LEARNING TO PROGRAM WITH

VISUAL BASIC AND

.NET GADGETEER
A guide to accompany the Fez Cerberus Tinker Kit

Sue Sentance
Steven Johnston
Steve Hodges
Jan Kuera
James Scott
Scarlet Schwiderski-Grosche

LEGAL NOTICE: The source code available in this book is subject to the Apache License, version
2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.html.

All other content is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported
License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View,
California, 94041, USA.

Edition 1.0, 22 October 2013

FOREWORD

Computer programming can be fun! This book on Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer shows how. Aimed at high
school students and first-time programmers, the authors use a combination of hardware and software to make
programming come alive - audibly, visually, and tangibly. Using small hardware components - a standalone
processor, simple sensors and actuators - students build their own little computers in hardware and then program
them to do fun things, such as play music (Chapter 3), blink lights (Chapter 6), or draw pictures (Chapter 10). By
the end of the book, students have learned all the basics of programming: variables, basic data types, arrays,
conditionals, iteration, procedures, and functions. More importantly, they learn a fundamental computational
thinking concept - modularity. From the very first exercise, students become engaged through the tactile
experience of assembling hardware components together to build real devices which they program through
standard interfaces, protocols, and built-in libraries. Without a lot of fuss, the authors teach these concepts using
the widely-adopted Visual Studio software development tool, exposing students to a modern programming
environment that supports the engineering cycle of design, build, test, and debug. At the same time, students
naturally assimilate a better understanding of how electronic devices work and how they are made, valuable
skills in our increasingly digital lives.

Jeannette M. Wing
Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Research
15 October 2013

2 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to acknowledge several others who have been invaluable in creating the material
contained within this book.
First and foremost we would like to thank our colleagues Clare Morgan and Nicolas Villar: Clare has been
instrumental in facilitating school outreach and supporting the team; Nicolas is the original inventor of the
platform without whom we would have no .NET Gadgeteer. We have worked with a number of Gadgeteer
hardware manufacturers during this project, but we would particularly like to call out GHI Electronics who were
excited to explore how Gadgeteer could be used in the classroom from the outset of our work and who tailored
a kit of Gadgeteer parts to support the learning points and exercises we wanted to cover. We are extremely
grateful to the young people who have spent dedicated time working through the book, testing the exercises,
and giving us their invaluable feedback, including: Ellen Curran, Thomas Denney, David and Jonathan Goh, Armin
Grosche, Maeve McLaughlin, Alistair Sentance, and Alfie Sharp. Finally, we owe a great deal to the hundreds of
students and educators who have embraced Gadgeteer in their classrooms over the past two years. In a world
where it is all too easy to become a consumer of digital technologies, we hope that this book will inspire a new
generation of digital creators!

AUTHORS

Sue Sentance works for Computing At School (CAS), the professional association in the UK for Computer Science
school teachers. Her work revolves around bringing more Computer Science teaching into schools, and she has
been developing teaching materials for schools using .NET Gadgeteer since its launch in 2011. She has worked in
schools as a teacher of Computing and as a lecturer in Initial Teacher Education, and has a PhD from the
University of Edinburgh.
Steven Johnston is a program manager on the .NET Gadgeteer project at Microsoft Research and has a PhD from
the University of Southampton where he is also a Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Engineering and the
Environment. Much if his work involves exploiting new, and up and coming technologies and applying them to the
field of engineering.
Steve Hodges leads the Sensors and Devices research group at Microsoft Research and is also a visiting Professor
at Newcastle University. His work centres around new tools and technologies for prototyping and fabrication,
new ways of interacting with computer systems, and wearable devices. He has a PhD from the University of
Cambridge and is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.
James Scott is a researcher in the Sensors and Devices group at Microsoft Research. His research interests span a
wide range of topics in ubiquitous and pervasive computing, including novel devices and sensors, rapid
prototyping, mobile computing and interaction, and security and privacy. He has a PhD from the University of
Cambridge. He is one of the creators of the .NET Gadgeteer platform.
Scarlet Schwiderski-Grosche is a senior research program manager in the Microsoft Research Connections team.
She is responsible for academic research partnerships relating to .NET Gadgeteer and other Microsoft Research
projects, and drives liaison with a number of joint research centres. Scarlet has a PhD in Computer Science from
University of Cambridge and worked in academia for almost 10 years before joining Microsoft in 2009.

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1.

Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 7

Objectives of this book .......................................................................................................................................... 8

Modules used in this book ..................................................................................................................................... 8
How to use this book ........................................................................................................................................... 10
Chapter 2.

Getting started with .NET Gadgeteer ...................................................................................... 11

Assembling the hardware................................................................................................................................... 11

Starting a project in .NET Gadgeteer ............................................................................................................. 11
The Gadgeteer Designer in Visual Studio ...................................................................................................... 13
Chapter 3.

Playing tunes .................................................................................................................................. 17

Overview ............................................................................................................................................................... 17
Programming in Visual Studio............................................................................................................................ 17
Tutorial: Playing a tune ....................................................................................................................................... 18
Exercises................................................................................................................................................................. 22
Summary ................................................................................................................................................................ 22
Chapter 4.

Clicker.............................................................................................................................................. 23

Overview ............................................................................................................................................................... 23
New concepts: What is a variable? ................................................................................................................. 23
Tutorial: Building a clicker .................................................................................................................................. 24
Exercises................................................................................................................................................................. 28
Summary ................................................................................................................................................................ 28
Chapter 5.

Stop watch ...................................................................................................................................... 29

Overview ............................................................................................................................................................... 29
New concepts: If Then Else statement .............................................................................................. 29
Tutorial: Building a stop watch .......................................................................................................................... 29
Exercises................................................................................................................................................................. 33
Summary ................................................................................................................................................................ 34
Chapter 6.

Traffic lights.................................................................................................................................... 35

Overview ............................................................................................................................................................... 35
New Concepts: More on If statements and the SelectCase statement.................................................. 35
Tutorial: Traffic lights........................................................................................................................................... 36
Exercises................................................................................................................................................................. 40
Summary ................................................................................................................................................................ 40
Chapter 7.

Counting in binary ......................................................................................................................... 41

Overview ............................................................................................................................................................... 41
4 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

New concepts: Binary numbers .......................................................................................................................... 41

New concepts: The For loop in Visual Basic .................................................................................................... 42
Tutorial: Counting in binary ................................................................................................................................ 43
Exercises................................................................................................................................................................. 48
Summary ................................................................................................................................................................ 48
Chapter 8.

Burglar alarm ................................................................................................................................. 49

Overview ............................................................................................................................................................... 49
Tutorial 1: Creating a burglar alarm ............................................................................................................... 49
Exercises................................................................................................................................................................. 51
New concepts: Saving to the SD card.............................................................................................................. 51
Tutorial 2: Keeping a record of an intrusion .................................................................................................. 52
Exercises (Continued) ........................................................................................................................................... 55
Summary ................................................................................................................................................................ 55
Chapter 9.

Morse code ..................................................................................................................................... 57

Overview ............................................................................................................................................................... 57
New concepts: Reading from a file in Visual Basic ....................................................................................... 57
New concepts: Creating a function in Visual Basic ........................................................................................ 57
Tutorial: Morse code ............................................................................................................................................ 58
Tutorial: Reading a word from a file and translating to Morse code ....................................................... 60
Exercises................................................................................................................................................................. 64
Summary ................................................................................................................................................................ 64
Chapter 10.

Drawing........................................................................................................................................... 65

Overview ............................................................................................................................................................... 65
Tutorial 1: House draw ....................................................................................................................................... 65
New concepts: Arrays in Visual Basic............................................................................................................... 67
New concepts: Passing parameters into procedures and functions By Val and By Ref ..................... 69
Tutorial 2: Graph draw ...................................................................................................................................... 69
Exercises................................................................................................................................................................. 72
Summary ................................................................................................................................................................ 73
Chapter 11.

Reaction game ............................................................................................................................... 75

Overview ............................................................................................................................................................... 75
New concepts: Working with random values ................................................................................................. 75
New concepts: Logical operators ...................................................................................................................... 76
Tutorial: Building the reaction timer game ...................................................................................................... 76
Exercises................................................................................................................................................................. 83
Summary ................................................................................................................................................................ 83
Chapter 12.

Build your own module ................................................................................................................. 85

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

Overview ............................................................................................................................................................... 85
Tutorial 1: Make a noise! .................................................................................................................................... 85
Tutorial 2: Use the joystick to control the pitch and duration ...................................................................... 88
Exercises................................................................................................................................................................. 89
Summary ................................................................................................................................................................ 90
Appendix A . Where to buy .NET Gadgeteer ................................................................................................... 91
Appendix B . Installing the FEZ Cerberus Tinker Kit ....................................................................................... 92
Appendix C . Getting to know Visual Studio ...................................................................................................... 94
The Solution Explorer Window .......................................................................................................................... 94
The Toolbox window ........................................................................................................................................... 94
The Designer window .......................................................................................................................................... 95
The Output window.............................................................................................................................................. 95
IntelliSense in Visual Studio ................................................................................................................................ 96
Appendix D . Updating the firmware .................................................................................................................. 98
Checking the firmware version .......................................................................................................................... 98
Updating the FEZ Cerberus Firmware using the FEZ Config Tool (recommended) ............................... 100
Updating the FEZ Cerberus TinyBooter manually ....................................................................................... 103
Updating the FEZ Cerberus TinyCLR manually............................................................................................. 105
Appendix E . How to debug Visual Basic in Visual Studio ............................................................................. 107
Printing debug messages.................................................................................................................................. 107
Setting a breakpoint ......................................................................................................................................... 107
The conditional breakpoint .............................................................................................................................. 109
Walking through your code ............................................................................................................................. 110
Debugging tips ................................................................................................................................................... 112
Appendix F . Coping with Out-of-Memory exceptions................................................................................... 114
Appendix G . Troubleshooting: Visual Studio will not deploy....................................................................... 115
Appendix H . List of current socket types .......................................................................................................... 120
Appendix I . Operators in Visual Basic .............................................................................................................. 123
Appendix J . Typical Lux values .......................................................................................................................... 124
Appendix K . Resources available online .......................................................................................................... 125

6 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

CHAPTER 1.

INTRODUCTION

Microsoft .NET Gadgeteer is a really easy-to-use platform for creating new electronic devices using a wide
variety of hardware modules and a powerful programming environment. Students with little or no electronics
background can design and build devices that sense and react to their environments using components such as
switches, displays, buzzers, motor controllers and more. Using cables these various modules are plugged into a
mainboard which is programmed to make everything work together.

Figure 1: FEZ Cerberus Tinker Kit, showing mainboard and modules.

.NET Gadgeteer originated at Microsoft Research in Cambridge, U.K. It was initially designed as a tool for
researchers to invent new kinds of devices more quickly and easily. It very quickly proved to be of interest to
hobbyists and for secondary and higher education. In particular, several pilots in schools in the UK and the US
with students ranging from 11 to 18 years of age demonstrated that .NET Gadgeteer is a motivating
environment for teaching computer programming both within the curriculum and as an extra-curricular club.
Gadgeteer is programmed in a modern event-based and object-oriented style using Visual C# or Visual Basic. In
addition to teaching programming, Gadgeteer offers exciting possibilities for teaching electronics and computeraided design.
Microsoft Research launched .NET Gadgeteer as an open platform in 2011. As a result .NET Gadgeteer
components are now available from several hardware vendors, whilst the software required to program the
devices is available for free from Microsoft. The Fez Cerberus Tinker Kit from GHI Electronics consists of a
mainboard and various modules which have been selected to allow someone new to Gadgeteer to build a wide
variety of exciting devices. Other Gadgeteer kits are available and there are also a wide variety of individual
modules which are available separately.
With .NET Gadgeteer we hope that we can give students a better understanding of how the devices and
technology all around us work, as well as the skills to create their own. We hope to inspire a future generation of
producers of electronic devices, not just consumers!

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

O BJECTIVES OF THIS BOOK

This book is intended for school students and others learning to program in Visual Basic. It assumes no prior
knowledge of programming, electronics, Visual Basic or the Visual Studio environment. Programming concepts are
introduced and explained throughout the book. Each chapter is structured in a similar way: firstly a new concept
to be learned is introduced, secondly there is a step-by-step tutorial on how to develop a simple example in
Gadgeteer which uses that concept, and finally a set of exercises is given which enable the reader to practise the
main points. This last step is the most important: when learning to program, practising new programing skills is
crucial! Answers to all the exercises are available at http://gadgeteering.net.
This book is based on the Fez Cerberus Tinker Kit made by GHI Electronics, which is a good value-for-money .NET
Gadgeteer kit produced specifically for education. Although images of this kit are used throughout this book,
different mainboards and modules from other manufacturers or kits can be substituted with little or no changes to
the associated code.

M ODULES USED IN THIS BOOK

This book uses the following modules, which are all included in the FEZ Cerberus Tinker Kit apart from the
Extender module in Chapter 12. Note that in many cases other kits and modules can be substituted.
Module name

Image

Fez Cerberus mainboard

Used in chapters
All

This is at the heart of every

project. It has a processor,
memory and a series of
sockets. You can connect
modules into these sockets.

