Visual Basic .NET - Dual Relay Bricklet¶

Simple¶

Download (ExampleSimple.vb)

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Imports System
Imports System.Threading
Imports Tinkerforge

Module ExampleSimple
    Const HOST As String = "localhost"
    Const PORT As Integer = 4223
    Const UID As String = "XYZ" ' Change XYZ to the UID of your Dual Relay Bricklet

    Sub Main()
        Dim ipcon As New IPConnection() ' Create IP connection
        Dim dr As New BrickletDualRelay(UID, ipcon) ' Create device object

        ipcon.Connect(HOST, PORT) ' Connect to brickd
        ' Don't use device before ipcon is connected

        ' Turn relays alternating on/off 10 times with 1 second delay
        Dim i As Integer
        For i = 0 To 4
            Thread.Sleep(1000)
            dr.SetState(True, False)
            Thread.Sleep(1000)
            dr.SetState(False, True)
        Next i

        Console.WriteLine("Press key to exit")
        Console.ReadLine()
        ipcon.Disconnect()
    End Sub
End Module

Basic Functions¶

Class BrickletDualRelay(ByVal uid As String, ByVal ipcon As IPConnection)¶

Creates an object with the unique device ID uid:

Dim dualRelay As New BrickletDualRelay("YOUR_DEVICE_UID", ipcon)

This object can then be used after the IP Connection is connected.

Sub BrickletDualRelay.SetState(ByVal relay1 As Boolean, ByVal relay2 As Boolean)¶

Parameters:	relay1 – Type: Boolean, Default: false relay2 – Type: Boolean, Default: false

Sets the state of the relays, true means on and false means off. For example: (true, false) turns relay 1 on and relay 2 off.

If you just want to set one of the relays and don't know the current state of the other relay, you can get the state with GetState() or you can use SetSelectedState().

All running monoflop timers will be aborted if this function is called.

Sub BrickletDualRelay.GetState(ByRef relay1 As Boolean, ByRef relay2 As Boolean)¶

Output Parameters:	relay1 – Type: Boolean, Default: false relay2 – Type: Boolean, Default: false

Returns the state of the relays, true means on and false means off.

Advanced Functions¶

Sub BrickletDualRelay.SetMonoflop(ByVal relay As Byte, ByVal state As Boolean, ByVal time As Long)¶

Parameters:	relay – Type: Byte, Range: [1 to 2] state – Type: Boolean time – Type: Long, Unit: 1 ms, Range: [0 to 232 - 1]

The first parameter can be 1 or 2 (relay 1 or relay 2). The second parameter is the desired state of the relay (true means on and false means off). The third parameter indicates the time that the relay should hold the state.

If this function is called with the parameters (1, true, 1500): Relay 1 will turn on and in 1.5s it will turn off again.

A monoflop can be used as a failsafe mechanism. For example: Lets assume you have a RS485 bus and a Dual Relay Bricklet connected to one of the slave stacks. You can now call this function every second, with a time parameter of two seconds. The relay will be on all the time. If now the RS485 connection is lost, the relay will turn off in at most two seconds.

Sub BrickletDualRelay.GetMonoflop(ByVal relay As Byte, ByRef state As Boolean, ByRef time As Long, ByRef timeRemaining As Long)¶

Parameters:	relay – Type: Byte, Range: [1 to 2]
Output Parameters:	state – Type: Boolean time – Type: Long, Unit: 1 ms, Range: [0 to 232 - 1] timeRemaining – Type: Long, Unit: 1 ms, Range: [0 to 232 - 1]

Returns (for the given relay) the current state and the time as set by SetMonoflop() as well as the remaining time until the state flips.

If the timer is not running currently, the remaining time will be returned as 0.

Sub BrickletDualRelay.SetSelectedState(ByVal relay As Byte, ByVal state As Boolean)¶

Parameters:	relay – Type: Byte, Range: [1 to 2] state – Type: Boolean

Sets the state of the selected relay (1 or 2), true means on and false means off.

A running monoflop timer for the selected relay will be aborted if this function is called.

The other relay remains untouched.

Sub BrickletDualRelay.GetIdentity(ByRef uid As String, ByRef connectedUid As String, ByRef position As Char, ByRef hardwareVersion() As Byte, ByRef firmwareVersion() As Byte, ByRef deviceIdentifier As Integer)¶

Output Parameters:

uid – Type: String, Length: up to 8 connectedUid – Type: String, Length: up to 8 position – Type: Char, Range: ["a"C to "h"C, "z"C] hardwareVersion – Type: Byte Array, Length: 3 0: major – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 255] 1: minor – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 255] 2: revision – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 255] firmwareVersion – Type: Byte Array, Length: 3 0: major – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 255] 1: minor – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 255] 2: revision – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 255] deviceIdentifier – Type: Integer, Range: [0 to 216 - 1]

Returns the UID, the UID where the Bricklet is connected to, the position, the hardware and firmware version as well as the device identifier.

