The Tibblog

EM1000 in a DIY project (BPM counter)

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 03:22:51 -0400

Mike from Mike’s Lab has posted a new video for his DIY project on the Beats-per-minute counter with full source code for download. This is just the start, more fun projects are on the way!

Our Indian distributor & long time partner, Theta Sales...

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 20:53:28 -0500

Our Indian distributor & long time partner, Theta Sales & Services, participated at the EFY Expo in Delhi on Feb 21-23, 2013. EFY Expo is the largest electronic expo in India and we are happy to see our products being showcased there.

DS10X5 Console for Remote IO Application

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 04:45:02 -0500

PT RFID from Indonesia has created a console software to interface with the Remote IO application that is shipped with the DS10X5.

The console software allows for easy control of the relay on the DS10x5 by simply entering the IP and relay status code.

Usage:

TibboDS10X5Console.exe –ip [DS10X5 IP Number] –port [Relay Port Number] –state [0/1]

ex. TibboDS10X5Console.exe –ip 192.168.1.200 –port 1 –state 1 – turn ON relay 1

ex. TibboDS10X5Console.exe –ip 192.168.1.200 –port 1 –state 0 – turn OFF relay 1

Photo

Sat, 22 Dec 2012 01:13:00 -0500

First place, National Taipei University of Technology, the...

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 04:42:00 -0500

First place, National Taipei University of Technology, the project is a self-walking vacuum cleaner with a twist. This robot not only can move on its own, but also be monitored and controlled by either remote PC or mobile device. A great extension to an already great idea.

Second place, Shih Hsin University, the project was a traffic...

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 04:36:00 -0500

Second place, Shih Hsin University, the project was a traffic light control system utilizing the EM1000TEV. A very interesting idea and is what Tibbo’s technology fits perfectly for. Real contender for the top place if not for the quirk in the system during demonstration.

Third place, Nan Jeon Institute of Technology, the project was a...

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 04:31:00 -0500

Third place, Nan Jeon Institute of Technology, the project was a green room environmental monitoring system which utilized the EM1206+GA1000.

All the status sensors were connected, monitored and logged to the EM1206 and the data was feedback to the remote server system, which had a web based interface. This projects really shows practical usage of Tibbo’s technology in real world situation.

Runner up, National Chin-Yi University, the project was a body...

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 04:26:00 -0500

Runner up, National Chin-Yi University, the project was a body temperature monitoring and logging system. Could be implemented as passive monitoring at entry gate or active monitoring of patients in the hospital.

Runner up, National Formosa University. The project was a...

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 04:20:00 -0500

Runner up, National Formosa University. The project was a bed-safty monitor system, where it will detect if person in care is safely sleeping and offers various alarm and notification options such as messaging, alarm, etc.

Runner up, Tamkam University, The project was a postal scale...

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 04:14:00 -0500

Runner up, Tamkam University, The project was a postal scale system which utilized the EM1000TEV for calculation and data storage.

The second Taiko Cup School Competition came to an end last...

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 21:57:00 -0500

Judges makes an entry into the conference hall

Our host, Professor Ko from the Department of Computer Science and Information Technology chat with staff

Judges are ready

but where are the teams?

Dean of CS & EE, Mr. Sun

talks about creativity

Vice Principle and the Dean leaves for important meeting

Tibbo's Reginal Directory, Dmitry Slepov

Creativity is the key

An idea can be turned into a sucessful business if you are hungry enough!

The second Taiko Cup School Competition came to an end last Friday. It was most exciting to see the overall improvement in project concept, creativeness, and implementation. More postings will follow for the next few days and we have some pictures of the beginning of the final day.

The Dean of EE & CS from the hosting University (Taipei Tech), Mr. Sun and our own Managing Director, Dima, gave inspiring short speech on the value of creativity, especially in this time and age.

One of our new (and satisfied) user of one of our longest...