USBClientSP power module

All

The mainboard and modules

require power. This module
not only provides power to
your device it also lets you
program and debug over
USB.

Display N18 module

This LCD module lets you
display images and text in
colour. It is backlit and is
visible in the dark. The display
is 128 pixels wide and 160
pixels high.

8 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 10
Chapter 11

Chapter 11
Chapter 12

Joystick
The joystick moves up-down
and left-right. You can then
read values corresponding to
how far the joystick has been
moved in each direction. You
can also press the joystick and
it acts like a normal button.
LED Strip
There are 7 LED lights in a
row: 2 red, 3 amber and 2
green. You can turn each LED
on/off individually.
Light sensor

Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8

Chapter 8

This module returns a value

that corresponds to the
amount of light to which the
sensor is exposed.
Button
The module detects when the
button is pressed and
released and also has an LED
which can be turned on/off.
SD card module

Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7

Chapter 8
Chapter 9

This modules accepts a full

sized SD card and lets you
read from and write to files.
You will need an SD card to
use it; not all SD cards work
so use the one provided with
the Tinker Kit.
Chapter 3
Chapter 9

Tunes
This module lets you play
individual notes and construct
basic melodies.

Chapter 12

Extender
This is an advanced module
that lets you connect existing
electronic components or
custom devices to your project.
You can use any extender or
breakout module instead.

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

H OW TO USE THIS BOOK

This book consists of a series of projects built using a Fez Cerberus Tinker Kit. There are 9 projects using the kit,
with an additional project in chapter 12 which needs a Gadgeteer Extender module and a buzzer which you can
purchase separately.
Chapters 1 and 2 introduce you to how to use .NET Gadgeteer and Visual Studio so you will need to read these
first and make sure that you have installed Gadgeteer successfully and are familiar with the Visual Studio
interface.
Chapters 3 to 12 each contain a project and are divided up as follows:

Key Terms these are the new concepts to be covered in this chapter;
Modules you will need which Gadgeteer modules you will need for this project;
Overview what you will build in this chapter;
New Concepts an explanation of the new programming concepts. Programming concepts are
introduced in this order: variables, data types, if statements, loops, functions, arrays and file-handling;
Tutorial a step-by-step tutorial on how to develop the core project. Follow the instructions carefully,
referring to the appendices if you have problems getting anything to work;
Exercises the most important part of each chapter! This is where you try to build some projects on your
own, building on what you have learned in that chapter. Solutions to the exercises can be found at
http://www.gadgteteering.net/learn;
Summary this gives some key points that we think you will have learned in the chapter.

The appendices cover a range of topics from where to buy Gadgeteer to what to do if your project will not work
as expected. We recommend you read through the appendices to see the range of topics covered, and then
refer to them when you have any difficulties or need additional information. Note that the technical details are
correct at the time of writing but can change as new software releases or updates become available. In this case,
updated information will be available at http://www.gadgeteering.net.

10 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

CHAPTER 2.

GETTING STARTED WITH .NET GADGETEER

A SSEMBLING THE HARDWA RE

Each project needs a mainboard. This contains the microprocessor which will be programmed to make it behave
in the desired way. But a microprocessor only really becomes useful when it is connected to other components to
let it display output, react to inputs, process files and so on. To do this with Gadgeteer, different modules are
connected to the mainboard using small grey cables.
You will begin each project in this book by plugging together the modules needed for that particular project.
There is a list of modules at the start of each chapter. It is important to plug the modules into the right sockets on
the mainboard each module has a letter on it which indicates which socket type it can be attached for. When
you have found the socket letter on the module, look for the same letter next to a mainboard socket there will
probably be more than one option and attach the other end of the cable there.

Match socket type letters when

connecting modules to the mainboard.
This socket supports type F and Y
modules which is OK for a button
because it is also type Y.

Figure 2: Assembling the hardware

The most important rules for plugging together Gadgeteer are:

When connecting modules, always make sure that the mainboard is not connected to the PC or powered
on using a different power supply.
Red modules supply power to the mainboard. Only one red module should ever be connected to the
mainboard at any time.
Match the socket type letters between the modules and the mainboard as described above.

If a module is connected to the wrong socket type it wont work but it shouldnt damage anything either.

S TARTING A PROJECT IN .NET G ADGETEER

You need a desktop or laptop computer in order to program a Gadgeteer mainboard. Before starting to work
with Gadgeteer, ensure that you have downloaded and installed all the software on to your machine. You need
three different pieces of software:

The Microsoft Visual Studio programming application for developing code;

The Microsoft .NET Micro Framework system which allows your code to run on a Gadgeteer mainboard;
A software development kit (SDK) from the manufacturer of the particular Gadgeteer components you
are using.

All modern software is updated frequently by the companies who develop it, in order to fix any problems and
add new features. The same is true of the Gadgeteer software components listed above and its important that
you use the right versions! There are currently two popular versions of Microsoft Visual Studio and you can use
either one as long as you install the associated version of the .NET Micro Framework. The installers are pretty

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

11

easy to use. You must install the software in the order given below. Some of the installations involve downloading
a zipped file. In this case you must extract all the contents before running the Setup program. For detailed
installation instructions go to http://www.gadgeteering.net/content/installation-instructions and check Appendix
B.
If you want to use Visual Studio 2012 edition, this is exactly what you need to get your Fez Cerberus Tinker Kit
up-and-running:

Visual Studio Express 2012 for Desktop;

Microsoft .NET Micro Framework 4.3 SDK;
GHI NETMF and Gadgeteer Package 2013 R2.

Alternatively you can use the following:

Visual Basic 2010 Express;

Microsoft .NET Micro Framework 4.2 SDK;
GHI NETMF and Gadgeteer Package 2013 R2.

The Express Editions of both Visual Basic 2010 and Visual Studio 2012 are free, but if you already have another
version of Visual Studio 2010 or 2012 which supports Visual Basic it is fine to use this instead. The rest of the
software is also free.
To start using .NET Gadgeteer, first launch Visual Studio 2012 or Visual Basic 2010. On launching the software,
you will see a screen enabling you to choose a .NET Gadgeteer Application (see Figure 3). If you do not see this,
select NEW and then Project from the FILE menu. You will need to make sure you select Visual Basic and then
Gadgeteer on the left-hand side before you are offered the chance to select a new .NET Gadgeteer application
as shown in Figure 3. The screenshots in this book all use Visual Studio 2012; if you are using Visual Basic 2010
things will look slightly different but all the principles are the same.

Click here to
indicate you
want to create a
new Gadgeteer
application.

Give your project

a meaningful
name here.

Click
OK to
proceed.

Figure 3: Starting to use .NET Gadgeteer

You are then prompted to choose the mainboard you want. There are many different mainboards available from
different manufacturers but the Fez Cerberus mainboard comes with the Fez Cerberus Tinker Kit and this is what
12 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

we will be using in this book. So choose the Fez Cerberus mainboard as shown in Figure 4 and then click on
Create.
This will create a new project in Visual Studio and you are ready to start!

Figure 4: Choosing the Cerberus mainboard

T HE G ADGETEER D ESIGNER IN V ISUAL S TUDIO

Before you start to write any code to run on your Gadgeteer mainboard, you need to specify which modules you
are going to use in your new project and which sockets you are going to connect them to. This is done in Visual
Studio using a feature called the Gadgeteer Designer. This Designer is a special picture-based view of your
project the idea is to drag photos of each of the modules you are using into the Designer window and then click
on the module sockets to draw lines on the screen which connect up to sockets on the mainboard you are using.
When you created a new Visual Studio .NET Gadgeteer Application in the previous section you probably ended
up with something like the screenshot in Figure 5. This is the Designer view, and to start with it only includes the
mainboard you selected when creating your new project. If you ever want to return to the Designer view, look for
the tab labelled Program.gadgeteer and click on this.
The next stage is to add the modules you want to use for your project. This is done by selecting them from the
Toolbox. The Toolbox is a window which runs down the left hand side of the screen in Visual Studio and lists all
the modules that were included in the SDK you installed previously. If the Toolbox is not showing, click as shown in
Figure 5 to reveal it. Bring the modules you need into the Designer window by dragging or double-clicking the
relevant module names in the Toolbox. Then connect them to the mainboard.
The steps shown in the pictures in Figure 5, Figure 6, Figure 7 and Figure 8 will guide you through this process.

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

13

Select Toolbox
to see a list of
modules.

Figure 5: Using the Toolbox

Double-click
on each of
the modules
needed for
your project
or drag them
to the right.

Figure 6: Adding modules in the Designer

Click on the
connector on a
module and
drag to the
mainboard to
connect it.

Figure 7: Modules in the Designer

14 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

This star indicates

that the file has not
been saved.

Make sure your complete

configuration matches the
way you have connected
the real hardware.

Figure 8: Connecting modules in the Designer

You will probably notice that when you wire up a module in the Designer it is only possible to connect to a
compatible socket on the mainboard one with the same socket type letter.
When you have finished connecting the modules to the mainboard and your configuration matches your
hardware, select Save All under the FILE menu to save the whole project. Connect the hardware to your computer
using the USB cable. You are then ready to start programming your project. If you ever go back and make
changes in the Designer be sure to save the file, there is an indicator on each tab showing if it has been saved as
shown in Figure 8.
To start writing code for your project, click on the Program.vb tab at the top of the project (see Figure 9). This
takes you away from the Designer and replaces it with a code window as shown in Figure 10. As you will see,
Visual Studio automatically creates the framework for your code using a template which was installed with the
Gadgeteer software. The template contains several lines of comments text that can be included in a program in
order to help programmers understand how a piece of code works but which the computer will ignore. These
comments can be deleted of course, but they are often useful to help you get started with programming.

Click on
Program.vb to
see the program.
.code.

Figure 9: Locating the Program.vb tab

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

15

The Visual Basic

Gadgeteer template has
one method called
ProgramStarted() and
some hints on where to
write your code.

Figure 10: The ProgramStarted() method

The next step is to write the code for your project. The remaining chapters in the book explain how to write the
code for several different projects. While you are doing this you will be learning how to write computer
programs. The skills you learn when programming in one language are very transferable to other languages you
learn in the future. Also you will be learning a lot about how electronic devices and computer applications are
made.

16 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

CHAPTER 3.

PLAYING TUNES

K EY TERMS

M ODULES YOU WILL NEED

Program
Sub
Procedure
Comment

Cerberus mainboard
USBClientSP power module
Tunes module

O VERVIEW
In this first project you will learn to use the tunes module to play a tune using .NET Gadgeteer. Before starting,
the next section will give you a short introduction to what a program in Visual Basic looks like.

P ROGRAMMING IN V ISUAL S TUDIO

Visual Studio can look very complicated when you start using it but you will quickly learn which parts are
important. When you are programming you need to focus on the main window.

Import statements tell the

program which modules to use.

This Sub (or procedure) is

run when the program
starts.

Debug.Print(Program Started) outputs the

text Program Started to the Output window.

Figure 11: The main code window in Visual Studio

A program begins with Import statements and these specify what modules will be used in the Gadgeteer
program. The next section of Program.vb declares the program itself. The program begins where the code says
Partial Public Class Program and ends with End Class at the bottom of the page. This will always be
written for you by the Gadgeteer Visual Basic template so you will not need to worry too much about it.
Inside a Program Class are procedures. A procedure in Visual Basic is known as a Sub.

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

17

Each Sub (procedure) begins with Public Sub and ends with End Sub. In a Gadgeteer program the beginning
and end of procedures will nearly always be written for you, either in the template or added automatically when
you need them. In this case the Sub is called ProgramStarted() and not surprisingly, runs when your Visual Basic
program starts.
Later on you will create other Subs (procedures). But in this project we will put all the code we write inside the
ProgramStarted() Sub so that it is run as soon as the program starts.
Inside ProgramStarted() there is some code already written but most lines start with an apostrophe and are in
green. These lines are comments which are ignored by the computer when the program runs. They are there for
the humans! These help you to understand what is going on and you should add comments to your own programs
as you write them so that you can remember how they work too.
The only line that is not in green inside ProgramStarted() is Debug.Print(Program started). This is an
instruction to the computer to write the words Program started to the Output window (see Appendix C). This will
be useful it provides a signal to you that the program is running correctly. See Figure 11 for details of what this
looks like on-screen.
In this project we will add some code to the ProgramStarted() Sub and this will tell the computer to play a
tune using the tunes module.

T UTORIAL : P LAYING A TUNE

Step 1: Assemble these modules
Referring back to Chapter 1, the first step when building a Gadgeteer project is to connect up the hardware
modules you will need. For this project, you will need a mainboard, a tunes module and a power module as
shown in Figure 12.

Cerberus Mainboard

USB Client SP power module

Tunes module

Figure 12: Modules needed for Tunes project

Connect these modules together using the cables to the correct sockets on the mainboard. The letter on the module
tells you which sockets are allowed (see page 11 for more information).

