Output Port Commands  (See Example 2)

i.e. TalkTo 5 will set port 1 and 3 (A and C) active, as 5 (base 10) = 0000 0101 (base 2)

Working with bits.

You can calculate this "Motor Bits" value by adding up the "Bit Value" (shown in the following table) of each port you want to set active.

Motor	Bit Number	Bit Value
A	0	1
B	1	2
C	2	4
D	3	8
E	4	16
F	5	32

So, for example, if you want to set port A, C, and F active, the Motor Bits value would be:

1 + 4 + 32 = 37

If you want to set all ports active, the value would be:

1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + 16 + 32 = 63

Sensor	Bit Number	Bit Value
1	0	1
2	1	2
3	2	4
4	3	8
5	4	16
6	5	32
7	6	64
8	7	128

Burst mode tells the GoGo board to continuously send the selected sensor ports' data. This mode gives a much higher refresh rate than constantly polling sensor values with the ReadSensor command. A refresh rate of 29Hz per port was reached in my experiment with all 8 sensor ports on. Thus, a refresh rate of up to 232Hz (29 x 8) or higher is possible when only 1 port is in burst mode.

Returns sensor data received in burst mode. When a sensor port is set to burst mode (with the BurstMode command), the sensor readings will be stored in a buffer. This function accesses that buffer.

Note: -1 is returned if no new burst mode sensor data has arrived since the last read.

This example will initialize the serial (COM) port and test the presence of the GoGo board.

Follow these steps:

• Create a new form (form1)
• Add the GoGoX control to your toolbox (menu Project/Components or Ctrl-T). The control name will change depending on the GoGoX version you have.
  
  

• Create the GoGoX control on the form.
• Create a button (command1). Double click the button and add the following code.

Private Sub Command1_Click()
On Error GoTo ErrorHandler

' Set form caption = control version number
Form1.Caption = GoGoX1.version
' Set COM port number to use
GoGoX1.CommPort = 1
' Initialize the COM port
GoGoX1.Initialize
' ping tests the communication between the computer 
' and the GoGo board
GoGoX1.ping
' Show message
MsgBox "Initialization complete"

Exit Sub

' Shows error message if any of the above
' steps fail
ErrorHandler:
MsgBox Err.Description

End Sub

Here's how the form would look like.

Download this Example: example2.zip (2k)

This example will show how to set active ports and how to perform port operations (On, Off, Break, and Coast).

• Initialize the COM port using the code in example 1
• Create a button. Set the caption property to "A"
• Add this line of code to the "A" button, which will set output port A as the active port.

GoGoX1.TalkTo 1

• Add another button. Set the caption to "ON"
• Add this line of code to the button. It will turn ON the active ports.

GoGoX1.mOn

• Add a third button. Set the caption of "OFF"
• Add this code to make it turn OFF the active ports.

GoGoX1.mOFF

This is how the form would look like:

Run it!

Now attach a motor to port A. Run the program. Initialize the board. Then press the "ON" button. Nothing would happen, as we haven't set any active ports. Try again, but this time hit the "A"  button before the "ON" button. This time the motor should be on. Click the "OFF" button to stop.

From here, it should be straightforward to control more ports and add the "Coast" and "Break" functionalities to the program.

Download this Example: example2.zip (2k)

 

 

Download this example: example3.zip (2k)

This example will show you how to read sensor values.

• Initialize the COM port and the GoGo board using the code in Example 1
• Create a button and set the caption to "Sensor 1"
• Create a label and name it "lblSensor1"
• Add the following code to "Sensor 1" button

lblSensor1.Caption = GoGox1.ReadSensor 1

Every time you click the "Sensor 1" button, sensor1's value will appear on the caption of the label.

You can easily add buttons and labels for all eight sensor ports using control arrays (See visual basic documentation). The program could look something like this.

Download this example: example3.zip (2k)

Download this example: example4.zip (2k)

This example shows how you could use burst mode to speed up the sensor-reading refresh rate. We will turn on burst mode for sensor port 1, 2, and 3.

• Create a Boolean form variable BurstModeIsON

Dim BurstModeIsON As Boolean

• Initialize the COM port and the GoGo board using the code in Example 1, but add the following line to initialize the BurstModeIsON variable.

BurstModeIsON = False

• Create three labels. Name them lblSensor1, lblSensor2, and lblSensor3.
• Create a timer. Set the "Enable" property to false. Set the "interval" property to 10 milliseconds. Add the following code to the control.

Dim SensorVal
' Note: This code could be much shorter
' if control arrays are used for
' the labels.

' Check for new sensor1 value
SensorVal = GoGoX1.SensorBuffer(0)
If SensorVal > -1 Then
   lblSensor1.Caption = SensorVal
End If

' Check for new sensor2 value
SensorVal = GoGoX1.SensorBuffer(1)
If SensorVal > -1 Then
   lblSensor2.Caption = SensorVal
End If

' Check for new sensor3 value
SensorVal = GoGoX1.SensorBuffer(2)
If SensorVal > -1 Then
   lblSensor3.Caption = SensorVal
End If

• Create a button and set the caption to "Toggle burst mode"
• Add the following code to the button:

If BurstModeIsON = False Then
   ' We want to turn on burst mode for sensor 1, 2, and 3
   ' So, Bits value = 7 (base 10), which is 0000 0111 (base 2)
   GoGoX1.BurstMode 7
Else
   ' Turn off burst mode.
   GoGoX1.BurstMode 0
End

' Toggle the variable value
BurstModeIsON = Not BurstModeIsON

Here's how the program may look like

When you hit the "Toggle burst mode" button, the sensor values will be displayed on the three labels.

Note: Burst mode does NOT prevent you from sending other commands to the GoGo board (i.e. output port controls). 

Download this example: example4.zip (2k)