I needed a solution to broadcast real-time data from a webserver to either a desktop or webclient. SignalR is perfect for this. I’ve uploaded a simple working demo for SignalR using the hub strategy. This is what you’d typically use in a broadcast type of system. This could be a chat or stock-market quotes client. The system needs to send …
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Number Pad for the Gadgeteer Touch Display
A few weeks ago, I published a helper module to turn the GHI Gadgeteer display module into a touch keyboard. This was missing two things: An enter button (doh!) A number pad (or keypad) Here’s an action video: The code for this, with examples of usage can be found in my GitHub Gadgeteer repository: TouchKeyboard Helpers There are now two …
Basic Entity Framework Migrations
Entity Framework supports a code-first approach with migration support. This article covers what I learned using EF and Migration for a new project. This project resulted in a base ASP.NET MVC4 framework I can use as a boilerplate for multiple projects. The boilerplate project can be downloaded from my GitHub repository. The repository is easy to use. Simply do a …
MVVM Light Toolkit Messaging Example
I use MVVM Light toolkit for my WPF applications at work. I’ve always only used it’s basic features: SimpleIoC and the ViewModelBase. It’s a very powerful and framework. However, I’ve been wanting to explore more feature of the framework. When I start with a new technology, I always create simple and fully-working examples for reference… and for other coworkers. Here …
Gadgeteer Touch piano
I had some extra time this week so I thought I do something a bit musical today. I created a simple touch piano with my gadgeteer kit. I use a simple piezo speaker attached to an extender module. The display module shows a series of labeled keys. Each key is wired to the TouchDown and TouchUp events. Pressing the key …
Web reporting range sensor
This week I’m combining two previous projects using the range sensor and wifi modules. This is a distance logger which can be queried via web. Once a button is pressed, the networking stack is started and the webserver is started. The distance module starts recording when anyone gets closer than 50cm. A simple webserver can be queried to get the …
Motor Driver control with Display and Joystick helper classes
I find myself constantly copy/pasting my simplay display code and having the re-work my joystick control methods each time I want to reuse them. Today, I moved all that logic in two helper classes. The JoystickHelper class is particularly useful and is much better than the built in GHI joystick methods. To demonstrate their usage, I created a simple example …
Range Sensing Camera
GHI released range sensing module using the HC-SR04. I had previously purchased an HC-SR04 and tried using a breadboard for it. My non-GHI HC-SR04 didn’t work well. At best it would only work within an 6-20cm range. The GHI module looks very different and works well from 6 to 250cm. To test the module, I created a simple range sensing camera. …
Servo control using the joystick module
I wanted a way to build a steering system. I’ve previously covered using the joystick module and controlling a servo with the extender module. Here is a way to control a servo with the joystick module. This uses parts of both example. I also use the display module to show if the servo is moving left or right and the …
Simple touch control using the display module
My background is in desktop UI programming using Windows Presentation Foundation. WPF is an amazing framework for creating highly responsive complex (or simple) desktop or Silverlight-hosted applications. NETMF has a subset of WPF features which, for the most part, are easy to pick up of you have some WPF experience. A great reference for WPF is WPF Unleashed by Adam …
MultiLED control using Queue data scructure
Here is an example of using the queue collection to control the GHI multi-color LED module. I’ve seen several examples of the same code but using some variant of an arraylist with a tracking variable. Using or queue accomplishes the same thing but in a more obvious way. I’m also showing a method I use for showing simple text on …
Gadgeteer ISOx16 Relay Module Control
GHI has a super useful high-power module to control 16 optically isolated relays, the Relay ISOx16.. The relays are Songle SRD-12VDC-SL-C relays. This solution can be found on my Gadgeteer GitHub repository. As usual, the setup to my FEZ Spider is easy. I don’t have a background in electronics, but it only took a little reading to find out to wire the relay. Power goes …
Motor Control with the Gadgeteer Load Module
GHI has a very easy to use load control module. I’m using it simply to turn a motor on/off. My motor is a an Aristo-Craft CRE-RE140. This motor has a voltage range of 1.5-3V with a current of 270mA. This solution can be found on my Gadgeteer GitHub repository. Attaching the Load Module to mainboard is easy, as usual. The harder …
Gadgeteer servo control with the extender module and the Hitec HS-55
This week I worked on learning servo control with the extender module using a cheap Hitec HS-55 servo from Amazon. This solution can be found on my Gadgeteer GitHub repository. Servo control requires PWM output. This requires the extnder module be attached to a socket containing PWM pins. I used sockect #11 which has PWM outputs for pins 7, 8, …
Gadgeteer Joystick 2.1 Example
The Joystick 2.1 module from GHI Electronics is a fun and easy to use joystick controller. Joystick controllers feel like they’re going the way of the dinosaur because of touch screens. However, they’re excellent for teaching velocity based movement across a screen within a boudary. This is basis for all games. The code can be found on my Gadgeteer GitHub repository. You …
Gadgeteer WiFi RS21 Server
The WiFi RS21 module from GHI Electronics is an excellent and easy to use module for settup at WiFi connection. However, it’s a little tricky setting up a server application. You need to get the IP address assigned to the module from the dhcp server. This is done in the NetworkAddressChanged event before you join the network. I’ve uploaded the …
Gadgeteer Examples
Gadgeteer is an open-source hardware implementation using the .NET Micro Framework from GHI Electronics. GHI provides some excellent code snippets for many of their Gadgeteer modules. However, they don’t provide any full working solutions. My open Github Gadgeteer repository has many Gadgeteer examples of their modules with full working Visual Studio solution files. Please contact if you want a specific …