feedback at all when reporting - or questioning about - a problem with a tool will quickly look for an alternative supplier.

Borland died as developer of tools for developers the day the ties took over _all_ decision making. Their R&D department wasn't allowed to acknowledge bugs because such actions would damage the perceived value of the company. A developer who does not see any feedback at all when reporting - or questioning about - a problem with a tool will quickly look for an alternative supplier.

There tools were much better than MS I still use BCB 5 (think year 2000 ) as a functional tool. The biggest issue I've had with Codegear 'stuff' is that the help is next to dung. Namely because they used MS help data which was excruciatingly poor to begin with, and expunged all the help information regarding the VCL (I don't use .NET because it's a waste of time).

I think the 'yes' only people are hopefully unemployed from the business world. They created all the economic woe we all suffer from today. No negative feedback makes anything unstable.

It might be that the guy needs the 8051 to run the menu system through an RS232 (a serial port), and have Windows running Hyperterminal. If that is the case, then his friend might be right, and the OP can indeed use Keil.

--Cpt. Vince Foster
2nd Cannon Place
Fort Marcy Park, VA

"It might be that the guy needs the 8051 to run the menu system through an RS232 (a serial port), and have Windows running Hyperterminal"

Well, what he actually said was,

"My aim here is to build a software which sends commands to the 8051 controller"

and

"i want to create a form which can be used to change some parameters before i send commands to the device"

(my emphases)

And he called it "Windows forms" - which is a type of windows application.

But you are right, the 8051 could be used to generate a crude form using escape-sequences to program a terminal - like we used to do on VT100-style terminals before the days of real GUIs...

Maybe he wants that "retro" look...?

More likely he wanted to interface a PC into the 8051 device and hadn't considered the physical interface (IE to him that's trivial), being focused on the ginger bread (the UI instead of how to get data to the device).

Having done the serial UI before one can do a fair bit with it, but alas that uses up lots of code space in the device. I tend to use some sort of protocol that facilitates proper information exchange.

This is however all speculation at the moment.

Stephen

can Tamir help plz>?

Nobody knows what the question is

Erik

PS did you just change your name?

What can I do for you, dear Jameel? I would do almost anything except become your code monkey!!!

"What can I do for you, dear Jameel? I would do almost anything except become your code monkey!!!"

Message from Jameel: switch to your birthday suit and take a picture, and upload to Flickr, Picasa, SmugMug, ... and post a link.

Tamir,

I have a few picture that are 'cool' and even some videos that are also 'cool'... So is it an easy endeavor to post some of those pics or not? (I only use a PC for cross-compiling, so I am a bit naive about "The Tool's Platform." Any non-real time OS is something I don't bother with. Hence my ignorance of Microsoft 'form' tools.

erik rightfully points out that we don't know the OP's position/question. ",Nobody knows what the question is"

Thank you in advance, and I need the info immediately because we're supposed to hand in our exam papers within the next fifteen minutes !

--Cpt. Vince Foster
2nd Cannon Place
Fort Marcy Park, VA

Hi Friends.
Thanks a lot for all the comments..
Let me explain my requirement and then please let me know what is the best way i can go about developing a solution.

1) I have a board which has a 8051 MicroController.
2) I have a USB based connection from this board to my system.
3) I need to develop a software that has a windows form in which a user will feed some values.
4) depending upon these values i want to send some commands to the MicroController.

I can design the form in C#. But now the problem arises how do i generate 8051 commands and send those commands to the 8051 controller using C#.

So someone can please tell me how can i generate commands for 8051 using C# from application.
Pointers to some examples will also help.

Additionally i have to send commands over USB and receive data from the device.

If in case anyone has an alternative way of implmenting my program. Please Please guide me.

thanks and Regards,
Siddharth Gupta

Siddharth Gupta,

Sorry about being snippy before, but your question is a rather large task for this forum to completely provide you with what you need to do to resolve your 'question'.

1) I have a board which has a 8051 MicroController.

Answer to #1) You are running a lower level processor

2) I have a USB based connection from this board to my system.

Answer to #2) the only link is via a USB between the systems. Thus you need a host-side USB driver and the 8051 based unit must also have a USB device driver.

3) I need to develop a software that has a windows form in which a user will feed some values.

Answer to #3) Not only will you need drivers on both ends (PC and the 8051 based device), but you will also need to establish a protocol layer to contain your personalized command/response set of information.

4) depending upon these values i want to send some commands to the Micro-controller.

Answer to #4) Over and above the USB drivers. You will have to define how this GUI interacts with the user and then send the results via the USB protocol and transmit it.

You are asking a lot from this forum, as we cannot provide you with the proper protocol, what the GUI should look like, and what the exact solution would be. I am sure most of the veteran contributors are fully capable of handling this task, but again, it would take a long time to simply provide you with an answer with so many unknowns. And even if you were to clarify those unknowns, I doubt if anybody will donate that much 'free time' to your problem.

Now if you don't need the GUI interface you can do what I said and have the 8051 communicating over the RS232 (DE9) ports and run Hyperterminal as it's user interface. Yet again you will have to develop the proper communications protocol.

Your friend, who said that you have the code already, is probably half-right. He may be speaking about the Device Side (the 8051) USB stack, and its USB requirements. Study that software package along with the USB stack and layers and you may have found your higher-level protocol. Now all you will have to do is write the USB driver for the host (PC) side. A company called Jungo (http://www.jungo.com) may help you develop the host side driver for the USB interface. What is then left is for your GUI interface to 'speak' through this host-side USB driver.

I think that is about the 'best' answer you will get on this forum. You will not get any 'code' that specifically answers your needs.

Like what stephen phillips said, you may have thought that the interface would be "trivial" to do, but it is not a simple task to write [robust] USB drivers.

--Cpt. Vince Foster
2nd Cannon Place
Fort Marcy Park, VA

Does your 8051 has USB? Or does your 8051 board has a USB-to-serial chip so that the 8051 chip just sees serial data, and the PC sees an extra serial port?

In case the 8051 board just shows up as another serial port, you will be able to forget everything about USB and concentrate on standard RS232 communication.

If all you need is to send commands, then you can send each command as a single character:
'A' -> Read ADC and report value back.
'B' -> Blink LED.
'R' -> Reboot.

If you need to also send parameters to the board, then it would probably be easiest to send each command as one text line followed by a line break.
"A10\n" -> Read ADC channel 10.
"A0-7\n" -> Read ADC channels 0 to 7.
"B,1,100,100\n" -> Blink LED 1 with 100ms on time and 100ms off time.

If your board does not show up as a standard serial port, then you should have a talk with your teacher about exactly what library code the school is helping out with, since I do not believe that they would expect you to implement all that on your own.

Presumably, by "system" here, you mean the PC on which the Windoes form is to run?

As Per says, you need to explain how this "USB based connection" appears to both the 8051 and the PC!

"the problem arises how do i generate 8051 commands and send those commands to the 8051 controller using C#."

That depends entirely on the nature of the "USB based connection", and has nothing to do with the fact that an 8051 is involved!

Any decent embedded USB thing should come with model drivers and examples from the supplier. If yours doesn't, then you should seriously consider ditching it for one that does!

1) I have a board which has a 8051 MicroController.

I know of about 2000 such boards that have one of about 300 different '51 derivatives on them.

WHAT BOARD (link, please)
WHAT '51 (link, please)

Erik