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Hi, Can anyone give me some guidelines on Designing a Graphic User Interface for 68hc11e9 microcontroller? I had developed a program on mc68hc11e9 development board. The program will do different tasks depending on "key" input by user. It's means that the program will jump to different subroutine when the program detects different "key" input and jump back to main program after completes a task and waiting for other "key" input. Now, I aspire to develop a GUI to communicate with the program. This GUI should allow user to choose different task by using "mouse click" instead of waiting for "key" input as mentioned above. Can you give me the designing step? What software should I use? and how? TQ and I will appreciate for your suggestion. Regards, chonchet |
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GUI with MC68hc11E9
Started by ●July 8, 2004
Reply by ●July 9, 20042004-07-09
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Hi The source code for JBug11, a GUI which can interact with the HC11 chip, is available on: http://freespace.virgin.net/john.beatty/Jbug11_source.html John Beatty --- chonchet1 <> wrote: (snipped) > Hi, > Can anyone give me some guidelines on Designing a > Graphic User > Interface for 68hc11e9 microcontroller? ___________________________________________________________ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - sooooo many all-new ways to express yourself http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com |
Reply by ●July 9, 20042004-07-09
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--- In , "chonchet1" <chonchet1@y...> wrote: ... > Now, I aspire to develop a GUI to communicate with the program. > This GUI should allow user to choose different task by > using "mouse click" instead of waiting for "key" input as > mentioned above. > > Can you give me the designing step? What software should I use? > and how? Are you looking to build a self-contained system that uses a HC11 in conjunction with a graphic display, or do you want to support your GUI on a host computer (such as a PC running Windows or *nix+XWindows) and have the program on the PC communicate 'mouse clicks' and other actions to your HC11 target? Designing firmware that will operate a graphic display directly connected to a HC11 (or any other microcontroller) is not a trivial task, so I won't go into the details at this moment. Operating a graphic display is a processor-intensive task, and most designs I have seen that utilize graphic displays usually run with microprocessors or controllers more capable than the HC11. I have never attempted to utilize a PC-style mouse directly in a microcontroller-based project, but I imagine that it could be done. If you are simply looking for a GUI-based debugger for the HC11, there is at least one program - JBug11 (as John Beatty, the author, mentioned in a earlier message) that would probably serve your needs adequately. If you are looking to design a 'hybrid' system that uses a PC to host a GUI and a HC11 to perform control functions based on user interaction with the GUI, the firmware side of things is not all that difficult. The easiest way to link a HC11-based design with a PC is through the SCI (async serial) subsystem, connected through a RS232 transciever device (such as a MAX232/202 or equivalent) to a PC serial port. You could then write a GUI interface program for your PC that would send appropriate command sequences (that your HC11 firmware would interpret) when approprate actions by the user (of the PC GUI) were performed. Note that it would not be necessary, or advisable, to send the status of each and every mouse click or button press to the HC11 - rather, the program on your host system would process GUI tasks and only send command sequences to the HC11 when needed. For example: Take a simple case where you have a HC11-based system driving 8 LEDs. You have your board connected to a PC via one of the PC's serial ports. Your GUI consists of 8 check-boxes (one for each LED) and a button labelled 'Update LEDs'. The user of the GUI could turn the check-boxes for each of the LEDs on or off, and the GUI program would update the (PC) display but not send anything to the HC11 board. Only when the 'Update LEDs' button is clicked would the program on the PC send a command sequence to the HC11 board instructing it to change the state of the LEDs. The PC program would check the state of the LED checkboxes to determine the format of the command to send to the HC11 board when the 'Send' button was clicked. You could, of course, design your PC GUI program to send updates to the HC11 board every time a LED checkbox was changed, rather than requiring the user to click a 'Send' button. There's nothing wrong with that approach. The idea I'm trying to convey here is that it is not necessary or desirable to have the HC11 firmware interpreting each and every button-click and GUI interaction. That is what the host OS is there to do. You only need to send update information to the HC11 when you want it to change its operational state. |
