Péri-PC. Tome 1, Votre PC et le reste du monde, avec 1 CD-ROM

The PC has longtime outgrown its function as a pure computer and has become an all-purpose machine. This book is targeted towards those people that want to control existing or self-built hardware from their computer. Using Visual Basic as Rapid Application Development tool we will take you on a journey to unlock the world beyond the connectors of the PC. After familiarizing yourself with Visual Basic, its development environment and the toolset it offers, items such as serial communications, printer ports, bitbanging, protocol emulation, ISA, USB and Ethernet interfacing and the remote control of test-equipment over the GPIB bus are covered in extent. Each topic is accompanied by clear, ready to run code, and where necessary, schematics are provided that will get your project up to speed in no time. This book will show you advanced things like: using tools like Debug to find hardware addresses, setting up remote communication using TCP/IP and UDP sockets and even writing your own internet servers. Or how about connecting your own block of hardware over USB or Ethernet and controlling it from Visual Basic. Other things like inter-program communication, DDE and the new graphics interface of Windows XP are covered as well. All examples are ready to compile using Visual Basic 5.0, 6.0, NET or 2005. Extensive coverage is given on the differences between what could be called Visual Basic Classic and Visual Basic NET / 2005.

You can use it as projects book and build more thon 50 projects for your own use. The clear explanations, schematics, and pictures of each project on a breadboard make this a fun activity. You can also use it as a study guide. The technical background information in each project explains why the project is set up the way it is, including the use of datasheets This way you'll learn a lot about the project and the microcontroller being used, and you can expand the project to suit your own needs...making it ideal for use in schools and colleges. This book can also be used as a reference guide. The explanation of the JAL programming language and ail of the expansion libraries used is unique and found nowhere else. Using the index, you can easily locate projects that serve as examples for the main commands. But even after you've built all the projects it will still be a valuable reference guide to keep next to your PC. Four microcontrollers are discussed, the 12f675, 16f628, 16f876A, and 16f877, as well as how to migrate programs from one microcontroller to another. All software used in this book can be downloaded for free, including all of the source code, a program editor, and the JAL open source programming language. This powerful and yet easy to learn language is used by hobbyists and professionals worldwide. A hardware kit is also available for purchase separately that contains all the parts to get you started, including a few microcontrollers. There is even a free support website with additional information, FAQ, and links.