Step 2: Use the Gadgeteer Designer to link the modules together

The next step is to open Visual Basic and to start a new .NET Gadgeteer application (as shown on page 11).
Following the instructions there, drag a tunes module, mainboard and power module on to the Gadgeteer
Designer screen and connect them up in exactly the same way as you have connected your hardware. The
diagram in Figure 13 shows an example.

18 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

Figure 13: Modules in the Designer for the Tunes project

When you have finished connecting the modules to the mainboard and your configuration matches your
hardware, select Save All under the FILE menu to save the whole project. Ensure the hardware is connected to
your computer using the USB cable. You are then ready to start programming your project. If you ever go back
and make changes to the Designer be sure to save the file.

Step 3: Write your program

Now click the Program.vb tab at the top of your program and your Gadgeteer Designer window should
disappear and the code window should appear.
Click the Program.vb
tab to see the code.

Figure 14: Code window for Tunes project

Visual Studio has various features that assist with editing your code, many are intuitive but it is worth looking at
the IntelliSense appendix on page 96 for a quick introduction to these features that can save time and make
coding these examples easier.
Underneath the line Debug.Print(Program Started) add the line highlighted in yellow below:

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

19

Public Sub ProgramStarted()

' Use Debug.Print to show messages in
' Visual Studio's "Output" window during debugging.
Debug.Print("Program Started")
tunes.Play(261)

tunes.Play(number) plays a sound at a certain pitch or frequency. The frequency is specified by the number in

brackets and is measured in a unit called Hertz, abbreviated to Hz. A frequency of 261 Hertz is the frequency of
middle C, if you play the piano! Now add the lines highlighted in yellow in the code below.
Public Sub ProgramStarted()
' Use Debug.Print to show messages in
' Visual Studio's "Output" window during debugging.
Debug.Print("Program Started")
tunes.Play(261)
Thread.Sleep(1000)
tunes.Stop()
Thread.Sleep(1000) causes the program to pause for 1000 milliseconds, which is one second. After this
tunes.Stop() will stop the note playing.

This program should print Program Started in the Output window (if you cannot find this, see Appendix C) and
then play a middle C for one second. So now it is time to get this first program running.
Now is a good time to save your program. To do this, click on the Save All icon
. It is very important to save
all as there are lots of different files in a Gadgeteer application and they all need to be saved together. If you
are working in Visual Studio 2010, you may need to name your project for the first time call it Playing Tunes.
If you are using Visual Studio 2012 Express you will already have named your project as this is done when you
create a new project.
Now press the green play button
at the top of the screen to run the program. Allow around half a minute for
the program to load onto the Gadgeteer mainboard and then it should play automatically.
Does your program work? If it does not, check the following:
-

Is the USB cable plugged in and attached to the red power module (USB Client SP)?
Are the connections to the sockets on the mainboard the same as those that you have used in the
Designer?
Did you install the Gadgeteer software that comes with the FEZ Cerberus Tinker Kit?
Did you type in the code exactly as written above?

If you have checked all these and you still have errors, go to page 98 (the troubleshooting section of the
appendices) to look up some strategies that will help you check that your code is written correctly and get it
working.
When you press the green play button
your program is deployed to the hardware that you have plugged in
via USB. The play button starts a process called debugging and is covered in more detail on page 107. Since
your program has been deployed to the hardware, every time you reset the Gadgeteer device from now on (or
power it up) your program will execute. In the case of the Tunes example, it will beep every time you connect it
over USB. Remember that you are programming the hardware to create a standalone gadget.
You cannot edit your code or alter the modules of the Designer if your program is running. You will first need to
press the stop button or Stop Debugging on the Debug menu at the top (Shift + F5).

20 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

When your program successfully plays one note, it is possible to create a longer tune. You could do this with a
sequence of tunes.play(<number>) commands. Alternatively you can save a series of individual notes into a
melody. Firstly, here is how to create a longer tune with more tunes.play() commands.
The scale of C Major uses frequencies shown in Table 1.
Table 1 : Scale of C Major and corresponding frequencies
Note

Frequency
(in Hz)

Note

Frequency
(in Hz)

Middle C

261

392

293

440

329

493

349

523

To play the scale of C Major using Gadgeteer, add these frequencies to your program. Simply add some more
lines with tunes.play(<frequency>) using the numbers in the table. Using Thread.Sleep() between notes makes
the computer wait for a certain number of milliseconds before playing the next note. If you are not sure how to
do this, refer to the code below to help you.
Partial Public Class Program
' This is run when the mainboard is powered up or reset.
Public Sub ProgramStarted()
Debug.Print("Program Started")
tunes.Play(261) ' Middle C
Thread.Sleep(1000)
tunes.Play(293) ' D
Thread.Sleep(1000)
tunes.Play(329) ' E
Thread.Sleep(1000)
tunes.Play(349) ' F
Thread.Sleep(1000)
tunes.Play(392) ' G
Thread.Sleep(1000)
tunes.Play(440) ' A
Thread.Sleep(1000)
tunes.Play(493) ' B
Thread.Sleep(1000)
tunes.Play(523) ' C
Thread.Sleep(1000)
tunes.Stop()
End Sub
End Class

Another way of playing a tune is to add some notes to a melody and then play the melody.
To do this you will need to declare a variable melody. A variable is a container that holds a value. Each
variable has a particular data type associated with it this refers to the type of information (or data) that the
variable will be used to store. For example whole numbers are stored using a data type called an Integer. In this
case we are creating a variable called melody which is an instance of a data type called Melody (capital M).
Variables will be described in detail in the next chapter.
You can declare a melody using this line of code (we have also added a comment):
Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

21

' declare a new melody

Dim melody As Tunes.Melody = New Tunes.Melody()

Once you have declared the melody, you can add notes to the melody for each note you add you need to
specify the frequency (pitch) and the duration (length). The frequency is in Hertz as before and the duration is in
milliseconds (thousandths of seconds).
So for example, to play middle C for 2 seconds use the line of code:
melody.add(261,2000)

Dim melody As Tunes.Melody = New Tunes.Melody()

' declare a new melody
melody.Add(261,
melody.Add(293,
melody.Add(329,
melody.Add(349,
melody.Add(392,
melody.Add(440,
melody.Add(493,
melody.Add(523,

600)
600)
600)
600)
600)
600)
600)
600)

'
'
'
'
'
'
'
'

Middle C
D
E
F
G
A
B
C

' Now play the melody

tunes.Play(melody)

Edit your program by changing the lines of code starting with tunes.play() and instead use
melody.add(<frequency>, <time>) as shown in the code.
Run your program and check that it works as you would expect. Then try the following exercises.

E XERCISES
1.
2.

Edit your Visual Basic program to see if you can play the scale of middle C going down as well as up.
Edit your program so that it adds the notes for the tune Happy Birthday to a new melody and then plays
that melody. You will need to research some more notes and frequencies.
3. (Advanced). Edit your program so that it uses a loop to repeat two notes five times, using the code given
below. This uses a For Next loop which you will learn properly in Chapter 7.
For counter As Integer = 1 To 5
tunes.Play(261) ' Middle C
tunes.Play(293) ' D
Next

4.

Once this works see if you can use For Next loops to play the popular tune Frre Jacques.

S UMMARY
In this chapter, you have learned how to:

write and run your first Visual Basic program using .NET Gadgeteer;
use the tunes module and the Play() method to create a tune;
create a new melody and add notes and time intervals to it.

22 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

CHAPTER 4.

CLICKER

K EY TERMS

M ODULES YOU WILL NEED

Variable
Integer
Event
Event-handler
Comment

Cerberus mainboard
USBClientSP power module
2 Button modules
Display N18 module

O VERVIEW
This program introduces output to a display screen. It is a simple clicker that somebody might use at an event to
count how many people have gone into a room. Imagine a very popular event taking place where it is important
it does not get too crowded. We need to click when somebody goes in and display how many people have gone
into the room. We also need to be able to reset the counter.

N EW CONCEPTS : W HAT IS A VARIABLE ?

A key concept in programming is understanding what a variable is. A variable is like a box which holds a value.
This value can change when the program is running.

Figure 15: Assigning values to variables

myName = Bob
myName = Carla

In these examples, Bob is a value, myName is a variable. The variable myName is assigned the value Bob. Then
it is assigned the value Carla which overwrites the previous value.
Each variable has a specific data type. This refers to the type of information that the variable is able to store.
The myName variable above had text data in it and so thats its data type. We can also have variables that
have numbers in them. One type of number is called integer. This is a whole number with no fraction or decimal
place.
myNumber = 46
myAge = 15

Before using a variable in Visual Basic, it needs to be declared and this is done with the Dim statement. Dim
actually stands for Dimension, but you could think of it as standing for Declare in Memory which is what it is
used for. When a variable is declared, a space in memory is set aside for it.

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

23

The Dim statement needs to specify the name of the new variable and its data type. An example of declaring a
variable in Visual Basic and then assigning a value to it is given below:
Dim number As Integer
number = 356

You can also declare the variable and assign the value all in one go:
Dim number As Integer = 356

There are many data types that can be used with variables but you will use just a few to start with. The
commonly used ones are shown in Table 2.
Table 2: Different data types and their uses
Data type

What it is used for?

Example

Integer

Whole number

1, 5, 35, -5

Double

Decimal (or fractional) number

1.56, 4.78

String

Piece of text

Boolean

True or False only

Happy Birthday
True, False

T UTORIAL : B UILDING A CLICKER

Start by putting together the hardware you need as you have done previously (see page 11). Use the socket
letters to see how the modules attach to the mainboard.

Step 1: Assemble these modules

Cerberus mainboard

USB Client SP power

module

Button

Display N18 module

Figure 16: Modules needed for Clicker project

Step 2: Use the Gadgeteer Designer to link the modules together

Open Visual Studio, save your program as Clicker and then use the Designer to drag on the modules you are
using and link them together. The diagram in Figure 17 shows an example, but you can wire things differently if
you want. Just make sure you connect the modules together in the Designer using the same sockets as you have
used when assembling your real hardware.

24 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

When you initially drag the modules on to the Designer screen the display module will be called display_N18.
This can be seen as text which appears under the photo of the module. You should rename the display by clicking
on the text display_N18 underneath the picture and then changing it to read display. This will make your
code easier to read and is done for all exercises in this book.
When you have finished connecting the modules to the mainboard and your configuration matches your
hardware, select Save All under the FILE menu to save the whole project. Ensure the hardware is connected to
your computer using the USB cable. You are then ready to start programming your project. If you ever go back
and make changes to the Designer be sure to save the file.

Figure 17: Modules in the Designer for the Clicker project

Change the name of

the display N18 to
display. This will
make your program
easier to read.

Step 3: Write your program

A very fundamental concept when programming in Visual Basic is the event. An event is when something happens
and the computer reacts to it by running a piece of code. This code is something you program yourself and it is
called an event-handler.
Our first program in this chapter is going to do the following:

Display 0 on the screen when the program starts.

Repeatedly
o Do nothing until the user presses the button that will be the event.
o Add one to a variable called count in the button event-handler.
o Display the new value of the count variable on the screen whenever it changes.

This list of steps tells you that we will need to have a variable to hold the most up-to-date value of the number of
people in the room. A variable is a container with a name that holds a value. This value can change while the
program is running. Our variable is going to be called count.
In this example we will also need a second variable. This is needed to hold the value of the font (or typeface)
that we use to display the number on the screen. There are only two fonts built into Gadgeteer by default but
later in the book we will add more.
So the code can be written in three stages. Firstly, when the program starts, we need to display a 0 on the
screen. We start by declaring the font variable which we will use later. This code goes at the top of the program
just after the line Partial Public Class Program. The green lines beginning with an apostrophe are comments
which wont be executed by the computer. However they are important when you look back at the code because
they help you understand what you wrote and why. They are also very important when someone else tries to
understand your code.

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

25

Namespace Clicker
Partial Public Class Program
' font is the variable used to hold the font name.
' Gadgeteer comes with two fonts: ninaB and small
Dim font As Font
' This is run when the mainboard is powered up or reset.

After the class definition, there is a procedure called ProgramStarted(). As described previously, the
ProgramStarted() procedure contains the code that runs once the program starts. By default there are a lot of
comments in this section to help you get started with your first program.
Having declared the font as Font, we need to give it a value. Were going to use the NinaB font. Enter the yellow
highlighted line below to do this.
Namespace Clicker
Partial Public Class Program
' font is the variable used to hold the font name.
' Gadgeteer comes with two fonts: NinaB and small
Dim font As Font
' This is run when the mainboard is powered up or reset.
Public Sub ProgramStarted()
'***************************************************************************************
' Hardware modules added in the Program.gadgeteer designer view are used by typing
' their name followed by a period, e.g. button. or camera.
'
' Many hardware modules generate useful events. To set up actions for those events, use
' left dropdown box at the top of this code editing window to choose a hardware module,
' use the right dropdown box to choose the event - an event handler will be auto'***************************************************************************************/
' Use Debug.Print to show messages in Visual Studio's "Output" window during debugging.
font = Resources.GetFont(Resources.FontResources.NinaB)
Debug.Print("Program Started")
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayText(count.ToString(), font, GT.Color.Red, 50, 50)
End Sub

Secondly, you will need to set up the variable count and initialise it to 0. The variable will be declared at the top
of the program directly under the line where the font variable was declared.
Namespace Clicker
Partial Public Class Program
' font is the variable used to hold the font name.
' Gadgeteer comes with two fonts: ninaB and small
Dim font As Font
' count is a variable used to hold the value which will be displayed on the screen.
Dim count As Integer

Using the data type Integer means a whole number will be stored in the variable.
You can set the count to be 0 at the same time as declaring it. This is doing two things at once but it will save
remembering to set the count to 0 later on. Alter your code like this:
Namespace Clicker
Partial Public Class Program
' font is the variable used to hold the font name.
' Gadgeteer comes with two fonts: ninaB and small
Dim font As Font
' count is a variable used to hold the value which will be displayed on the screen.
Dim count As Integer = 0
' This is run when the mainboard is powered up or reset.

