Project: Creating a GUI

Machine(s): None | Material(s): None

Official Assignment Description: 'write an application that interfaces with an input &/or output device'

This week's work is also designed to be part of my final project. My goal was to create a GUI that could control and display the angles of an airplane (to be mounted on a 3-axis gimbal). Angle commands would then be sent out of the serial port to an Arduino.

Creating the GUI

Step 1: Learn basic Processing..try to create my own 'buttons' etc.
buttons.pde

Step 2: Realize that there are lots of libraries for creating buttons etc, so use 'controlP5' library to learn how to add various controllers.
learning_controlp5.pde

Step 3: Try very hard to find a way to import .STL files. Eventually settled on 'toxiclibs' library. Note that the control sliders and the .STL visualization now need to be in separate windows for clarity (etc) purposes.
gimbal_proc.pde

Step 4: Now add serial capability to the Processing sketch. The general code structure is ok, but may still need some work before it's ready for the final project.
gimbal_serial.pde

Tips and Lessons Learned

Processing is very cool...I highly recommend it. There are lots of examples online.
Processing appears to be Java based, which requires a different train of thought than C coding. I would probably benefit from actually trying to learn the language as opposed to just trying to make things work from examples.
Did I mention how cool Processing was?

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