ezuk's dashboard

Oh yeah, and a couple more features I forgot to mention:

DS1206 also has multi-channel serial port, and also pass-thru power. DS203 doesn't have any of these.

IMHO, you should definitely go with the DS1206, or maybe DS1206N if you don't need the housing.

The DS1206 is just $3 more than the DS203, and the DS1206N (no housing) is exactly the same price as the DS203.

Operationally, you get a whole lot more. It's based on a faster processor, and is fully BASIC programmable. We have a serial-over=IP application (right here, in fact). Once that's loaded on the DS1206 (or DS1206N), it works exactly like the DS203, with three main differences:

1. No PPPoE supported (so if you use PPPoE, that's just about the only drawback)

2. DS1206(N) will have a web management interface in addition to TDST. Password protected of course (and you can totally disable it if you don't want it, just like any other feature).

3. DS1206(N)’s functionality can be extended by the customer when they need to. So you can have custom features of your own -- our serial-over-IP app is open-source, just take it and change whatever you need.

Bottom line -- go for DS1206. It's not a money thing (costs the same, as I said). It's just better.

Awesome! Thanks for taking the time to note this here for the other guys. – ezuk, on October 23, 2009 07:08

Basically, it's plain old TCP or UDP socket communications. I don't know what you're coding with (vb?) but just about any example you read online about communicating via sockets is going to be applicable.

The gist of it is opening a connection to a certain IP/port, sending out some stuff, listening for incoming replies.

You can use our DS commands for testing. For example, if you send out the X command (http://docs.tibbo.com/soism/command_x...) you should get a nice, informative reply.

As an initial step, just to get a feel for the commands and working with UDP, you can grab I/O Ninja (http://ninja.tibbo.com) and open a UDP socket and start playing around with the commands until you manage to get the device to reply.

Once you got the device replying within I/O Ninja, you're going to know exactly what you should be sending and how. Then it's just a matter of implementing it via your language's communications facilities, which should be pretty easy (and generic, so you can really google it).

Heya,

Yes, what you're talking about is the VSP's API, which of course has nothing to do with Tibbo BASIC.

Now, the VSPD does have an API, and the samples should basically work. BUT if you already have access to the source code for your client application, we would recommend using direct socket connection, rather than emulated COM ports.

Any reason not to do that?

Hugh, check out http://basic.tibbo.com. Should answer your questions.

Marked new version as "Company Solution". Thanks T-Bone and p.alex!

Hey Contex, you caught us red-handed. Busted. :) We don't have it yet, you're right. Too many things took precedence over it in R&D (we put out five new devices, including a WiFi module).

Anyways, just goes to show we should never commit to times. Sorry about this -- don't know when we'll have it.

Is it your own board, or an EM203-EV?

What firmware is loaded?

What is the LED pattern?

Hey Chad,

I'm not a Tibbo BASIC guru myself, but I know enough to tell you that you can create a simple protocol (even comma-separated values, for example), have your VB app open a direct TCP socket to the clock, and poll the data directly.

For exact details and code snippets etc, I would recommend writing Support. Andrew is the man for such questions -- he knows his Tibbo BASIC very well.

And if you come up with anything interesting, I would love to hear it on the forum or feature it on our site.

Hi Alex,

Thanks again for finding this bug and for the very detailed feedback! We have a bugfix for you. But it's really for you -- it is not a version we're releasing yet because it contains some new features.

We would like you to test it with the whole project (we had just the snippet to work with) and tell us if it works.

Please email me to ezuk at tibbo dot com and I will send you a direct download link. Please do not share it for now.

Dear Alex,

I'm sorry for this error. Our main TIDE developer stepped in to explain and give some tips:

"First, let me explain this INTERNAL COMPILER error.
When the compiler sees error in user code, it reports the faulty source file, line, error code and description. But when an error occures in compiler itself, it has no choice but silently to crash -- and this INTERNAL COMPILER ERROR is just a stub to notify the user that the user's source code managed to crash the compiler itself.

Of course, this is the compiler's fault -- it should not crash on any input. I feel sorry about that, but you know all the programs have bugs, I sometimes get such INTERNAL COMPILER errors even with MS Visual Studio.

Now, what to do:

Of course the simpliest and the fastest way is to send us the source project -- we give our word we will not use this source code for any purpose other than locating error in compiler. This way we can promise we will produce fixed TIDE in one day. We even can delete user's code from our computers as soon as we are done.

However, if the customer really cannot send us the code, here are some clues on how to resolve this situation.

He needs to try and locate the portion of the source file that causes the compiler to crash. Usually -- not always, but most of the time -- INTERNAL COMPILER error happens when the user's source code contains an error which the compiler fails to gracefully recover from.

What has been added recently -- right after the project was compiling successfully and before it started to crash?

Eliminate portions of source code from compiling (deleting, commening of #ifdef'ing them out) -- I use this technique all the time when I need to find a faulty piece of code (I mean, yes I have all the debuggers I need, but sometimes stepping through simply stops some timing or sincronization bug from happening, or the bug happens in release build only. And yes, I use this technique when I encounter INTERNAL COMPILER ERROR of Visual Studio itself).

Possibly, by doing so he will find the part in his source code which causes the problem -- then PLEASE send description of this mistake to us because we want to enable the compiler to deal with it gracefully."

Can you try these suggestions?

Seems very possible. Check out our sample project at:

http://www.tibbo.com/taiko_res.php

See if that helps.

And do you press the setup button like it says? Do you know where the button is?

Please describe exactly what you do with your Tibbo device when this message is shown on the screen.

Wait, the last screenshot shows you can actually access the device, and it seems to be running the correct firmware!

Now Initialize it using the Initialize button.

Then run Connection Wizard.