26 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

The next step is to write the code to add one to the count and display the updated value on the screen. To do this
we have to find the event handler which corresponds to the action of pressing the button. In Visual Basic you just
need to select the appropriate action from a list of all possible events and the outline of the associated eventhandling procedure will be displayed.
A procedure is a section of code that has a particular purpose. We will need to write the code that we want to
be executed when the button is pressed.
To find the event handler which corresponds to pressing the button, go to the top of the screen under the toolbar
in Visual Studio and select button in the grey pull-down box marked General. This selects all the events
associated with the Button module. Then select ButtonPressed in the grey area to the right which is labelled
Declarations.

Next, select
ButtonPressed.
First, select button in the
pull-down menu.
Figure 18: Finding an event handler
An empty procedure will appear at the bottom of your code listing:
Private Sub button_ButtonPressed(sender As Button, buttonState As Button.ButtonState)
Handles button.ButtonPressed
End Sub

This is the empty shell of your event handler. The next stage is to write the code to add one to the variable
count, then to clear the screen (otherwise the next number you write will sit on top of the previous one), and then
display the new value of count. This can be done by entering the following code. Once again add the highlighted
lines then add a comment that makes sense to you on the line before each line of code

Private Sub button_ButtonPressed(sender As Button, buttonState As Button.ButtonState)

Handles button.ButtonPressed
count = count + 1
display.SimpleGraphics.Clear()
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayText(count.ToString(), font, GT.Color.Red, 50, 50)
End Sub

Enter the code above, save your program and test that the basic clicker works! To run your program click on the
button.

The green play icon will

start your program running.

Figure 19: Use the green 'play' icon in Visual Studio to start your program running
Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

27

Wait for the program to load. You should see an Output window and after a few seconds some lines of text will
start to scroll by. If you cannot find the Output window, see Appendix C. After a few more seconds the words
Program Started should be displayed. This is printed because the Visual Basic template includes a
Debug.Print("Program Started") statement. It tells you that the program is running correctly.

Figure 20: The Output window

Once your program runs successfully, work through the exercises below to extend the clicker.

E XERCISES
1.

2.

Add a second button which resets the clicker to 0. This button will have a different name (for example
button1) and so you will need a separate event handler. You could change the event handler so that
the second button decrements the count whenever anyone leaves the room.
Set a limit to your clicker so that it stops when it reaches 20 people entering the room and gives a
message to say the room is full.

S UMMARY
In this chapter, you have learned to:

write code that responds to an event;

use variables in Visual Basic;
change the value of a variable, for example, by adding a number;
display the contents of a variable on the display.

28 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

CHAPTER 5.

STOP WATCH

K EY TERMS

M ODULES YOU WILL NEED

Cerberus mainboard
USBClientSP power module
2 Button modules
Display N18 module

Boolean statement
If Then Else statement

Timer events

O VERVIEW
This program builds on the previous chapter and enables you to build a stop watch. This will have two buttons
one to stop and start, and one to reset. To do this you will be working with timers once you have understood
how to use these you will be able to do many more projects that work in the same way.

N EW CONCEPTS : I F T HEN E LSE STATEMENT

The structure of a simple If statement in Visual Basic is shown below.
If <condition> Then
<statements>
Else
<statements>
End If

It is important to remember when writing an If statement that the <condition> must be something that has a
yes or no answer. In other words, when you work out what the condition is, it can only be True or False. A
statement which can only be True or False is called a Boolean statement.
These would be acceptable conditions to put into an If statement:

number = 5
name = Carlos
age >= 17
timer.IsRunning = True (this can also be written as just timer.IsRunning)

In this chapter you will use an If statement to test whether the timer is running. If it is running you will stop it, but if
it is not running you will start it. This will enable you to create a Stop/Start button on your stop watch.

T UTORIAL : B UILDING A STOP WATCH

The modules and the Designer view are exactly the same as the Clicker, assuming that you completed the
exercises and added a second button, so the code below should look familiar.

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

29

Step 1: Assemble these modules

These are the modules that you will need for this project. Use the letters on the module to connect them together
using the cables.

Cerberus mainboard

USBClientSP power
module

2 Button modules

Display N18 module

Figure 21: Modules needed for Stop watch project

Step 2: Use the Gadgeteer Designer to link the modules together

Open Visual Basic and use the Gadgeteer Designer to recreate the hardware you have just put together. Drag
the modules on to the Designer screen as you have done previously and then link them together. The diagram in
Figure 22 gives an example, but you should connect the modules in the Designer to exactly the same sockets as
you used when putting the hardware together.
When you initially drag the modules on to the Designer screen the display module will be called display_N18.
This can be seen as text which appears under the photo of the module. You should rename the display by clicking
on the text display_N18 underneath the picture and then changing it to read display. This will make your
code easier to read and is renamed for all exercises in this book.

Figure 22: Modules in the Designer for the Stop watch project

Step 3: Write your program

Change the name of

the display N18 to
display. This will
make your program
easier to read.

The stop watch program is going to do the following:

1.
2.

Display 0 on the screen when the program starts, but also print some text with instructions.
Add one to the counter every second.

30 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

3.
4.

Display the new value of the counter on the screen every second.
Respond to the other (reset) button being pressed by setting the counter back to 0.

You should start by declaring the variables needed, see Table 3.

Table 3: The stop watch variables and their use
Variable

Data Type

Description

seconds

Integer

Used as the second counter

font

Font

Small font for instructions

font2

Font

NinaB font for the time display

Note that only two fonts, called Small and NinaB, are included with Gadgeteer by default. However, it is
possible to import other fonts into .NET Gadgeteer using a utility called Tiny Font Tool.
The code you need to type in is highlighted below:
Partial Public Class Program
Dim seconds As Integer = 0
Dim font As Font = Resources.GetFont(Resources.FontResources.small)
Dim font2 As Font = Resources.GetFont(Resources.FontResources.NinaB)
' This is run when the mainboard is powered up or reset.
Public Sub ProgramStarted()

Having declared and assigned the variables the next step is to set up the display on the screen.
This can be done in the ProgramStarted() sub (Visual Basics name for a procedure)). Depending on the size of
the screen the coordinates may be different to the example below. Here we are using a GHI Electronics Display
N18 which has 128x160 pixels. Add the lines of code that are highlighted in yellow to the ProgramStarted()
sub.
Heading
Public Sub ProgramStarted()
Debug.Print("Program Started")
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayRectangle(GT.Color.Cyan, 1, GT.Color.Black, 40, 40, 40, 40)
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayText("Stop Watch", font2, GT.Color.Cyan, 20, 20)
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayText("00", font2, GT.Color.White, 50, 50)
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayText("LEFT button to Stop/Start", font, GT.Color.Cyan, 0, 90)
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayText("RIGHT button to Reset", font, GT.Color.Cyan, 0, 105)
End Sub

Test this to see that this works and that the screen looks as you would expect, see Figure 23.

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

31

Time display
(inside rectangle)

Instructions

Figure 23: The stop watch in operation

The next stage is to add code to create a timer. A timer is a special type of variable which creates (or raises) an
event periodically. It is useful if you want to run some specific code every so often for example every second or
every minute. The code which needs to be run periodically is put inside the timer event handler.
It is possible to have many different timers in a single program, and to start and stop them (or enable and
disable them) as your program runs if you want to. Here we only need a single timer. Start by adding the
following line of code which creates a new Timer variable called timer:
Dim WithEvents timer As GT.Timer = New GT.Timer(1000)

' every second

This line of code should already be in your project because it is included in the template in green as a comment.
So all you need to do is to remove the apostrophe that is in front of the timer definition. Changing a comment into
working code is something programmers often do and is called uncommenting your code. Similarly, sometimes
you want to temporarily stop certain lines of code from working and to do this you can turn them into comments
by putting an apostrophe at the front. This is called commenting out lines of code.
Select the timer from the pull down menu as shown in Figure 24 and then select the Tick event from the top of
the program window. This will generate a timer_Tick procedure ready to program with your code.

Select timer.
Then select
Tick.

Figure 24: Selecting the timer_Tick() event handler

32 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

Then add the timer code as follows:

Add one to the
Private Sub timer_Tick(timer As Gadgeteer.Timer) Handles timer.Tick
seconds counter.
seconds = seconds + 1
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayRectangle(GT.Color.Cyan, 1, GT.Color.Black, 40, 40, 40, 40)
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayText(seconds.ToString(), font2, GT.Color.White, 50, 50)
End Sub

Display the time again.

Then program the button to start and stop the timer. Use the pull-down menus to create the
button_ButtonPressed() procedure from the top of the program window as before.
Private Sub button_ButtonPressed(sender As Button, state As Button.ButtonState)
Handles button.ButtonPressed
End Sub

The first step is to start the timer when the button is pressed. To do this just add the timer.Start() line of code
inside the button_ButtonPressed() procedure:

Private Sub button_ButtonPressed(sender As Button, state As Button.ButtonState)

Handles button.ButtonPressed
timer.Start()
End Sub

Save the program and test that it works so far. At the moment the button just starts the timer but we want to use it
as a toggle to turn the timer on and off. To do this we need to use a property of the timer. Properties are values
that are associated with certain variables. One of the properties that timers have is called IsRunning.
IsRunning is True if the timer has been started and False otherwise.
We can test the current value of the IsRunning property using an If Statement. The Visual Basic code we need
to use in the button_ButtonPressed() procedure is shown highlighted below:
Private Sub button_ButtonPressed(sender As Button, state As Button.ButtonState)
Handles button.ButtonPressed
If timer.IsRunning Then
timer.Stop()
Else
timer.Start()
End If
End Sub

Enter this code to check if the timer is already running, then test that your button will stop and start the timer! Then
try the exercises below which will make your stop watch more sophisticated, with a reset button and minutes and
seconds.

E XERCISES
1.
2.
3.

Add the second button which will reset the timer to 0.

Improve your stop watch so that it counts to 60 seconds and then resets to 0 and continues counting.
Edit your stop watch so that it displays minutes and seconds. When the seconds reset to 0 (as in 2
above) the minutes should increment by 1.

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

33

S UMMARY
In this chapter, you have learned to:

use a timer to control events;

use a simple If statement.

34 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

CHAPTER 6.

TRAFFIC LIGHTS

K EY TERMS

M ODULES YOU WILL NEED

Select Case
If Then Else

Cerberus mainboard
USBClientSP power module
Button module
LED Strip

O VERVIEW
In this project you will use the LED Strip module. This has seven lights in a row: two red, three amber and two
green. You will program them to light up in a particular sequence and create a set of traffic lights.

N EW C ONCEPTS : M ORE ON I F STATEMENTS AND THE S ELECT C ASE STATEMENT

As a reminder, the structure of the If statement in Visual Basic is as follows:
If <condition> Then
<statements>
Else
<statements>
End If

A more complex version of the If statement in Visual Basic chains together several test conditions. The ElseIf
keyword is used for this as shown here:
If <condition1> Then
<statements>
ElseIf <condition2>
<statements>
Else
<statements>
End If

If you have lots of different conditions you can use the Select ... Case statement instead of lots of ElseIf
statements. You can use Select ... Case when you have an integer or char (single character) variable and you
want to control what your program will do depending on the value of these variables. For example, with an
Integer variable called count, a Select statement could be used to control what would happen if count was 1
or count was 2 etc. The syntax of this statement in Visual Basic is shown below:
Select Case count
Case 1
led_Strip(5)
led_Strip(6)
Case 2
led_Strip(2)
led_Strip(3)
led_Strip(4)
Case 3
led_Strip(0)
led_Strip(1)
count = 1
End Select

= True
= True
= True
= True
= True
= True
= True

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

35

T UTORIAL : T RAFFIC LIGHTS

Step 1: Assemble these modules

Cerberus Mainboard

USBClientSP power module

LED Strip

Figure 25: Modules needed for Traffic lights project

Step 2: Use the Gadgeteer Designer to link the modules together

Figure 26: Modules in the Designer for the Traffic lights project

Step 3: Write your program

The basic traffic lights program is going to do the following:

Display a red light when the program starts.

Use a timer to display an amber light and then a green light.