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 04:33:00 -0500

One of our new (and satisfied) user of one of our longest running product, DS100B, was impressed enough that he wrote a review on it! This review really hit home with us as it is what we wish to bring with our product, synergy between the hardware, software and user interface.

The same advantage and more can be found with our new generation of device server (DS110X) products.

Our good friend, Timothy Swieter, from HK visited us recently...

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 22:40:11 -0500

Our good friend, Timothy Swieter, from HK visited us recently with his lovely wife, it was a pleasure to finally meet you face to face and your self designed expansion board sure was a pleasent suprise.

RCC Italy recently attended the SAVE expo, showcasing...

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 05:06:00 -0400

RCC Italy recently attended the SAVE expo, showcasing Tibbo’s devices. Above are three quick snaps from the event — quite a handsome display!

DS1102GD gets warm review

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 05:18:28 -0400

Not long ago, we released the DS110x series of products and just a few short weeks after we get a very big surprise from our good friend, Jim Parisi, a long time proponent of our programmable system. We were so touched by the thorough testing that Jim has done we felt it is only right to present it on our blog. Now, without further ado, let’s get on with the review.

The expectation

Sometimes a product comes along that is to good to be true. I just had to write Tibbo, and tell them just how impressed I am with their new line of DS110x Serial Controllers. So here is my review and informational write up of my findings.

I received my new DS1102GD model in the other day. Quite honestly I expected it to be like a few other serial to Ethernet device’s I have which include DiGI, and Lantronix to name a couple. Was I ever wrong about that assumption. My particular model has the optional Wi-Fi, and OLED display additions. The display is a nice feature because as anyone who has ever used devices like these in the past know that if there is a problem with the unit, such as bad LAN connection, IP conflict, Improper network configuration and so on know that its not easy to find out what the exact trouble is.

Since this model does have the display, all its information is right there at a glance. Pressing the “Setup Button” allows you to scroll though its menus, and know its settings for serial, IP, Wi-Fi and more. No need to have to pull out serial cables connect to the device then open a terminal window, press special keys while booting the unit up to get into the monitor mode. Though you can get this model without the display, its still comes with the default led’s on the front panel to show you the status.

For the W-Fi connection, this information is also on the display. They have even done a 1 up feature from their competition by adding 5 blue led’s to the front panel. These 5 led’s show in real time the Wi-Fi signal strength of the unit. No need to log into the units web page like other devices to check signal strength. Just a quick look at the unit will let you know. One great feature I should note here is that you have 3 options for the Wi-Fi which are Disabled, On Demand, On Permanently. I like the On demand feature because since many things today are going green, The Wi-Fi is off when LAN is available, as soon as the LAN connection is lost the Wi-Fi turns on, associates and resumes connection. I don’t know of anyone who has this feature.

Hardware is rather the same from device to device. Not much one can do to enhance, say a USB jack or Wi-Fi module. However for these devices its all about the software. The software is what makes a device useful, user friendly, or cumbersome and useless.

It’s all about the design

One of the things I like to do when I first get something is try to set it up without reading the manual. This tells me what kind of programmers the company has. How they think as coders, and the effort the company puts into ease of use. This may sound strange but think about it.

“how they think as coders”: Are they able to think outside the box and write code in a 3’rd person sort of way in which they invision themselves the customer using it. Or do they write it as if they were using it knowing what all the terms mean and where to go for what specific setting.
“effort the company puts into ease of use”: Making a well rounded GUI means more time for the coder to put into the device. Sure we could have a simple DOS window with line items say from 1-10, where you have to manually enter in things with no syntax checking. Or they can put many more hours in and make the GUI very user friendly.

If I buy a new gizmo and have to read a 30 page manual to figure out the settings for the device, odds are that next time I go to set it up I will have forgotten most of it and need to read it again. Also that probably means that the software people did not use laymans terms that the average person would understand by keeping it simple. Devices need’s programmers that can think in the 3’rd person. They have to pretend they know nothing of this device and need to set it up. So they need to code the GUI this same way.

