Jan 23rd NewTLUG meeting: Tcl/Tk, USB interface, ports and Command Line 101

[Herb Richter]

	This month's NewTLUG meeting will be held
	Tues Jan 23rd, at Seneca College on the YorkU campus.


Date:		Tues Jan 23
Time:		7 - 10pm

Topics:	1) 	a NewTLUG version of a previous TLUG talk by Peter
		Hiscocks re USB port interface and Tcl/Tk programming.
		Also, some history and evolution of serial and parallel
		ports plus the advantages and challenges of using USB
		...see Peter's outline below

	2)	Command Line 101: a look at some basic tricks for moving
		around between Linux directories and executing commands
		with a minimum of keystrokes.

Presenter:	Peter Hiscocks <phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org>
		Syscomp Electronic Design Limited
		Peter recently retired from a lengthy career of lecturing
		and operating labs in Electrical Engineering at Ryerson
		University to pursue the Open Instrumentation Project. He
		has extensive experience in Engineering Education and
		consulting in electronic circuit design.

Location:       Room and building TBA - Seneca at York

		http://www.yorku.ca/web/futurestudents/map/KeeleMasterMap.pdf
		The Seneca at York Campus, which is physically located in the
		south east part of York University, at Keele/Steeles.
		(note that this room is different from the usual one)

Directions:	For detailed directions and info on public transit, please
		see:
		http://cs.senecac.on.ca/~praveen.mitera/seneca-directions.html

Parking:        Paid parking is available on campus (about: $8).
		Building #84 on the map above is a close-by parking
		garage. - note #87 the parking lot is no longer for
		visitors so PLEASE use the parking garage (#84)

Outline:

The Open Instrumentation Project (OIP) makes low cost measurement
equipment -- hardware and Open Source Software -- available to engineers,
hobbiests and students.

First, we describe programming in the Tcl/Tk language with special
emphasis on rapid creation of a graphical user interface. We show it has
been used in the OIP, and how its capabilities can be applied to other
instrument and control projects.

We then provide some background on methods of interfacing to the PC and
the functions of the legacy serial, printer and bus ports. The USB port is
rapidly replacing these methods, and so we explain the advantages and
challenges of using USB. We describe the hardware and software of a simple
approach to the USB interface, and provide pointers to some USB debugging
tools. This will be of interest to anyone building hardware that talks to a
the USB interface.

We will demonstrate Tcl/Tk and the USB interface with a 20MSample/second
dual channel oscilloscope, and a 100kHz arbitrary waveform generator. We
will show how these instruments can be operated together by an open-source
program to form a vector network analyser.

As our contribution to Command Line 101, we'll open with some basic tricks
for moving around between Linux directories and executing commands with a
minimum of keystrokes.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

	Herb Richter  <hgr-FjoMob2a1F7QT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org>
	Richter Equipment, Toronto, Ontario
	http://PartsAndService.com
	http://PartsAndService.ca





























--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists