Windaq Add-ons

The following is a step-by-step lesson on how to use ActiveX in Microsoft Visual C# (C sharp) 2008 Express Edition

In this lesson, we will use Ultimaserial ActiveX to develop a data acquisition application to use  DATAQ's Starter kit DI-158 via USB port. 

32 or 64-bit?

Most ActiveXs are 32-bit components, you must select 32-bit code option when using 64-bit compilers. Both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows runs 32-bit applications properly. 

1. Run Microsoft Visual C# 2008 Express Edition

2. Start a New Project from File menu. Select Windows Forms Application. Give a name MyTest to the project, hit OK
   
    
   

3. A form is created
   
   
   

4. Move the cursor to the Toolbox column and click left button to expand the Toolbox pane

5. Inside the Toolbox pane, right click to bring out the menu, click Choose Items... It will take a while before the dialog box "Choose Toolbox Items" appears.

6. In the dialogue box "Choose Toolbox Items", select COM components tab
   
   
   

7. Check both Ultimaserial and XChart Controls, hit OK. Now you will see these two controls in the Toolbox pane:
   
   
   

8. Add Ultimaserial and XChart components to the form, along with two buttons, change their text and name to Start and Stop
   
   
   

9. Double click on the two buttons to create codes (you will need to switch between the tabs of form1.cs* and form1.cs[Design]* to do so)

10. Back in form1.cs[Design]* tab, select Ultiamserial icon, in its property pane, select Event tab, which looks like a lightning. 
    
    
    

11. Double click on NewData event, now Visual C# 2008 should generate codes should be like this:
    
    

    private void Start_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

    {

    }

    private void Stop_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

    {

    }

    private void axUltimaSerial1_NewData(object sender, AxULTIMASERIALLib._DUltimaSerialEvents_NewDataEvent e)

    {

    }

    
    

12. Add our codes:
    
    private void Start_Click(object sender, EventArgs  e)
    {
    axUltimaSerial1.Device=158;
    axUltimaSerial1.CommPort=0;
    axUltimaSerial1.SampleRate=20;
    axUltimaSerial1.ChannelCount=1;
    axUltimaSerial1.AcquisitionMode=0;
    axUltimaSerial1.Start();
    }
    
    private void Stop_Click(object sender, EventArgs  e)
    {
    axUltimaSerial1.Stop();
    }
    private void axUltimaSerial1_NewData(object sender, AxULTIMASERIALLib._DUltimaSerialEvents_NewDataEvent e)
    {
    axXChart1.Chart (axUltimaSerial1.GetData());
    }
    

13. Build the solution and it should work now!
    
    
    

14. Now we will extract one data point from the first channel for display.

15. Add a label to the form
    
    
    

16.   Switch back to Form1.cs pane and change axUltimaSerial1_NewData to
    

    private void axUltimaSerial1_NewData(object sender, AxULTIMASERIALLib._DUltimaSerialEvents_NewDataEvent e)

    {

    object V ;

    short[,] intArray;

    string sdata;

    V = axUltimaSerial1.GetData();

    axXChart1.Chart(V);

    intArray = (short[,])V;

    sdata=intArray[0, 0].ToString() ;

    label1.Text = sdata;

    }

    
    

17. Build the solution and run it, here is what you will see
    
    
    

18. To create a new waveform from the data collected and chart it, use a managed array. Please take a look at this and you should be able to construct your own codes:
    
    short[,] shortArray;
    shortArray = new short[2, 100];
    short i;
    for (i = 0; i < 100; i++) shortArray[0, i] = 20000;
    axXChart1.Chart(shortArray);
    
    
    
    
    

Last update: 03/14/22

Copyright: 2000-2005  www.UltimaSerial.com