This is where Tibbo has again really shined over its competition, which I can honestly say its not much of a competition, Tibbo is far better. The GUI software package I am referring to is called “Tibbo Device Server Toolkit” or TDST. This package is free from Tibbo. The DS110x series of controllers are to be coupled with the PC software TDST.

It’s all about the package

There are several parts to this package.

Connection Wizard
DS Manager
Virtual Serial Port Driver (VSPD) and VSP Manager
Tibbo Monitor

More detail is on the web site and I do suggest anyone interested to take a look.

After plugging in the DS110x into the LAN and power it up the first thing to do it run the Connection Wizard. The Connection Wizard (CW) is used to set up the DS110x for its intended operation, which is to setup the virtual COM port (VSP) on the computer while also setting up the DS110x for proper connection. The VSP Manager can be used to adjust the virtual COM port that is created through the connection wizard, or even create / remove other virtual COM ports.

The DS Manager is another powerful application which provides the ability to set, update, monitor the DS110x and other Tibbo device server products.

If you have any kind of trouble with data to and from the serial to Ethernet device your pretty much at a loss with other platforms. Not with Tibbo. You have 3 more tools to help you diagnose things right from your chair without ever having to go to the unit.

The Tibbo Monitor is a very handy tool to have. Lets say there is some sort of problem with serial cable connection. Its working but something is just not right. The cause was a bad RTS line from the serial unit to the device server. The customer calls you up and says its not working. With other devices the only solution is to get in the car with your tools and driver there. However with this application simply open it and it will show you everything that is going on with the unit. What it’s getting, and what it is sending. All in real time via the Ethernet connection. So for this situation it a simple matter of telling the customer to install a new serial cable. It even gives you a time and date stamp for each event that happens. A powerful feature for problems that only happen once in a while which are the worst to troubleshoot.

I remember one service call where there was a serial cable was run near a high power press machine. At the time the serial server was installed it of course worked just fine. Then about 2 days later we get a call its not working right. We head out there for a service call. When we got there it was working fine all day. Not one issue. So we head back. Then 3 days later again it not working. We go back. But this time I brought my scope with me and put it on the serial lines. For hours it was working fine. Then while sitting there this machine did a different task and I saw this spike on the serial line. It turns out that when this machine did that specific task (which was only once in a while) would it cause a spike in the serial cable casing improper data. We had the cable re-routed which solved the problem. Had I had this DS1102 device with the Tibbo monitor I could have stayed at my shop and simply ran the Tibbo monitor. It would have shown me the time and dates of events which would have quickly led me to the trouble. Far better than sitting there ans waiting for the trouble to occur and hope looking at the right device to catch it.

But wait theirs more….

We also have the “Tibbo Monitor Console with Data Dump” and “Tibbo Monitor Console”

The TMCDP is another Debug monitor where you again get time and date stamps, where the data is going and coming from and the channel its on. You also get to see the actuial serial data sent! A huge bonus.

The Monitor Console looks the same as the TMCDP, gives you the same information minus the received and send serial data. This will come in handy if your serial device is sending lots of data. It can be hard to parse though all the data to find a event.

This for the most part wraps up the DS110x and tools. Tibbo pulled out all the stops when it came to this device. There is wall / DIN rail mounting that “comes” with the unit and not a extra buy option like the others. The DS110x also offers power though the DB-9 connection should you need to power your serial device. There is even an option for POE as well. Now you don’t even need AC power at the remote site. You can power your DS110x and your serial device.

So, what does it all boil down to?

