Experiment 5 : Creating a Windows application to interface with 7-Segment LED display

Transcription

1 Experiment 5 : Creating a Windows application to interface with 7-Segment LED display Objectives : 1) To understand the how Windows Forms in the Windows-based applications. 2) To create a Window Application to control the 7-Segment LED display. Materials and equipment: Microsoft Window with Visual Studio.NET 2008 DB-25 connector (male) Circuit board 7-Segment LEDs Introduction : In 1983 Microsoft began its development of the Interface Manager, now known as Microsoft Windows graphical user interface (GUI) for its own operating system (MS-DOS), in September Although the first few versions were Multiplan and Word-like menus at the bottom of the screen, the interface was changed in 1982 to use pull-down menus and dialogs. Microsoft finally announced Windows in November 1983, with pressure from just-released VisiOn and impending TopView. With the promised of an easy-to-use graphical interface, device-independent graphics and multitasking support, the Windows 1.0 developed by Microsoft hit the store shelves in November The selection of applications was sparse, however, and Windows sales were modest. Figure 1 Windows 2.0, was introduced in the fall of 1987, provided significant usability improvements to Windows. With the addition of icons and overlapping windows, Windows became a viable environment for development of major applications (such as Excel, Word for Windows, Corel Draw!, Ami, PageMaker and Micrografx Designer), and the sales were spurred by the runtime ("Single Application Environment") versions supplied by the independent software vendors. Figure 2 In late 1987 Microsoft released Windows/386. While it was functionally equivalent to its sibling, Windows/286, in running Windows applications, it provided the capability to run multiple DOS applications simultaneously in the extended memory. April ITE/EC5103PA

2 Windows 3.0, released in May, 1990, was a complete overhaul of the Windows environment. With the capability to address memory beyond 640K and a much more powerful user interface, independent software vendors started developing Windows applications as it gives end-user the ease of handle computer. Powerful and new applications helped Microsoft sell more than 10 million copies of Windows, making it the best-selling graphical user interface in the history of computing. Windows 3.1 Today, the Windows Desktop, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 7 are the latest versions of the popular Microsoft desktop operating system and Web browser technology. As we seen the importance of the graphical user interface, it is importance for the students to understand and handle the type of components use in the Windows Forms application. The Windows platform contains a number of types that represent common GUI which allow the program to respond to user input in the Windows Forms applications. Many of the controls which the end-users will work with on a day-to-day basis, such as Button, TextBox, Label and ListBox, are quite intuitive to work with. This experiment offers some basic techniques that allow you to create Windows Applications. Procedures : 1) Connect the 7-Segment LED circuit using DB25 Male connector. 2) Activate the Microsoft Visual Studio program and create a New Project. 3) In the Project types, select Visual C# - Windows and choose the Windows Forms Application templates. (Shown in Figure 3) and name the project as Win7Seg. Figure 3 4) In the Window Applications Design Window, display the ToolBox, Solution Explorer and Properties Windows as highlight in Figure 4. April ITE/EC5103PA

3 Toolbox Form Solution Explorer Properties Figure 4 5) Now, click on a new component known as Label from the ToolBox Window and drag it to the Form1. Now a new Label, called label1, is created. 6) Click on the label1 and the Properties Window will show the label1 s properties. At the label1 s properties, scroll down to the Text Option as shown and change the label1 to Computer Peripheral Applications. 7) Now create two more labels and change the text to 7-Segment Counter and another leave it blank. Figure 5 April ITE/EC5103PA

4 8) Now add two more components known as Button from the Toolbox Window and change the text on Button1 to Count Up and Button2 to Count Down as shown. Figure 6 Figure 7 9) Now, double-click on button1, the Count Up button. The Visual Studio will switch the display to Code View and creates a new method called button1_click(). It means that when user click on the button, the routine in the button1_click() will be performed. Figure 8 April ITE/EC5103PA

5 10) Now, try the following code on button1_click(): using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.ComponentModel; using System.Data; using System.Drawing; using System.Text; using System.Windows.Forms; namespace Win7Seg public partial class Form1 : Form public Form1() InitializeComponent(); byte CounterValue; Create a global variable in the Form1 Class private void button1_click(object sender, EventArgs e) CounterValue++; label3.text = "" + CounterValue; CounterValue will increase on the event of Button1 Click 11) Save the project and run the project. On the screen, you should be able to see that the Counter value will increase on every click of the Count Up Button. 12) Now try to create your own Count Down Button and show your result to your supervisor. 13) Modify the program so that it will display the counter value at the 7-Segment display. 14) Enhance the program by adding more buttons to perform an automatic up/down counting using start/stop Button. 15) Demonstrate the program when working and submit the flowchart. Staff s signature/date: April ITE/EC5103PA