Virtual Arduino - (virtual.logic tab is simply a Python service running emulation logic) - Aren't virtual pins cool !  We have analog & digitial now

We now have the tab with the correct version of MRLComm for that release - a good thing

oops

Progress thanks to Gareth ..   cause and effect .. effect needs some work ;)

Thanks Sir Gareth Master Blender-Fu Sensei !

Gareth has rigged more joints WOOHOO !.. and shifted all rotational values to the local X axis Yay !
Now I got to map all this so a regualr InMoov script does not drive him to contortions and release virtual smoke !  Tried some of the common big scripts but I see I have to start with small pieces.....

Ouch I borked my neck ! ... Elves are trying to glue Gareth's rigging to MRL ...  needless to say, "Needs some work!"

The MRL Blender service is going pretty well - this is an example of a control script...

https://github.com/MyRobotLab/pyrobotlab/blob/master/home/GroG/BlenderVirtualInMoovControl.py

There is very little "special" coding needed to switch InMoov from virtual to real and back again, which is a design goal.

2015.04.05

Another thing coming out in Release 108 will be Virtual InMoov ..  Now that all the Serial and Arduino services have  been fixed in such a way so that they support virtual ports.  

Virtual ports are serial ports over internal queues or tcp/ip connections - so serial "wires" now stretch internally to virtual devices.

The picture is Gareth master rigging in Blender - with 2 virtual Arduinos and quite a few servos attached.  Some mapping will be needed to correct angles, that's why the head has moved into the back :P.  Also, the master rigger might be so kind as locally re-orient the bones so they follow the same axis as the servos (always on x).  

Here is the resulting report from auto-test in the build script - next would be to post this automatically from Travis-CI after ever build....

Many sensors :) ... Virtual Python now is sending data back on multiple analog lines - was very interesting when I started starting a bunch of other applications on my computer I had the pleasure of watching buffer overruns happen, and then the whole graph go crazy ! - with a buffer overrun the codecs begin exploding and the graph looks like spagetti ! :)  But for the most part - its pretty solid with 5 Analog lines running simultaneously - probably runs faster than real hardware ... lots more testing to do 

2015.03.27:15:22  LOOK AT MY "PERFECT" SENSOR !!! 

Its sending back Virtual sensors are starting to work well. The Python Virtual Arduino is now multi-threaded, and here I'm testing one of the analog pins. Interestingly the data rate is very similar to the data rate I get with real hardware ... hmmm.....

2015.03.27:15:22

Better now ..  saw where a reference to a Pin was being used on 2 different threads - explains most of the weirdness..  Here we have a regular sawtooth - which is what I'd expect .. still have some buffer overruns which cause the graph to get wonky - but the rate at which Python can send out data is probably much higher than a 57k Bps serial port can handle...

This is a review of up-coming functionality in Release 108.  Here is a list of the large changes in 108.

• Arduino service now uses the Serial service for all serial communication (as do all other services) - Important architectual changes as all serial fixes, enhancments, or improvements are done in only 1 place (duplicate code is bad)
• Serial service improved greatly.  Serial service can open all sorts of different ports. It has the ability to open regular hardware COM ports, TCP/IP, and virtual ports.
• Robust virtual ports - previously virtual ports were "kludged" together.  Now VirtualPorts are well defined software constructs which can be used in automated testing.
• Automated testing - all tests will be moved into JUnit and a rigorous set of service tests will be continually developed as MRL grows.  This is the only way that such a small group can create and maintain a large and expanding code base.
• Refactored Serial Libraries - MRL's serial library was a bit of a mess - its all been refactored and the common unit for all serial communication is a Port
• RXTXLib "normalized" - rxtxlib does not conform to Java's standards - but this out-of-spec is fixed in a sublcass and all Ports conform to the standard.

Nice Python errors published to gui

Virtual Arduino - a pre-configured Virtual Device

Easy virtual Arduino testing

vport = "VPORT"

arduino = Runtime.start("arduino", "Arduino")
virtual = Runtime.start("virtual", "VirtualDevice")

virtual.createVirtualArduino(vport)
arduino.connect(vport)

at the core of the virtual device is another Python service so you can create any bizarre hardware abmnormalities you may want to simulate !  Uh, this one is coming from my Arduino.py script which emulates how a "real" hardware Arduino would be have when asked to start polling on an analog pin .. 

Uh .. but there's a glitch somewhere - I was expecting a FLAT LINE !! .. What?!?!? how is this possible .. probably a virtual short circuit :)