Visual Basic .NET - Multi Touch Bricklet¶

Simple¶

Download (ExampleSimple.vb)

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Imports System
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 Multi Touch Bricklet

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

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

        ' Get current touch state
        Dim state As Integer = mt.GetTouchState()
        Dim s As String = ""

        If ((state And (1 << 12)) = (1 << 12)) Then
            s &= "In proximity, "
        End If

        If ((state And &Hfff) = 0) Then
            s &= "No electrodes touched"
        Else
            s &= "Electrodes "
            For i As Integer = 0 To 11
                If ((state And (1 << i)) = (1 << i)) Then
                    s &= i.ToString() & " "
                End If
            Next
            s &= "touched"
        End If

        Console.WriteLine(s)

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

Callback¶

Download (ExampleCallback.vb)

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Imports System
Imports Tinkerforge

Module ExampleCallback
    Const HOST As String = "localhost"
    Const PORT As Integer = 4223
    Const UID As String = "XYZ" ' Change XYZ to the UID of your Multi Touch Bricklet

    ' Callback subroutine for touch state callback
    Sub TouchStateCB(ByVal sender As BrickletMultiTouch, ByVal state As Integer)
        Dim s As String = ""

        If ((state And (1 << 12)) = (1 << 12)) Then
            s &= "In proximity, "
        End If

        If ((state And &Hfff) = 0) Then
            s &= "No electrodes touched"
        Else
            s &= "Electrodes "
            For i As Integer = 0 To 11
                If ((state And (1 << i)) = (1 << i)) Then
                    s &= i.ToString() & " "
                End If
            Next
            s &= "touched"
        End If

        Console.WriteLine(s)
    End Sub

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

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

        ' Register touch state callback to subroutine TouchStateCB
        AddHandler mt.TouchStateCallback, AddressOf TouchStateCB

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

Basic Functions¶

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

Creates an object with the unique device ID uid:

Dim multiTouch As New BrickletMultiTouch("YOUR_DEVICE_UID", ipcon)

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

Function BrickletMultiTouch.GetTouchState() As Integer¶

Returns:	state – Type: Integer, Range: [0 to 213 - 1]

Returns the current touch state. The state is given as a bitfield.

Bits 0 to 11 represent the 12 electrodes and bit 12 represents the proximity.

If an electrode is touched, the corresponding bit is true. If a hand or similar is in proximity to the electrodes, bit 12 is true.

Example: The state 4103 = 0x1007 = 0b1000000000111 means that electrodes 0, 1 and 2 are touched and that something is in the proximity of the electrodes.

The proximity is activated with a distance of 1-2cm. An electrode is already counted as touched if a finger is nearly touching the electrode. This means that you can put a piece of paper or foil or similar on top of a electrode to build a touch panel with a professional look.

Sub BrickletMultiTouch.Recalibrate()¶

Recalibrates the electrodes. Call this function whenever you changed or moved you electrodes.

Sub BrickletMultiTouch.SetElectrodeConfig(ByVal enabledElectrodes As Integer)¶

Parameters:	enabledElectrodes – Type: Integer, Range: [0 to 213 - 1], Default: 213 - 1

Enables/disables electrodes with a bitfield (see GetTouchState()).

True enables the electrode, false disables the electrode. A disabled electrode will always return false as its state. If you don't need all electrodes you can disable the electrodes that are not needed.

It is recommended that you disable the proximity bit (bit 12) if the proximity feature is not needed. This will reduce the amount of traffic that is produced by the TouchStateCallback callback.

Disabling electrodes will also reduce power consumption.

Default: 8191 = 0x1FFF = 0b1111111111111 (all electrodes and proximity feature enabled)

Function BrickletMultiTouch.GetElectrodeConfig() As Integer¶

Returns:	enabledElectrodes – Type: Integer, Range: [0 to 213 - 1], Default: 213 - 1

Returns the electrode configuration, as set by SetElectrodeConfig().

Sub BrickletMultiTouch.SetElectrodeSensitivity(ByVal sensitivity As Byte)¶

Parameters:	sensitivity – Type: Byte, Range: [5 to 201], Default: 181

Sets the sensitivity of the electrodes. An electrode with a high sensitivity will register a touch earlier then an electrode with a low sensitivity.

If you build a big electrode you might need to decrease the sensitivity, since the area that can be charged will get bigger. If you want to be able to activate an electrode from further away you need to increase the sensitivity.

After a new sensitivity is set, you likely want to call Recalibrate() to calibrate the electrodes with the newly defined sensitivity.

Function BrickletMultiTouch.GetElectrodeSensitivity() As Byte¶

Returns:	sensitivity – Type: Byte, Range: [5 to 201], Default: 181

Returns the current sensitivity, as set by SetElectrodeSensitivity().

Advanced Functions¶

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

AddHandler multiTouch.ExampleCallback, AddressOf MyCallback

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

Event BrickletMultiTouch.TouchStateCallback(ByVal sender As BrickletMultiTouch, ByVal state As Integer)¶

Callback Parameters:	sender – Type: BrickletMultiTouch state – Type: Integer, Range: [0 to 213 - 1]

Returns the current touch state, see GetTouchState() for information about the state.

This callback is triggered every time the touch state changes.

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 BrickletMultiTouch.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 BrickletMultiTouch.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:

• BrickletMultiTouch.FUNCTION_RECALIBRATE = 2
• BrickletMultiTouch.FUNCTION_SET_ELECTRODE_CONFIG = 3
• BrickletMultiTouch.FUNCTION_SET_ELECTRODE_SENSITIVITY = 6

Sub BrickletMultiTouch.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:

• BrickletMultiTouch.FUNCTION_RECALIBRATE = 2
• BrickletMultiTouch.FUNCTION_SET_ELECTRODE_CONFIG = 3
• BrickletMultiTouch.FUNCTION_SET_ELECTRODE_SENSITIVITY = 6

Sub BrickletMultiTouch.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 BrickletMultiTouch.DEVICE_IDENTIFIER¶

This constant is used to identify a Multi Touch 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 BrickletMultiTouch.DEVICE_DISPLAY_NAME¶

This constant represents the human readable name of a Multi Touch Bricklet.