You will then be able to extend this simple sequence to make it more realistic!
The LED Strip module has 7 individual lights which are numbered from zero to six. The colour of each light is as
follows:

36 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

Colour
Index

Red
6

Red
5

Amber
4

Amber
3

Amber
2

Green
1

Green
0

Figure 27: The LED Strip module

An array is a special type of variable that can be used to store a sequence of values, similar to a list. Each
member of the sequence is also known as an array element and is identified by its position in the list, known as
the index. The first element is at position 0 as the array index always starts at 0, not 1.
The LED Strip has an array which corresponds to the seven LED lights on the module. The hardware module also
has a number from 0 to 6 printed under each LED so you can easily identify the correct LED (see Figure 27).
Setting one of the array elements to either True (on) or False (off) will turn the appropriated LED either on or
off. For example if you wanted to turn the green (first) LED in the strip on, look to see which number is printed
underneath. In this case it is 0, so you must set the value of the array at position 0 to True (on) as shown below:
led_Strip(0) = True

The first step in our program is to display red which means setting light 5 and light 6 to True so try the code
shown below inside the ProgramStarted() procedure.
Partial Public Class Program
Public Sub ProgramStarted()
Debug.Print("Program Started")
led_Strip(5) = True
led_Strip(6) = True

Add the highlighted

code and write your
own comments above.

End Sub

Enter the code above and test that the red lights come on!
The next step is to have a sequence of lights and for this you will need to set up a timer. In the Gadgeteer
template, underneath the ProgramStarted() procedure, there are some comments containing instructions on how
to set up a timer, and an example which you can copy and use is given.
' If you want to do something periodically, declare a GT.Timer by uncommenting the below line
'
and then use the dropdown boxes at the top of this window to generate a Tick event handler.
' Dim WithEvents timer As GT.Timer = new GT.Timer(1000) ' every second (1000ms)
End Class

Remove the comment

from this line of code.

This line of code sets up a Gadgeteer timer which will cause an event-handler to execute every 1000
milliseconds, which is once every second. Change the interval to 3000 so that the timer event is called every three
seconds this will help us run the traffic lights program at an appropriate speed.
Dim WithEvents timer As GT.Timer = New GT.Timer(3000)

' every three seconds

The next step is to write the code that needs to be executed every three seconds, which is every time the timer
tick event is raised.

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

37

Select the timer from the pull down menu as shown in Figure 28 and then select the Tick event from the top of
the program window. This will generate a timer_Tick procedure ready to program with your code.

First, select timer in the

pull-down menu.

Next, select Tick.

The Tick procedure
will be created.

Figure 28: Creating a timer tick sub-routine

For this example we are going to run a traffic light sequence of 9 seconds in total, spending 3 seconds on red, 3
seconds on amber and 3 seconds on green. The exercises below will extend this simple example.
You will need a counter variable so declare this at the top of the program:
Dim count As Integer

Since the counter should be set to 0 at the beginning of the code add = 0 to the variable declaration:
Dim count As Integer = 0

Every time the timer Tick procedure is called the counter should be incremented, so inside the Tick procedure
add one to the counter as follows:
Private Sub timer_Tick(timer As Gadgeteer.Timer) Handles timer.Tick
count = count + 1
End Sub

Then the lights need to be set according to the value of the counter, as shown in the following table. The counter
starts at 0 but the first instruction in the timer event handler adds one to it, so the first value of the counter that
the timer will see is 1.
Table 4: Traffic light sequence
Value of
count
1
2
3

Light wanted

What else?

Red
Amber
Green

Set counter back to 0

The following algorithm is used. An algorithm is a sequence of instructions that define the logic used within a
program.
If counter is equal to 1 then
change colour to red
Else if counter is equal to 2 then
change colour to amber
Else if counter is equal to 3 then
change colour to green and set counter back to 0

38 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

This algorithm includes an If Else statement. This allows you to control the flow of your program depending
on the value of a variable.
To program the traffic lights in Visual Basic using an If statement use the following code inside the Timer_Tick
procedure:
Private Sub timer_Tick(timer As Gadgeteer.Timer) Handles timer.Tick
count = count + 1
If count = 1 Then
led_Strip(5) = True
led_Strip(6) = True
ElseIf count = 2 Then
led_Strip(2) = True
led_Strip(3) = True
led_Strip(4) = True
ElseIf count = 3 Then
led_Strip(0) = True
led_Strip(1) = True
count = 0
End If
End Sub

Nothing will happen until the timer is started. So to get this to work, add the line to start the timer in
ProgramStarted():
Public Sub ProgramStarted()
Debug.Print("Program Started")
led_Strip(5) = True
led_Strip(6) = True
timer.Start()
End Sub

Now test your program. What happens? The sequence is not quite as expected because none of the lights are
ever switched off. To fix this problem insert the line led_Strip.TurnAllLedsOff() after adding one to the
count, as shown in the yellow highlighted line below.
Private Sub timer_Tick(timer As Gadgeteer.Timer) Handles timer.Tick
count = count + 1
led_Strip.TurnAllLedsOff()

Test your program again and it should work as expected!

Another way of writing the same program would be to use the Select Case statement. This looks slightly
neater than lots of ElseIf statements. To see the difference, edit your code as shown below, changing the If
statement lines to the lines highlighted in yellow.
Select Case count
Case 1
led_Strip(5)
led_Strip(6)
Case 2
led_Strip(2)
led_Strip(3)
led_Strip(4)
Case 3
led_Strip(0)
led_Strip(1)
count = 0
End Select

= True
= True
= True
= True
= True
= True
= True

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

39

Now work through the exercises below to extend the traffic lights.

E XERCISES

Figure 29: UK traffic light sequence

1.
2.

3.

4.

Change the traffic lights so that they go in the correct sequence for the UK. They should start at red,
then go to red and amber together, then green, followed by just amber and finally back to red again.
Program the button so that it represents a pedestrian pressing a button at the pedestrian crossing. This
should stop the lights at red after a small delay. When the pedestrian has crossed, the regular
sequence resumes.
Using two kits, make a more complex system with two sets of traffic lights, and program them so that
one is on red whilst the other one is on green. You may need to research some real traffic lights to see
when amber is used. This is a safety critical exercise!
Extend the previous exercise to use the pedestrian button to override both sets of lights and set them to
red.

S UMMARY
In this chapter, you have learned to:

use an If Statement in Visual Basic, with ElseIf for different conditions;

use a Select Case statement;
create and use a timer to control your program.

40 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

CHAPTER 7.

COUNTING IN BINARY

K EY TERMS

M ODULES YOU WILL NEED

For loop

Cerberus mainboard
USBClientSP power module
LED Strip

Binary number system

Bits and bytes

O VERVIEW
In this chapter you will create a binary counter which lights up a number of lights on the Led_Strip corresponding
to binary numbers. In the process you will learn about binary numbers and how to use a For loop to repeat a
process a number of times.

N EW CONCEPTS : B INARY NUMBERS

The number system people usually use for counting is called denary or base ten. There are ten symbols to
represent numbers (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9) and when those are not enough, we use more of these ten
symbols in different positions to represent bigger numbers. Each time we use an extra symbol we are adding
another digit to the number.
It is also useful to understand binary which is a different way of counting that computers use. Binary is sometimes
known as base two. In the binary number system there are only two symbols to represent numbers (0 and 1) and
when these are not enough we use more of the same symbols in different positions to make bigger numbers. Each
symbol that makes up a binary number is called a bit, which is an abbreviation of binary digit.
The positions at which the symbols appear in a number are called place values. In the denary number system the
place values are all powers of 10. The right-hand symbol (or digit) represents a place value of 1, next to that
the place value is 10, then 100, 1000, etc. So as an example, the denary number 357 is 3 X 100s, added to 5 X
10s, added to 7 X 1s. This is shown in the Table 5 below.
Table 5: The number 357 in denary (base 10) is calculated as (3x100) plus (5x10) plus (7x1)
100
3

10
5

1
7

In binary, the place values are powers of 2, starting with 1 at the right-hand side. The next position represents a
place value of 2, then 4, 8, 16 and so on. You might have noticed that rather than multiplying by 10 to calculate
the place value of the next position (like we do in denary), with binary we have to multiply by 2. So the binary
number 1010 is 1X 8s added to 0 X 4s added to 1 X 2s added to 0 X 1s, see Table 6. This gives an equivalent
denary value of 10.
Table 6: The number 1010 in binary (base 2) is calculated as (1x8) plus (1x2)
8
1

4
0

2
1

1
0

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

41

To convert a binary number to denary, write the bits of the binary number under the appropriate place values.
For example, the 8 bit number 10010100 would correspond to the binary place values as shown in Figure 30.
When converted to denary this binary number equates to 148.
128

64

32

16

128

16

148

Figure 30: Binary place values

Computers often need to use 8 bit numbers because of the way that computer processors are designed. An 8 bit
number can have 256 different values, ranging from 0 to 255. An 8 bit number is often called a byte.
To convert a denary number to its binary equivalent, follow these steps:

Write down the column headings for the binary number (where you start will depend on how big
your number is:
64
32
16
8
4
2
1
Process each column from left to right.
If the denary number to be translated is greater than or equal to the column heading, place a 1 in
the column and subtract the value of the column from the denary value.
If the denary value is smaller than the column heading, place a 0 in the column.

In this program you will write a program which will follow these steps and convert a denary number to a binary
number. Firstly, you will also be able to display a binary number as a series of lights on the LED Strip.

N EW CONCEPTS : T HE F OR LOOP IN V ISUAL B ASIC

An important part of learning to program is learning how to repeat statements. To do this we can use a
programming concept called a loop. There are two types of loop that all programming languages use a loop
that repeats a certain number of times (a For loop) and a loop that repeats until something happens that tells it
to stop (a While loop).
In this program we will use the first kind of loop which is called a For loop. In Visual Basic the syntax of a simple
For loop is as follows:
For <stepperVariable> = 1 to <number of times to loop>
<statements>
Next

Using For uses a counter to iterate through each index in the array.
Here are some Visual Basic examples using Debug.Print() to write to the Output window (see Appendix CE).
For count As Integer = 1 To 8
Debug.Print("Hello World!")
Next

This example would write Hello World! 8 times. Here is another example showing what is happening to the
stepper variable, in this case count.
For count As Integer = 1 To 8
Debug.Print(count)
Next

42 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

This will produce the numbers 1 to 8, printed out in the Output window (see Appendix C) as shown in Figure 31.
It is important to understand that the stepper variable automatically takes on the value of the next number in the
sequence from 1 to 8. Note that the counter is automatically incremented every time it goes around the loop.

Figure 31: Output window showing debug messages

In this chapter we want to display a new binary number each time we loop.

T UTORIAL : C OUNTING IN B INARY

In this example you will build a counter that outputs numbers in binary using the LED Strip module. When you
have created the program, you will be able to press the button to show the next binary number as a series of
lights. For example, 0 will be no lights showing and 127 will be all the lights lit up. The number 13 in binary is
shown in Figure 32.

Figure 32: Binary number using the coloured lights on the LED strip (number 13 as LEDs 0, 2 and 3 are on)
For this program you will need a mainboard, power, button (input) and LED Strip (output).

Step 1: Assemble these modules

Cererbus Mainboard

USBClientSP power
module

Button module

LED Strip

Figure 33: Modules needed for Counting in binary project

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

43

Step 2: Use the Gadgeteer designer to link the modules together

Assemble the modules in the Gadgeteer Designer as shown in Figure 34.

Figure 34: Modules in the Designer for the Counting in binary project

Step 3: Write your program

To work out how to write this program we need an algorithm. An algorithm is a sequence of steps for solving a
particular problem. Always think carefully about your algorithm before you start to code.
The algorithm for this process can be shown in the flowchart in Figure 35.
To write the program, start by declaring the variables you will need as shown in Table 7.
Table 7: The variables needed for the binary counter
whole

Variable

Data type
Integer

remainder

Integer

What is this for?

The result of dividing the number by another,
as a whole number.
The remainder when one number is divided
by another and stored as an integer.

44 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

Start

Number goes
into 64 at
least once

Yes

Turn light 6
on

Calculate remainder after dividing

by 64 and store in remainder

Remainder
goes into 32
at least once

Turn light 5
on

Continue in the same way dividing by

16 then 8 then 4 then 2 then 1,
lighting up a light each time if
appropriate

Calculate remainder after dividing

by 32 and store in remainder

End
Figure 35: Flowchart for binary number counting
You will be using the LED Strip so here is a reminder of the procedures that can be used with this module:
TurnAllLedsOff()
led_Strip(X) = True
led_Strip(Y) = False

' turns all the lights off

' turns light in position X on
' turns light in position Y off

To write the program the first step is to create an event handling procedure that is called when the button is
pressed. To find the event handler which corresponds to pressing the button, go to the top of the screen under the
toolbar in Visual Studio and select button in the grey pull-down box marked General. This selects all the events
associated with the button module. Then select ButtonPressed in the grey area to the right which is labelled
Declarations.

