K8055 Test (C# .Net 2.0)

Disclaimer
All software provided with no guarantee of fitness for purpose.
Use at your own risk.

If you have reached this page I assume you know what the Velleman K8055 is (if not click the link for manufacturer info). This page contains a C# version of the demo/test program supplied with the K8055 (also downloadable from Velleman's site). I have added a few extras to give your board and any attached equipment a thorough test without having to write any code. See notes below for usage. If you have any problems with this code or questions then email me (excuse the anti-spam measures): doconnel(you-know-what)gmail(spot)com and include "k8055" in the title, no attachments, otherwise it goes in the spam folder and won't be read. Enjoy!

Future plans: replace PIC16C with PIC16F and my own code for independent operation as a Programmable Logic Controller (possibly with link for chaining several devices). Email me to keep informed of any progress.

Update 2006-05-08: Updated C# code and renamed Visual Studio project.

Unzip in seperate folders if you download both!

C# Download Source and Binaries (~143k) (see notes below)
Offsite: Mac OSX Version (by Andy Armstrong)

Notes

C# Code: I wrote this fairly quickly and it's not the best design. I intend to do a much more thorough job so that managing several devices is easier and more transparent, eg, coalescing several devices into one super-device so user code just deals with I/O and not with any specific board.

Interface: This is the revised interface, hopefully a bit more compact and more useful to you:

Device: On start-up a search is performed for devices and the first device (numerically) is selected. Only options for located devices are enabled. If you plug a device in after starting the program then just click "Search".

Address: Same as original program but resets to current device if a device with the specified address cannot be connected.

Sig Gen: Sets the freq/ interval of the timer used to generate some test signals. One timer (only) is used for reading the K8055's inputs and for driving the analogue/digital test signals. Multiple timers were tried but gave a sometime erratic result, even on fast machine. The timer is enabled using the checkbox. See below for more info.

DLL Version: Simply displays Vellemans message box (from the dll itself).

Analog In: Displays both analogue channels as per original program.

Analogue Out: This is the area most improved. The sliders allow manual control while the arrows allow each channel to be set to min/max with a single click. The vertical set of clickable icons (actually flat image-based buttons) allow for various test signals as detailed below. NOTE: the manufactures info quotes "General conversion time: 20mS per command" - which I suspect means that things are limited by the time taken to send a command via usb and/or for the PIC to put the command into effect . Whatever, basically it's very slow! Effectively you get 256 * 20mS = 5.12 sec/cycle or 0.195 Hz (wow!).

Ramps from 0 to 255 then back to 0 (or "triangle" wave if you prefer).
saw

Sawtooth type wave, 0 to 255 then immediately back to zero.
sine

Sine wave centered around 127.
input one

Mirrors analogue input # 1 either exact/ inverted.
input 2

Mirrors analogue input # 2 either exact/ inverted.

Digital In and Counters: As per original program

Digital Out: Re-arranged and added some more options for test signals. "Cycle" switches each output on in turn while "Up" and "Dn" outputs the result of binary counter 0..255 / 255..0 resp. The latter effectively creates pulses of successively half the freq of output # 1. Note again that the highest freq you can probably get is 50Hz (probably lower) and that it can be erratic, especially when the sig gen freq is changed from say 50Hz to 100Hz. I think several usb frames get queued and then rapid fired to the device resulting in short bursts of a higher frequency. Still, when left on one freq setting it's fairly consistent. I'll probably replace this soon with a drop-down list with more options.