Introduction: Visual Basic Arduino Interface
Source : https://theorycircuit.com/arduino-projects/visual-basic-arduino-interface/
Arduino board can communicate through serial monitor of Arduino IDE, but it provides text and numeric options only. When we think about Graphical Interface and control the Visual Basic is the best one come in mind. Visual studio provides different language program support, even the visual studio Arduino IDE also available on internet.
In this project I have used Microsoft Visual studio 2005, here the goal is to turn ON and turn OFF the Arduino onboard LED (D13) through one windows application.
Creating windows application through Visual basic provides best GUI (Graphical User Interface) and also it provides configurable Serial Port to control devices connected with computer.
Step 1: Prototype
Arduino board can communicate through serial monitor of Arduino IDE, How?
Step 2: Hardware Setup
Simply connect the Arduino board with computer and there is no other hardware connections required, because this project handles the onboard LED of Arduino.
Step 3: Visual Basic Program
To start the project you need visual basic software, Just create new project windows application in visual basic IDE and draw the required buttons and picture box for visual interface then name these components as given in properties.
* Button1 (text = LED ON) (Name = ButtonON)
* Button2 (text = LED OFF) (Name = ButtonOFF)
* Picturebox1 (Name = led)
* Picturebox2 (Name = ledon)
* Serial port (com11 //change as per your arduino port number)
Imports System.IO
Imports System.IO.Ports Imports System.Threading
Public Class Form1
Shared _continue As Boolean
Shared _serialPort As SerialPort
Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load SerialPort1.Close()
SerialPort1.PortName = "com11" 'check and change Arduino port
SerialPort1.BaudRate = 9600
SerialPort1.DataBits = 8
SerialPort1.Parity = Parity.None
SerialPort1.StopBits = StopBits.One
SerialPort1.Handshake = Handshake.None
SerialPort1.Encoding = System.Text.Encoding.Default
End Sub
Private Sub ButtonON_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles ButtonON.Click
led.Visible = False
ledon.Visible = True
SerialPort1.Open()
SerialPort1.Write("1")
SerialPort1.Close()
End Sub
Private Sub ButtonOFF_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles ButtonOFF.Click
led.Visible = True
ledon.Visible = False
SerialPort1.Open()
SerialPort1.Write("0")
SerialPort1.Close()
End Sub
End Class
Step 4: Arduino Code
After completing the Visual basic design don’t forget to upload the Arduino code on board.
void setup()
{
pinMode (13,OUTPUT);
Serial.begin(9600);
}
void loop()
{
int value;
if(Serial.available())
{
delay(50);
while(Serial.available() >0)
{
value=Serial.read();
if(value=='1'){digitalWrite(13,HIGH);}
else if (value=='0') {digitalWrite (13,LOW); }
}
}
}
Step 5: Ref.file