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

45

Private Sub button_ButtonPressed(sender As Button, buttonState As Button.ButtonState)

Handles button.ButtonPressed
End Sub

Within this procedure, declare the variables given above, as highlighted below in yellow:
Private Sub button_ButtonPressed(sender As Button, buttonState As Button.ButtonState)
Handles button.ButtonPressed
Dim whole As Integer
Dim remainder As Integer
End Sub

You are going to use a loop to slowly cycle through each number from 1 to 127. However before writing the
code for the loop you should use the algorithm to code how just one number will be converted into binary and
displayed.
We will use the following lights for each binary position as shown in Table 8. In the table, the number is 0 and all
the lights would be off.
Table 8: Binary numbers shown on the LED Strip
Place value

64

32

16

Binary

LED Strip
index

False

False

False

False

False

False

False

LED Strip
index value

If the denary number is 21, the lights which will be on will be as shown in Table 9: The number 21 shown on the
LED Strip.
Table 9: The number 21 shown on the LED Strip
Place value

64

32

16

Binary

LED Strip
index

False

False

True

False

True

False

True

LED Strip
index value

The Visual Basic code to convert a single number to binary and display the appropriate lights is as follows,
assuming that the variable you are working with is called number. This follows the logic in the flowchart in Figure
35 above.
Enter the following code inside the buttonPressed() event handler, after declaration of the two variables.
led_Strip.TurnAllLedsOff()
' display number
remainder = number
' store value of number in for loop

46 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

' integer division tells you if 64 goes into the number (remainder)
whole = remainder \ 64
If whole = 1 Then
' light up the appropriate light
led_Strip(6) = True
' work out the remainder after the 64 is accounted for
' if whole is 0 we don't need to reassign remainder
remainder = remainder Mod 64 ' the remainder
End If
whole = remainder \ 32
If whole = 1 Then
' light up the appropriate light
led_Strip(5) = True
' work out the remainder after the 64 is accounted for
' if whole is 0 we don't need to reassign remainder
remainder = remainder Mod 32 ' the remainder
End If
whole = remainder \ 16
If whole = 1 Then
' light up the appropriate light
led_Strip(4) = True
' work out the remainder after the 64 is accounted for
' if whole is 0 we don't need to reassign remainder
remainder = remainder Mod 16 ' the remainder
End If
whole = remainder \ 8
If whole = 1 Then
' light up the appropriate light
led_Strip(3) = True
' work out the remainder after the 64 is accounted for
' if whole is 0 we don't need to reassign remainder
remainder = remainder Mod 8 ' the remainder
End If
whole = remainder \ 4
If whole = 1 Then
' light up the appropriate light
led_Strip(2) = True
' work out the remainder after the 64 is accounted for
' if whole is 0 we don't need to reassign remainder
remainder = remainder Mod 4 ' the remainder
End If
whole = remainder \ 2
If whole = 1 Then
' light up the appropriate light
led_Strip(1) = True
' work out the remainder after the 64 is accounted for
' if whole is 0 we don't need to reassign remainder
remainder = remainder Mod 2 ' the remainder
End If
whole = remainder \ 1
If whole = 1 Then
' light up the appropriate light
led_Strip(0) = True
' work out the remainder after the 64 is accounted for
' if whole is 0 we don't need to reassign remainder
remainder = remainder Mod 1 ' the remainder
End If

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

47

The final stage is to add a loop so that this code will be executed for every number from 1 to 127. Use the For
loop as described earlier on in this chapter.

For number As Integer = 1 To 127

led_Strip.TurnAllLedsOff()
' display number
remainder = number
...REST OF CODE ENDING IN THE FINAL END IF...

Dont forget to add Next at the end

of the For loop which sends it round
the loop again.

Next

Run your code and see what happens. Does it work correctly? The problem is that the numbers increment too
quickly, so we need some code to make the program wait one second (or half a second) between each number.
Try adding this line just before the Next part of the For loop.
For number As Integer = 1 To 127
led_Strip.TurnAllLedsOff()
' display number
...REST OF CODE ENDING IN THE FINAL END IF...

remainder = number
Thread.sleep(500) ' wait for half a second
Next

Now test your program again. It should work as expected, lighting up the lights corresponding to all the numbers
in the array.

E XERCISES
1.

2.
3.

Edit your program so that it shows the number in denary on the display. You will need to add and
attach the display in the Designer. Remember to save you project once you have added items to the
Designer"
Edit your program so that it uses a timer rather than a For loop. What are the advantages?
Make a binary convertor. Use a timer to count on the screen from 1 to 127 slowly. Then when the user
clicks a button, stop the timer and convert the number to binary (show this in lights on the LED Strip and
on the screen.

S UMMARY
In this chapter, you have learned to:

convert binary to denary and vice versa;

use a For loop to repeat some code a set number of times;
use an algorithm represented as a flowchart to develop a program in Visual Basic;
set different light combinations on the LED Strip.

48 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

CHAPTER 8.

BURGLAR ALARM

K EY TERMS

M ODULES YOU WILL NEED

Illuminance
Write to file
Storage device
Caching
Data types: Boolean and Double

Cerberus mainboard
USBClientSP power module
Tunes module
Light sensor

O VERVIEW
In this chapter, you will build a burglar alarm that uses the light sensor module in Visual Basic to detect when light
levels change and give an alarm using the Tunes module.
The tutorial will demonstrate how to make a simple burglar alarm which sounds when light comes into the area
where the precious items are stored, and then a more complex one which plays two sounds over and over using a
while loop to control what happens.

T UTORIAL 1: C REATING A BURGLAR ALARM

Step 1: Assemble these modules
Firstly, assemble these modules, connecting them using the letters on the modules to help you.

Cerberus mainboard

USBClientSP power module

Light Sensor

Tunes module

Figure 36: Modules needed for Burglar alarm

Step 2: Use the Gadgeteer designer to link the modules together

Use the Gadgeteer Designer to put together the modules as shown in Figure 37.

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

49

Figure 37: Modules in the Designer for the Burglar alarm project

Step 3: Write your program

The light sensor within your .NET Gadgeteer kit provides a procedure to return the amount of light recorded in a
measurement known as Lux. This procedure (or Sub) is called GetIlluminance(). Lux values vary from household
lighting at around 50 or 60 lux to a bright summers day which can be 10,000 lux. You will be able to
experiment with lux values once you have built your burglar alarm. See 0 for a list of lux values.
When the program runs, a timer will be used to detect a light reading every few seconds. If the light reading is
greater than 50 lux it could be assumed that the sensor has detected indoor lighting. If you hide your Gadgeteer
burglar alarm in a dark place with all your valuables, the presence of light would indicate that the dark place
had been disturbed.
To start writing the code, add a timer by uncommenting the timer line.
Dim WithEvents timer As GT.Timer = New GT.Timer(1000)

' every second (1000ms)

Then use the pull-down menus to create the Timer Tick event handler as shown in the previous chapter, Figure 28.
Private Sub timer_Tick(timer As Gadgeteer.Timer) Handles timer.Tick
End Sub

The simplest burglar alarm will use the following algorithm:

Every few seconds:
Take a light level reading
If the reading from the light sensor is greater than 50 then
Play a sound at frequency 800 Hertz
Write the code inside the timerTick() procedure as follows:
Private Sub timer_Tick(timer As Gadgeteer.Timer) Handles timer.Tick
Dim amountLight As Double
amountLight = lightSensor.GetIlluminance()
If amountLight > 50 Then
tunes.Play(800)
End If
End Sub

50 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

Dont forget to start the timer! To do this put the following code into the ProgramStarted() procedure.
Partial Public Class Program
' This is run when the mainboard is powered up or reset.
Public Sub ProgramStarted()
Debug.Print("Program Started")
timer.Start()
End Sub

Test your code works and that the alarm goes off.
The final stage in this program is to record the fact that the burglar alarm went off by writing this information to
a file. This will use the SD card module. But before moving on to that section, try the exercises below.

E XERCISES

1.
2.

Add a button to the burglar alarm so that the button stops the alarm from going off, and resets it.
Add an LED status indicator to the burglar alarm using the LED Strip module, for example going from
green to red when an intruder is detected.

N EW CONCEPTS : S AVING TO THE SD CARD

Once you start to write more complex programs, you will probably need to store data somewhere permanently.
This means that your program can access the data again, or you might want to transfer the data to your
computer for further processing. The Fez Cerberus Tinker Kit includes an SD card module and an SD card that
allows you to do this. If you place the SD card into the slot on the SD card module and attach the module to the
correct socket on your mainboard then you can access the data on the SD card from your Gadgeteer program.
From Visual Basic you can read data that is already stored on the SD card and you can also write new data onto
the card. In this chapter we will do the latter. You will also need an SD card slot in your computer so that you can
see what data has been stored on the actual SD card.
Some of the procedures and properties associated with the SD card module are given in the Table 10 below.
Table 10: Procedures and properties associated with the SD card module
Name

Function

sdCard.IsCardInserted

sdCard.GetStorageDevice().WriteFile(<file>,<contents>)
sdCard.GetStorageDevice().ReadFile(<contents>)

sdCard.GetStorageDevice().ListFiles(<filepath>)

What it is for?

Property

Returns True or False. To test

whether an sdCard is
inserted or not

Procedure

Used to write to file

Procedure

Reads the file into an array

of bytes

Procedure

Lists the files in the folder

specified by the path

In this tutorial you will use WriteFile() and IsCardInserted.

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

51

When working with files you need to know the name of your file if you are reading from a file, or to tell Visual
Basic the name of a new file if you are writing to a file. The file will be created if it does not exist already and
overwritten if it already exists.
You also need to convert the information you want to write to the file into a list of bytes so that the writeFile()
method can write it into your file. This can be done using the following command:
System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("Hello")

This will convert the string Hello into a list of bytes using a text coding system called Unicode (that is what UTF8
means).
This all sounds very complicated but it is just a matter of being very careful typing in the specific commands
needed to work with files. The idea behind it is quite straightforward once you know how to convert the text into
bytes and then use WriteFile() to write it to your SD card.

T UTORIAL 2: K EEPING A RECORD OF AN INTRUSION

Step 1: Add the SD card Module
Firstly, add the SD card module to the existing modules you have been using.

Cerberus mainboard

USBClientSP power
module

Light sensor

Tunes module

SD card module

Figure 38: Modules needed for Burglar alarm saving to file project

Step 2: Use the Gadgeteer designer to link the modules together

Use the Gadgeteer Designer to put together the modules as shown in Figure 39, or using the sockets that you
have chosen when putting the hardware together.

52 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

Figure 39: Modules in the Designer for the Burglar alarm saving to file project

Step 3: Write your program

To save to file you will now write a separate procedure that records when an intruder is detected for the first
time. You will also need a new variable intruderAlert. This variable will be a Boolean variable which can take
only two values: True or False. The intruderAlert variable will start off with the value False and then the first time
the alarm sounds the program will change the value of the intruderAlert to True. When the intruderAlert variable
becomes True the fact that this has happened will be saved to a file.
The variable intruderAlert will be used in several procedures so can be declared globally at the top of the
program. Add it to the top of your program as shown below where the line is highlighted yellow.
Namespace GadgeteerApp1
Partial Public Class Program
Dim intruderAlert As Boolean = False
' This is run when the mainboard is powered up or reset.
Public Sub ProgramStarted()
Debug.Print("Program Started")
timer.Start()
End Sub

Now create a new procedure in your program as shown below.

Private Sub saveIntruderAlert()
End Sub

You will need to create two variables to work with files. One is just a shorthand for repeatedly writing
sdCard.GetStorageDevice() which we will call sdStorage. The other is the actual report which will be written
to file, in the form of a set of bytes. You cannot write a string of text directly to file.

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

53

So within the new procedure you have created add the two Dim statements as follows:
Private Sub saveIntruderAlert()
Dim sdStorage As GT.StorageDevice = sdCard.GetStorageDevice()
' declare the intruderReport variable and encode the string Alert!
' into bytes to save it into your text file.
Dim intruderReport As Byte() = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("Alert!")
End Sub

The next part of the new procedure is to do the following:

set the intruderAlert variable to True (because an intruder has been detected);
check that the SD card is inserted, if you do not do this you could get an error;
if it is, write the intruderReport to file;
if it is not, send a message to Debug.Print() so that you know this has happened.

To write this code, enter the lines highlighted in yellow below.