The bottom line is this. There is nothing I can think of they could have added, or done better. Like I said, I have used other competitors serial servers products in the past, and know them well. Now that I have tried the new DS1102 device I will never buy from anyone else. This unit does everything that is demanded of a serial server / client device needs to do, and then some. I challenge anyone to find something better in this class of products. To put iceing on the cake, Tibbo even offers the full source code for the device, and the IDE compiler (TIDE) for free. If you have a need to do something a little different than the default firmware. No problem download TIDE, and the source. Make your additions or changes and push it to the unit. TIDE is the most user friendly easy to use IDE I have EVER used in my 20+ years of embedded programming! I still cannot believe its free. Best or all, you don’t even need to buy a special programmer or connect to it via say USB cable. When you are done with your code, compile it, and click upload. It will load your new firmware over the LAN directly to the unit and reboot it. This is very powerful to upload code this way. I can write a change for a customer here in Illinois and upload the code to a remote device in some unmanned location in Africa all without ever leaving my chair.

Not only is it the lowest cost of any device like it in the market that I have found. The user interface is absolutely outstanding. By the way, all Tibbo products are this easy to use.

-Jim Parisi

New AggreGate Library published

Sun, 02 Sep 2012 05:33:47 -0400

We’ve been cooking and using this internally for some time… ok, for a very long time. Lo and behold, our official AggreGate library is finally here.

Drop the library into your project, complete several uncomplicated Tibbo BASIC procedures, fill out the configuration file, and voila, your device connects to and exchanges data with the AggreGate server. It just doesn’t get any simpler than that, folks.

New AggreGate library is yet another stepping stone on our path to allowing you “creation by configuration” — our vision of Tibbo BASIC programming environment where actual coding is kept to a necessary minimum and all that’s routine and mundane is accomplished by “pointing and clicking”.

Library documentation includes a nice step-by-step exercise in creating an AggreGate-enabled access control system. The corresponding sample code is here.

New Library Configurators

Sun, 02 Sep 2012 05:33:11 -0400

Do you know what our library configurators are? They are JavaScript-based editors for library configuration files.

Those familiar with Tibbo BASIC libraries know how we use configuration files. For example, the config file of our settings (STG) library defines settings and their attributes. This in itself is quite nice, but we went further!

Library configurators now mask the config file complexities and offer you a simple, HTML-based interface for editing config files. The difference is quite dramatic!

What you see is gray is the raw text from the config file of the AggreGate library. It’s just a fragment — we didn’t think it was necessary to print the whole thing. Below it is the screenshot of the same displayed in the AggreGate configurator. Need we say more?

To try out new configurators download and “apply “our latest platforms.

Updated SoI Application Now Available

Sun, 02 Sep 2012 05:33:00 -0400

G’day folks! In what is shaping to be one of the most newsworthy weeks of the year, we are announcing an update to our SoI (serial-over-IP) Tibbo BASIC application. And what have we done to it? Two things:

Support for the OLED displays of our new DS1101 and DS1102, also announced this week;
Support for the APN (access point name) for GPRS links.

Download here, and don’t forget to order a shiny new DS1101 or DS1102 to see how nice this tiny green OLED display really is.

If you’ve been following our blog, you may remember that...

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 00:54:00 -0400

If you’ve been following our blog, you may remember that this year we’re running the Second Taiko Cup, letting students show what crazy things they can do with our programmable controllers. What you may not know (because we’ve never told you before) is that we’re also running an official training course with our partners, Amedi.

Once students complete this course, they receive a certificate showing they know what they’re doing when it comes to Tibbo BASIC. Amedi has just held the first class on July 25th and 26th, and above are some of the photos. You can see students working hard, both on the hardware front and on the software one. Here’s to many more future courses to come!

We’ve just launched the second Taiko Cup School...

Thu, 17 May 2012 05:01:00 -0400

We’ve just launched the second Taiko Cup School Competition! This year we’re partnering with the National Taipei University of Technology, so that’s where we held our launch seminar. Last year’s cup was fantastic, and this year we’re expecting even better projects from the competitors.

To spice things up, we’ve added AggreGate as an optional extra-credit component for the projects. We’re going to hold the final competition in December — we can’t wait to see what the students come up with this time!