The position can be 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g' or 'h' (Bricklet Port). A Bricklet connected to an Isolator Bricklet is always at position 'z'.

The device identifier numbers can be found here. There is also a constant for the device identifier of this Bricklet.

Callbacks¶

Callbacks can be registered to receive time critical or recurring data from the device. The registration is done by assigning a procedure to an callback property of the device object:

Sub MyCallback(ByVal sender As BrickletDualRelay, ByVal value As Short)
    Console.WriteLine("Value: {0}", value)
End Sub

AddHandler dualRelay.ExampleCallback, AddressOf MyCallback

The available callback property and their type of parameters are described below.

Event BrickletDualRelay.MonoflopDoneCallback(ByVal sender As BrickletDualRelay, ByVal relay As Byte, ByVal state As Boolean)¶

Callback Parameters:	sender – Type: BrickletDualRelay relay – Type: Byte, Range: [1 to 2] state – Type: Boolean

This callback is triggered whenever a monoflop timer reaches 0. The parameter contain the relay (1 or 2) and the current state of the relay (the state after the monoflop).

Virtual Functions¶

Virtual functions don't communicate with the device itself, but operate only on the API bindings device object. They can be called without the corresponding IP Connection object being connected.

Function BrickletDualRelay.GetAPIVersion() As Byte()¶

Output Parameters:	apiVersion – Type: Byte Array, Length: 3 0: major – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 255] 1: minor – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 255] 2: revision – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 255]

Returns the version of the API definition implemented by this API bindings. This is neither the release version of this API bindings nor does it tell you anything about the represented Brick or Bricklet.

Function BrickletDualRelay.GetResponseExpected(ByVal functionId As Byte) As Boolean¶

Parameters:	functionId – Type: Byte, Range: See constants
Returns:	responseExpected – Type: Boolean

Returns the response expected flag for the function specified by the function ID parameter. It is true if the function is expected to send a response, false otherwise.

For getter functions this is enabled by default and cannot be disabled, because those functions will always send a response. For callback configuration functions it is enabled by default too, but can be disabled by SetResponseExpected(). For setter functions it is disabled by default and can be enabled.

Enabling the response expected flag for a setter function allows to detect timeouts and other error conditions calls of this setter as well. The device will then send a response for this purpose. If this flag is disabled for a setter function then no response is sent and errors are silently ignored, because they cannot be detected.

The following constants are available for this function:

For functionId:

• BrickletDualRelay.FUNCTION_SET_STATE = 1
• BrickletDualRelay.FUNCTION_SET_MONOFLOP = 3
• BrickletDualRelay.FUNCTION_SET_SELECTED_STATE = 6

Sub BrickletDualRelay.SetResponseExpected(ByVal functionId As Byte, ByVal responseExpected As Boolean)¶

Parameters:	functionId – Type: Byte, Range: See constants responseExpected – Type: Boolean

Changes the response expected flag of the function specified by the function ID parameter. This flag can only be changed for setter (default value: false) and callback configuration functions (default value: true). For getter functions it is always enabled.

Enabling the response expected flag for a setter function allows to detect timeouts and other error conditions calls of this setter as well. The device will then send a response for this purpose. If this flag is disabled for a setter function then no response is sent and errors are silently ignored, because they cannot be detected.

The following constants are available for this function:

For functionId:

• BrickletDualRelay.FUNCTION_SET_STATE = 1
• BrickletDualRelay.FUNCTION_SET_MONOFLOP = 3
• BrickletDualRelay.FUNCTION_SET_SELECTED_STATE = 6

Sub BrickletDualRelay.SetResponseExpectedAll(ByVal responseExpected As Boolean)¶

Parameters:	responseExpected – Type: Boolean

Changes the response expected flag for all setter and callback configuration functions of this device at once.

Constants¶

Const BrickletDualRelay.DEVICE_IDENTIFIER¶

This constant is used to identify a Dual Relay Bricklet.

The GetIdentity() function and the IPConnection.EnumerateCallback callback of the IP Connection have a deviceIdentifier parameter to specify the Brick's or Bricklet's type.

Const BrickletDualRelay.DEVICE_DISPLAY_NAME¶

This constant represents the human readable name of a Dual Relay Bricklet.