Note that writing data to external storage devices can be slow and can use additional power, so computer
systems often try to minimise how often they write data to files. They do this by keeping a note of what data
needs to be written but not actually writing anything until there is enough data to make it worthwhile. This is
called caching the data, and it is usually done automatically by the operating system so even if a program
includes commands to write data to storage, the data may not be written straight away in practice. With
Gadgeteer we can ensure that any cached data is actually written to the SD card by issuing a command to
unmount the card. This gets the card ready to be removed by a user and so the operating system makes sure that
any cached data is written onto the card.
Private Sub saveIntruderAlert()
Dim sdStorage As GT.StorageDevice = sdCard.GetStorageDevice()
' declare the intruderReport variable and encode the string Alert!
' into bytes to save it into your text file.
Dim intruderReport As Byte() = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("Alert!")
' set the boolean variable intruderAlert to True
intruderAlert = True
' save the incident to the SD card
If sdCard.IsCardInserted() Then
sdCard.MountSDCard()
' which is needed for the WriteFile command
sdStorage.WriteFile("alerts.txt", intruderReport)
sdCard.UnmountSDCard()
Else
Debug.Print("Intruder detected but cannot save this record to file!")
Debug.Print("Insert the SD card into the SD Module")
End If
End Sub

Finally, you will need to call this procedure from the timerTick() procedure when an intruder is detected. This
will be when the light sensors reading is more than 50 and an intruder has not been detected before (if
intruderAlert is still set to False).
Edit the timerTick() procedure adding the lines highlighted in yellow below.
Private Sub timer_Tick(timer As Gadgeteer.Timer) Handles timer.Tick
Dim amountLight As Double
amountLight = lightSensor.GetIlluminance()
Debug.Print(amountLight.ToString())
While amountLight > 50
If intruderAlert = False Then
' first time an intruder has been detected
saveIntruderAlert()
End If

54 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

Debug.Print("Intruder detected")
tunes.Play(800)
tunes.Play(300)
amountLight = lightSensor.GetIlluminance()
End While
tunes.Stop()
End Sub

To test that this works, run the program. When the alarm goes off, stop the program running. Take the SD card
out and put it into your computer. There should be a file on in called alerts.txt. Open this file and check that it
contains the word Alert!
Now try the exercises below.

E XERCISES (C ONTINUED )

3.
4.

Build on exercise 1 above and add a second button which will also trigger the alarm. Edit the program so
that it saves the cause of each alarm light level or button as well as the word alert.
Edit your program to keep a track of how much time has passed since the alarm went off. If the alarm goes
off for more than a certain time interval, write the police have been called! to the log file. If the alarm is
cancelled then record this to the log file, along with how long it took, for example alarm cancelled after 12
seconds.

S UMMARY
In this chapter, you have learned to:

save text to a file on the SD card;

understand what caching is and why its a useful technique;
use the SD card module as a storage device.

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

55

56 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

CHAPTER 9.

MORSE CODE

K EY TERMS

M ODULES YOU WILL NEED

Reading from file

Cerberus mainboard
USBClientSP power module
Tunes module
SD card module

Select Case

User-defined functions
Returning a value from a function
Constant values

O VERVIEW
In this program you will firstly develop a program to play a word as the dots and dashes of Morse code, using
the Tunes module. You will then be able to read in a word from a file and play this in Morse code.

N EW CONCEPTS : R EADING FROM A FILE IN V ISUAL B ASIC

In the previous program we wrote to a file using the .txt extension. We were able to open the file on the SD
card and see the contents. In this chapter we look at how to read from a text file containing words.
A file is stored on a storage device as a sequence of bytes. In these examples, the file is stored on the SD card
and the methods to write to file and read from file are accessed using sdCard.getStorageDevice(). The
previous chapter described some of the procedures and properties that can be used with an SD card module
when working with files. In this chapter you will use ReadFile() and the IsCardInserted property, see Table
11 for a reminder about these.
Table 11 : Some properties and procedures associated with the SD card module
Name
sdCard.IsCardInserted

sdCard.GetStorageDevice().ReadFile(<contents>)

Function

What it is for?

Property

Returns True or False. To test whether

an sdCard is inserted or not

Procedure

Reads the file into an array of bytes

To read from a file you need to specify the filename and this must be stored on the SD card. Once you use the
command to read in from a file, the contents will be stored as a series of bytes (a byte is binary data).
<result of reading in> = sdStorage.ReadFile(<name of file>)

The next step is to convert this into text, which is done using the following command:
<contents as text> = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetChars(<result of reading in>)

In these two lines of code, the <contents as text> is a variable defined as a string, and the <result of reading
in> is a variable defined as Byte() (an array of bytes).
In the following tutorial initially just one word will be read in from file and converted.

N EW CONCEPTS : C REATING A FUNCTION IN V ISUAL B ASIC

So far, you have been able to create your own procedure which you have called from another place in your
program. As you have seen, procedures in Visual Basic are called Sub and will be written as:

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

57

Private Sub <procedure name>()

<statements>
End Sub

Sub is short for sub-routine. You can define your Sub as Public Sub if you want it to be accessed by another
program but this is not the case with the ones we are writing here.
Sometimes you will need something to be sent back from the sub-routine and for this you would use a function
instead of a sub.
Private Function <function name>() As <data type>
<statements>
End Function

The function looks a bit more complex because it has As <data type> at the end of the first line. This is because
the function will send back (return) a value when it has finished running and Visual Basic needs to know what kind
of variable this will be, for example String, Integer or Boolean.
At the end of the function the value is actually returned and this is done by writing the line:
<function name> = <whatever you want to return>

In this case, we will define a function called ReadFromFile() which will return a string. The function declaration
will be as follows:
Private Function ReadFromFile() As String
End Function

At the end of the function, the return statement will be as follows:

ReadFromFile = newWord

where newWord is a string variable that has been created and set to a particular value inside the function.

T UTORIAL : M ORSE CODE

Step 1: Assemble these modules

Cerberus mainboard

usbClientSP power
module

SD card module

Figure 40: Modules needed for Morse code project

58 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

Tunes module

Step 2: Use the Gadgeteer Designer to link the modules together

Figure 41: Modules in the Designer for the Morse code project

Step 3: Write your program

Firstly we need to be able to translate a word into Morse code. We will do this first before starting to look at
file handling. The code for translating each letter to Morse code is shown in Table 12. In addition the following
rules apply:

the length of a dot is one unit;

a dash is three units;
the space between parts of the same letter is one unit;
the space between letters is three units;
the space between words is seven units.
Table 12: Morse code conversion
Character
A
C
E
G
I
K
M
O
Q
S
U
W
Y

Code

.-.-.
.
--.
..
-.-----....
...--.--

Character
B
D
F
H
J
L
N
P
R
T
V
X
Z

Code

-...
-..
..-.
....
.--.-..
-.
.--.
.-.
...-..--..

We want to output each letter as a sequence of dots and dashes followed by a rest. The rest will be 900
milliseconds long. Each dot will be 300 ms and each dash will be 900 ms. Also we will need a 300 ms between

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

59

each sound so that it doesnt come out as a continuous noise. As you can see in the chart above a dash should be
three times as long as a dot.
We can define these as constants to make the program easier to read. A constant is a type of variable that will
not change its value.
Public Sub ProgramStarted()
Const dot = 300
' dot
Const dash = 900 ' dash is three times as long as a dot
Const rest = 900 ' rest between letters is three times as long as a dot
Const gap = 300
' gap between sounds is as long as one dot
Const frequency = 300 ' chosen frequency in Hertz

Using the table above you can see that if you want to send the word Hello by Morse code, you will need to
know the sequence of dots and dashes for the letters H, E, L and O.
For example:

H dot dot dot dot

E dot
L dot dash dot dot
L dot dash dot dot
O dash dash dash

Writing this out in Visual Basic code for H and E would give the following:
Dim melody As Tunes.Melody = New Tunes.Melody()
Debug.Print("Program Started")
Debug.Print("H")
' play H dot dot dot dot
melody.Add(frequency, dot)
melody.Add(0, gap)
melody.Add(frequency, dot)
melody.Add(0, gap)
melody.Add(frequency, dot)
melody.Add(0, gap)
melody.Add(frequency, dot)
melody.Add(0, rest)
' play E dot
Debug.Print("E")
melody.Add(frequency, dot)
melody.Add(0, gap)
melody.Add(0, rest)
tunes.Play(melody)

Finish off the code to play the word Hello in Morse Code. Then move on to the following tutorial, which shows
you how to input a word from a file in Morse Code.

T UTORIAL : R EADING A WORD FROM A F ILE AND TRANSLATING TO M ORSE CODE

Obviously the program needs to become a little more efficient and we need to code in the whole alphabet. In
Chapter 6 you learned about using Select Case and we will use this to program each letter of the alphabet.
To show how to do this we set up a variable called newWord which will hold the word that is being entered. Then
the algorithm, written in English, will be:

60 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

Create a new variable of data type Melody

Create another new variable of type String and give it the value of the word to be converted
For each letter in the word repeat the following steps:
If the letter is A
add dot dash to melody
Else if the letter is B
add dash dot dot dot to melody
... (with corresponding logic for each letter)
Add a rest to melody
Play the whole tune
Check that you understand the logic behind this algorithm before continuing. The code for the first few letters of
the alphabet is shown below. Type this in and add the remaining letters
Dim melody As Tunes.Melody = New Tunes.Melody()
Debug.Print("Program Started")
Dim newWord As String = "ABC"
For count As Integer = 0 To newWord.Length() - 1
Debug.Print(newWord(count))
Select Case newWord(count)
Case "A" ' dot dash
melody.Add(frequency, dot)
melody.Add(0, gap)
melody.Add(frequency, dash)
melody.Add(0, gap)
Case "B" ' dash dot dot dot
melody.Add(frequency, dash)
melody.Add(0, gap)
melody.Add(frequency, dot)
melody.Add(0, gap)
melody.Add(frequency, dot)
melody.Add(0, gap)
melody.Add(frequency, dot)
melody.Add(0, gap)
Case "C" ' dash dot dash
melody.Add(frequency,
melody.Add(0, gap)
melody.Add(frequency,
melody.Add(0, gap)
melody.Add(frequency,
melody.Add(0, gap)
melody.Add(frequency,
melody.Add(0, gap)

dot
dash)
dot)
dash)
dot)

End Select
melody.Add(0, rest)
Next
tunes.Play(melody)

Now test the program works with your name. Insert your name into the code instead of ABC in your program
and check that the output is what you would expect.
Testing is very important when creating software of any kind. It is important to have a range of tests that cover
all the possible inputs known as test data. Normally, we would draw up a test plan that covers all the various
tests to the system and what we might expect. An example of a test plan is given in Table 13. Once you have
Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

61

carried out the tests you go back to your program and make changes to the code where tests do not work as
planned, and then run your tests again.
Table 13: Example of a test plan
Test data for Morse Code program
SALLY

Why chosen?
Typical data

Expected outcome
Outputs morse code
for Sally

Actual outcome
Works as expected

... .- .-.. .-.. -.-Tom

Lower case letters

Outputs morse code

for TOM

Only outputs T

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

Test all letters

.- -.-. . --. ..
-.- -- --- --.... ..- .--

Produces correct
sounds as expected

etc.
99

Numbers

Wont output
anything

Works as expected

Once you have got this working correctly, the next step is to create a text file in Notepad and write a word in
that file, then read the file into your program and then play it in Morse code.
Firstly, create a file in any text editor such as Notepad and write one word in it. Save your text file as word.txt
and make sure it is saved on to your SD card. Then put the SD card into the SD card Module.
The next step is to write the code to read from the file. To do this you should create a separate function which
has the job of reading from the file and passing back the word to the ProgramStarted procedure. We will call
this function ReadFromFile().
Private Function ReadFromFile() As String
End Function

We can build up this function a little at a time. First declare the variables you need by entering the highlighted
lines below. sdStorage is being used as a shorthand for sdCard.GetStorageDevice() to save typing.
dataFromFile is the variable to hold the contents of the file which will be returned as a series of Bytes (binary
data), and newWord is a string variable that will be used to hold the converted bytes once they have been
converted into a string.
Private Function ReadFromFile() As String
Dim sdStorage As GT.StorageDevice = sdCard.GetStorageDevice()
Dim dataFromFile As Byte()
Dim newWord As String
End Function

Next you need to check if the SD card is correctly inserted to make sure there are not any runtime errors. This is
the same code we used in the previous chapter. An If statement is used as sdCard.IsCardInserted will return
a True or False value.
Private Function ReadFromFile() As String
Dim sdStorage As GT.StorageDevice = sdCard.GetStorageDevice()
Dim dataFromFile As Byte()
Dim newWord As String
If sdCard.IsCardInserted Then
' we are OK to proceed
Else
' we cannot proceed without an SD card inserted

62 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

Debug.Print("There is a problem with your SD card")

Debug.Print("Make sure it is inserted correctly into the SD card module")
End If
End Function

The next step is to read in the file and then convert it from a list of bytes into an actual string. These are the two
lines of code that were described above in the section on reading from file. The first line looks in the file
word.txt, reads from the file and puts the contents into a variable called dataFromFile. The second line
converts dataFromFile into a string variable and puts it into the variable newWord.
Private Function ReadFromFile() As String
Dim sdStorage As GT.StorageDevice = sdCard.GetStorageDevice()
Dim dataFromFile As Byte()
Dim newWord As String
If sdCard.IsCardInserted Then
' we are OK to proceed
dataFromFile = sdStorage.ReadFile("word.txt")
newWord = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetChars(dataFromFile)
Else
' we cannot proceed without an SD card inserted
Debug.Print("There is a problem with your SD card")
Debug.Print("Make sure it is inserted correctly into the SD card module")
End If
End Function

The final step is to return the word from the file out of the function back to the procedure that called it.
Private Function ReadFromFile() As String
Dim sdStorage As GT.StorageDevice = sdCard.GetStorageDevice()
Dim dataFromFile As Byte()
Dim newWord As String
If sdCard.IsCardInserted Then
' we are OK to proceed
dataFromFile = sdStorage.ReadFile("word.txt")
newWord = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetChars(dataFromFile)
Else
' we cannot proceed without an SD card inserted
Debug.Print("There is a problem with your SD card")
Debug.Print("Make sure it is inserted correctly into the SD card module")
End If
ReadFromFile = newWord
End Function

All functions must include a line to return the value that is sent back from the function.
The function is now complete and ready to be called from your program. In ProgramStarted() call this function
and store the returned text into a variable. For example, earlier we used the variable newWord = ABC to
store the string. Now change the line to newWord = readFromFile() and it will call the function you have just
written and store the returned string into the variable newWord.

