Free Tools for TPU design

[pauldude000]

Hi all!

I am tired of just speculating and conjecturing, and since it will be early next year before I can afford the electronics tools necessary to build TPU's myself, I am going to contribute to the overall project with what I am capable of doing now. Since I am a programmer as well as an electrical experimenter, I have decided to write electronics utilities to aid in TPU design, so that all here could have access to free high quality utility computer programs.

Originally, I was just going to offer this through the TCP = ECD thread, but I realized that there would undoubtedly be many whom do not read the thread, who are in TPU design and experimentation, so decided to start a new thread. This also prevents accidental spamming on the TCP thread.

At this time, I have completed two projects. FrequencyCalc and SC.

SC

SC is a computer screen capture utility which I needed to make screen shots of the programs I have built. I have decided to include it since it is usefull for the capture of any image on your screen, and might be usefull to others to create images of whatever you can show on your screen. They are also near impossible to find free.

SC is a very small footprint prog, consisting of a tiny unobtrusive form with one button. A screenshot of SC, made by SC is below.

FrequencyCalc

FrequencyCalc is a resonant frequency calculator. It is designed to input one frequency. From this frequency, the first two higher resonant frequencies are calculated. Then relational derived frequencies are calculated, such as combinant frequencies ( Fout=(f1+f2)/2 )  and beat frequencies ( Fout = |(f2-f1)| ).

Frequency Calc is fully configureable with but a mouse click for either input or output frequency ranges, from hertz to megahertz. You may also choos 1/4 wave, 1/2 wave, or true resonance. True resonant frequencies are those harmonics which have no points of wave form cancellation. When one wave rises or drops at a given point, so does the true resonant harmonic.

Here is an example of such a waveform using square wave:




Here is a screen shot of FrequencyCalc

Comments About The Programs, Website, and Downloading

I am programming these using MS VB2005 Express, which is a VB.net programming language. If you do not have vb.net 2.0, the included setup program may prompt you to download it from microsoft. At this time, these programs work on MS windows only, and should work with everything from xp to vista.

These may well work with 98 and me as well, but I have not yet tested this, so I make no claims of it. If someone using these tries them on 98, please let all know the results here.

The files are in .zip format. Unzip then run setup.exe. They are fully uninstallable.

Before complaining at the cheap website, please remember that I am not charging for these programs. Please note that this free website has a 4MB/hour download limit. If you attempt to visit or download, and the website is unavailable due to exceeding this limit, try back in an hour.

This is first come first served.

You must agree to my liscense to download, which is a fairly basic and standard liscense. IE you can use it for whatever you like, on whatever machines you like, but I am not liable for your actions, and these programs are not to be sold by anyone for any reason without my permission, in a nutshell. I am sure everyone here can agree with the necessity.

->CLICK HERE TO GO TO DOWNLOAD SITE<-

NOTES:

If anyone has an idea of any program they would like to have for TPU design, or electronics design in general, please post your ideas here. I will look through your requests for ideas for projects.

I would also appreciate any bug reports and/or improvement ideas concerning existing programs.

Paul Andrulis
pauldude000

[giantkiller]

Can you put the numbers out to RS232?
That would enable me to skip the programming step and get directly to my controller. I can get you more specs if you agree.
I am proposing a DAC type number that the micro pic would pass to the DAC which puts out a voltage level to the xr-2206 sweep control for a definate sine wave freq out of 12 bit res.

Let me know guy. I have posted the BOM for the parts I purchased. When I get the erom code done I will post that also for a complete system.
I still build on the class A's. Heat problem.

--giantkiller.

[hansvonlieven]

G'day Paul,

Thanks for the programme. I have dowqnloaded it and will put it through its paces as I get the time. Will let you know what I think.

Well done, a great contribution
Thanks

Hans von Lieven

[pauldude000]

Can you put the numbers out to RS232?
That would enable me to skip the programming step and get directly to my controller. I can get you more specs if you agree.
I am proposing a DAC type number that the micro pic would pass to the DAC which puts out a voltage level to the xr-2206 sweep control for a definate sine wave freq out of 12 bit res.

Let me know guy. I have posted the BOM for the parts I purchased. When I get the erom code done I will post that also for a complete system.
I still build on the class A's. Heat problem.

--giantkiller.

VB.net class oriented oop programming, and the lowly RS232 port, when everything is now geared for com and usb ports... Alot will depend upon what backward compatability MS has left in with VB.net.  hmmmm. I will do some research, and get back to you on this one.....

If nothing else, I may be able to do it through a different language such as BCX or RapidQ (free compilers), even if it is too much of a pain in VB2005. E-mail me your exact requirements and info, and I will see if it is practicle with my equiptment (my laptop doesn't even have an RS232 port, though my big desktop system does.)

No matter what, without your gear, I will have no means of testing or debugging the output of the completed program. ACBD (Anything Can Be Done), but it will require alot of two-way communication to test it, if we desire to actually take it on.

my e-mail is pauldude000@yahoo.com

Paul Andrulis

[pauldude000]

@Giantkiller

I should be able to do it. I can access the port through the new to 2.0 SerialPort class object. VB.net 1.1 didn't have any support for the MSCOMM object, yet some functionality has been restored in 2.0.

According to the documentation, I can encode in these formats ASCII, UTF8, UTF32, and Unicode.

Using the SerialPort.Write method, I can manually send strings, chars, and bytes.

I do not know how hard it would be to send binary, as I assume your Digital to Analog Convertor (DAC) needs.

We can try.

Paul Andrulis