Nuts and Volts - July 2014

of controls and other commands. You don’t even need to start with an existing Interface like we did; your micro can handle all of the instructions to build, reset, and configure it. The sidebar shows an example of this. The ability for on the fly Interface building is unique to MakerPlot (as far as we know), and we’ve only shown just a few examples here. So, feel free to experiment with your application for a customized Interface builder using your favorite microcontroller.

powerful software. There’s plenty of info on the MakerPlot website to keep you going for quite a while. Remember, if you decide after using your 30 day free trial you want to purchase it, you can order it through the Nuts & Volts webstore ( http://store.nutsvolts.com/home.php ?xid=a2d2eb6dd2786e0eb3c058e2aceda572) at a discounted price.

That’s all for now, so just remember: Got Data –

We hope that you will continue your journey with this

MakerPlot It! NV

The following is an excerpt from the MakerPlot Guide that illustrates another example of creating an entire Interface from an Arduino microcontroller.

The Guide can be found at www.makerplot.com. This text is accompanied by a graphic of the completed Interface. Note that the entire Interface is built, configured, and initialized from the Arduino — nothing was built on the PC at all. It's short and sweet, and it gets the point across.

Creating an Interface from the Arduino

Creating an Interface entirely from an Arduino.

void MP_Config()
{
Serial.println("!NEWP");
 // Start a new plot
Serial.println("!SPAN 0,1000");
 // Span Y axis
Serial.println("!POBJ Clear");
 // Clear any objects
Serial.println("!PPER 75,100");
 // Size plot
 // Create meters called 'met1' and 'met2' scaled
 // 0 - 1000, auto update on channels 0 and 1.
 Serial.println("!POBJ MP_METER_OBJ.met1=78.,93.,
 20.,28.,0, 1000,Meter,Blue-Gray,0,1");
 Serial.println("!POBJ
 MP_METER_OBJ.met2=78.,60.,20.,28.,0,
 1000,Meter,Blue-Gray,1,1");

One really interesting aspect of MakerPlot is that all instructions can come from a variety of sources for total control. This allows a controller to totally configure MakerPlot once connected — first, have the controller set up the interface. Then, have it size the plot and add meters and other controls for monitoring or interactive control.

The easiest way to do this is to design the Interface normally, build the Interface, then create code from the initializations and object code. Be sure to replace any /

with //:

// Create a toggle switch called 'toggle'.
// Add event code
Serial.println("!POBJ
oImgBut.toggle=85.,29.,6.5,14.,dev\\toggle-
sw\\gs_toggle_v_0.gif,0,dev\\toggle-
sw\\gs_toggle_v_1.gif,0");
Serial.println("!POBJ toggle.C='Play click
sound(;)");
Serial.println("~IWAV sw_toggle2.wav");
Serial.println("");
 // Extra CR to signal end of event code.