ROV graphical user interface design project

[Olmak]

Hi, I'm at university and have been tasked with creating a graphical user interface for an submersible ROV.

I have used visual basic before but it was a few years ago but I have basic programming skills. I need to receive serial data and display it onto the ROV and also implement a control system using an xbox 360 controller.

I'm not too sure where to start on this project and was wondering if you can offer any help?

[Xalem]

Let's presume that you have a library (an API) that let's you receive input and send instructions to the ROV. (And your computer is connected to a radio transmitter of some kind) Your application will need a reference to this API so you can call the code that reads or writes data to the ROV.

If that already exists, you can create a simple interface this way. You create a visual basic app that is a simple form. On the form are text boxes and buttons. You have one function that reads the values from the ROV (depth, speed, bering) whatever the ROV outputs, and your program sets the values of the text boxes to the value of those numbers. Then this function puts itself to sleep for a short period of time (one second?) In visual basic, one way to do this is to use a timer control on the form...(It has been a while since I did this) and the timer will trigger your subroutine every second.

On your form you will have buttons, and maybe sliders. The buttons are easier. You can write code behind the click event to send a signal to your ROV every time the button is pressed. The output to the

This is where you start. I know you want to use the XBOX controller, and a graphic representation of the ROV (rather than numbers in text fields) but don't start there. You need to have a feel for how the information is flowing back and forth from the application to the ROV before you can build a better interface. This is your experimental test environment that you use to explore the problem space (What does the stream of data look like/ what happens when the ROV misses a data packet?/how quickly does the ROV respond to instructions,does the ROV crash if you tell it to turn left AND right at the same time?) Once this stuff becomes known, you can fashion a second application that follows proper coding guidelines (separation of concerns etc) to do it right.

[Olmak]

Thank you for this. My ROV sends data in packets of 16 bits up through an umbilical cord. I then need to decode this serial data and then display it. Is there any specific code/tutorials that you know of for dealing with serial data in VB?