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

63

Public Sub
Const
Const
Const
Const
Const

ProgramStarted()
dot = 300 ' dot
dash = 900 ' dash is three times as long as a dot
rest = 900 ' rest between letters is three times as long as a dot
gap = 300 ' gap between sounds is as long as one dot
frequency = 300 ' chosen frequency

Dim melody As Melody = New Melody()

Debug.Print("Program Started")
Dim newWord As String
newWord = readFromFile()

Now run your program and test that the Morse Code produced by your program does really correspond to the
word you entered. When this works correctly, try the exercises below.

E XERCISES
1.
2.
3.

4.

Extend your program by adding a display, and displaying the converted word on the display, using dots
and dashes.
Now enhance your program so that it can convert more than one word in the newWord string to morse code.
Extend your program by coding the newWord string in a different way. Rather than outputting in morse code,
first encrypt the word using a shifting algorithm and then output it on to the display in code. A shifting
algorithm takes each letter in the alphabet and shifts it along the ASCII table a certain number of times,
which we call n. In this case, shift each letter along 2 places, so that a = c, b = d, etc.
Extend the previous exercise so that you can shift up or down the ASCII table. Display both the encoded and
decoded strings on the display.

S UMMARY
In this chapter, you have learned to:

read a file in from the SD card and use it in your program;

write a user-defined function that returns a value;
use a SelectCase statement inside a For loop.

Amazing! Well done!

64 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

CHAPTER 10.

DRAWING

K EY TERMS

M ODULES YOU WILL NEED

Array
Vector graphics
Procedure
Parameter
By Val and By Ref

Cerberus mainboard
usbClientSP power module
Display N18 module
Joystick

O VERVIEW
In this chapter, you will learn about drawing on the display. There are several functions for this enabling you to
draw lines, rectangles, and ellipses. The tutorial will explain how to draw lines and rectangles on the screen. You
will also learn about how to use an array in Visual Basic. This is an efficient way to store data in your programs.

T UTORIAL 1: H OUSE DRAW

This first short tutorial will show you how to draw pictures on the screen using DisplayLine() and
DisplayRectangle(). These pictures are known as vector graphics because the coordinates, thickness, etc. of the
lines are all defined in the code and then draw as sequences of lines (or vectors) as the program runs.

Step 1: Assemble these modules

Cerberus mainboard

usbClientSP power module

Display N18 module

Figure 42: Modules needed for Drawing project

Step 2: Use the Gadgeteer Designer to link the modules together

Drag the modules on to the Designer screen as you have done previously and then link them together.
When you initially drag the modules on to the Designer screen the display module will be called display_N18.
This can be seen as text which appears under the photo of the module. You should rename the display by clicking
on the text display_N18 underneath the picture and then changing it to read display. This will make your
code easier to read and is renamed for all exercises in this book which use the display.

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

65

Figure 43: Modules in the Designer for the Drawing project

Change the name of

the display N18 to
display. This will
make your program
easier to read.

Step 3: Write your program

In this first program you will write the commands to draw a house. A house to us means a blue unfilled square on
the screen with a triangular roof. This essentially needs SimpleGraphics.displayRectangle() and
SimpleGraphics.DisplayLine() to draw these lines and shapes.
Enter the following code underneath ProgramStarted():
Public Sub ProgramStarted()
Debug.Print("Program Started")
'white background
display.SimpleGraphics.BackgroundColor = GT.Color.White
'draw house, blue outline
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayRectangle(GT.Color.Blue, 4, GT.Color.White, 30, 30, 80, 80)
' draw roof - diagonal lines, blue colour
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayLine(GT.Color.Blue, 2, 30, 30, 70, 10) ' diagonal
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayLine(GT.Color.Blue, 2, 70, 10, 110, 30) ' diagonal

When you run it you should see a blue outline which is intended to be a picture of a house! See if you can add
the code to draw a window and a door (and even a stick person) to your house. It should look something like
Figure 44.

Figure 44: Does your house look like this?

66 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

N EW CONCEPTS : A RRAYS IN V ISUAL B ASIC

So far you have been using variables to store single items of data that you needed to know later on. However,
sometimes you have lots of related variables that you need to store together and to store these we use an array.
For example, you may want to record several scores, or remember a list of names or places. An array is a
complex data structure in which several values can be stored and these can be referred to individually using an
index. An array is declared in Visual Basic using the Dim statement. Arrays can be fixed-length or dynamic. We
will be looking at fixed-length arrays only in this chapter.
The benefits of using an array can be seen in Figure 45 . When storing lots of similar data you may need to
create lots of variables and then write lots of code for each variable. Instead you could store all the values that
are related in one data structure called an array.

Different values can all be

stored together in an array.

Figure 45: The difference between variables and arrays

To declare an array, use the following syntax:
Dim scoreValues(8) As Integer

This is the same as:

Dim scoreValues(0 To 8) As Integer

We could also declare an array of strings such as:

Dim nameArray(8) As String

This would be used to hold items of text.

This will define an array with 9 items of data, all of them variables, as shown in Table 14. At this point none of
the data items in the array have any values.

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

67

Table 14: An empty array in Visual Basic

Referred to

Content

scoreValues(0)
scoreValues(1)
scoreValues(2)
scoreValues(3)
scoreValues(4)
scoreValues(5)
scoreValues(6)
scoreValues(7)
scoreValues(8)

You could then put some data into the array, for example:
scoreValues(0) = 35
scoreValues(1) = 56

The values in the array would then look like Table 15.
Table 15: Assigned values in an array
Referred to

Content

scoreValues(0)
scoreValues(1)
scoreValues(2)
scoreValues(3)
scoreValues(4)
scoreValues(5)
scoreValues(6)
scoreValues(7)
scoreValues(8)

35
56

Notice that there are in fact 9 variables declared because Visual Basic starts counting at 0 but finishes at 8.
A good way of looking at what is inside an array is using a For loop. There are two versions of the For loop
suitable for working with arrays. The first version is the one we have already used, where a counter variable is
incremented each time the code in the loop is run. This counter case be used as an index into the array which will
access each array element in turn:
For <stepperVariable> = 1 To 8
<statements>
Next

The second version of a For loop is actually called a For Each loop. This can be used to iterate through each
actual value in the array:
For Each <element> In <array>
<statements>
Next

68 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

N EW CONCEPTS : P ASSING PARAMETERS INTO PROCE DURES AND FUNCTIONS B Y V AL AND B Y R EF

In the next tutorial we will create a procedure with an input parameter that we write from scratch. Up until now,
the only procedures we have used with input parameters have been event handlers where the code was in part
automatically generated when we selected the event in Visual Studio.
When we call a procedure with input parameters we pass some data into it for it to work with. We can do this in
the two different ways shown in Table 16, ByVal and ByRef.
Table 16: The two ways of passing input parameters into a procedure, by value and by reference
ByVal

ByRef

The value is passed into the procedure but any changes to the variable will not
have an effect once the procedure has finished running.
The value is passed into the procedure as before, but if the procedure makes
any changes to that value in the variable then these changes will remain even
after the procedure has finished running. If you need to change the value of
the variable and use it again later in your code, use By Ref.

T UTORIAL 2: G RAPH DRAW

The second tutorial uses exactly the same modules as the first, but uses an array of values to draw a graph on
the screen.

Step 1: Assemble these modules

Cerberus mainboard

usbClientSP power module

Display N18 module

Figure 46: Modules needed for the Graph draw project

Step 2: Use the Gadgeteer Designer to link the modules together

Figure 47: Modules in the Designer for the Graph draw project

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

69

Step 3: Write your program

The first step is to declare a new array in Visual Basic. This will be an array of scores gained by somebody
playing a game. For the sake of this example you will decide what the scores are and write them into your
program.
Table 17: The array values you should use in this tutorial
Referred to

Value

scoreValues(0)
scoreValues(1)
scoreValues(2)
scoreValues(3)
scoreValues(4)
scoreValues(5)
scoreValues(6)
scoreValues(7)

4
8
1
3
6
11
5
9

This is declared in Visual Basic using the following code:

Namespace GraphDraw
Partial Public Class Program
Const maxScore = 15
' This is run when the mainboard is powered up or reset.
Public Sub ProgramStarted()
' Array of 8 values generated
Dim scoreValues() As Integer = {4, 8, 1, 3, 6, 11, 5, 9}
' Use Debug.Print to show messages in Visual Studio's
' "Output" window during debugging.
Debug.Print("Program Started")

In this example we are going to assume that the maximum score is 15 and we can declare that as a constant.
You then need to create a procedure to draw the array which is going to be called displayValues and take
the array as a parameter.
We will add the following line to ProgramStarted() to call the new procedure:
Namespace GraphDraw
Partial Public Class Program
Const maxScore = 15
' This is run when the mainboard is powered up or reset.
Public Sub ProgramStarted()
Dim scoreValues() As Integer = {4, 8, 1, 3, 6, 11, 5, 9}
' Use Debug.Print to show messages in Visual Studio's
' "Output" window during debugging.
Debug.Print("Program Started")
displayValues(scoreValues)
End Sub

We will then add the actual procedure using the code below which should be after the end of the
ProgramStarted() procedure. Note that the End Sub instruction is automatically created for you.
Private Sub displayValues(ByVal numberArray() As Integer)

Use ByVal as the array values will not be changed by this procedure.
End Sub

70 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

The advantage of doing this is that we can use this procedure again and again every time we want to draw a
graph like this. We want to make our displayValues() procedure as general as possible so that it will work for
any numbers, and any width and height of display.
In this code you are stating that you will have an array of integers to be known as numberArray() passed into
the program. It does not need to be called this when you call it from ProgramStarted(). When it is passed in, it
takes on the name numberArray().
As described above, you can use ByVal or ByRef when you declare a parameter in your own procedure. Here
we do not want to change the array of numbers, just use them to draw a graph. So we can use By Val.

Figure 48: DisplayRectangle parameters

The next step is to declare the values we will need to draw the graph. Looking at what the SimpleGraphics
method called displayRectangle() (see Figure 48) takes as its parameters gives us a clue as to what variables
we need, and these are given values in Table 18.
Table 18: Setting parameter values of DisplayRectangle
DisplayRectangle parameter
outlineColor
thicknessOutline
fillColor

Comment

Variable name

Set this to GT.Color.White

Set this to 1
Set this to GT.Color.White

Declare a variable for this as it will be different

for each rectangle (i.e. each bar of the chart)

startX

As above but this will be 0

startY

width

As above

columnWidth

height

As above

columnHeight

We can declare the new variables we need using the code below:
Private Sub displayValues(ByVal numberArray() As Integer)
' number of numbers is the length of the array
Dim arrayLength As Integer = numberArray.Length()
' width of each bar is the column width - divide display width by array length
Dim columnWidth As Integer = CInt(display.Width / arrayLength)
' height of each column will depend on the number in the array
Dim columnHeight As Integer
' the starting x coordinate for the rectangle (top left)
Dim startX As Integer
' the starting y coordinate for the rectangle (top left)
Dim startY As Integer
End Sub

To draw one bar on the display we will need to follow these steps:
1) calculate the height of the bar;
2) calculate the starting x coordinate.

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

71

The code to do this is as follows:

columnHeight = CInt(display.Height / maxScore * numberArray(count))

startX = columnWidth * count

CInt converts a fractional number into an Integer.

Notice that to work out the height of the column we have divided the height of the display by the maximum score
to see what high a score of 1 would be then multiplied it by the actual score value. Doing calculations like this is
one of the reasons you need to be comfortable with numbers when you learn programming!
Because we are dividing we could easily end up with a fractional number as the result (e.g. 4.67) and we need
an integer to be stored in the columnHeight variable. We have used the function CInt() which is a very useful
function and converts the answer from our calculation into an Integer before storing it in the variable
columnHeight.
The next step is to create a loop to draw as many columns as we need. You should use a For loop here rather
than a While loop because we can find out how many columns we need by looking at the length of the array.
The code we end up with is highlighted in yellow below. When you enter the For line the corresponding Next
instruction is automatically added for you.

Private Sub displayValues(ByVal numberArray() As Integer)

' number of numbers is the length of the array
Dim arrayLength As Integer = numberArray.Length()
' width of each bar is the column width - divide display width by array length
Dim columnWidth As Integer = CInt(display.Width / arrayLength)
' height of each column will depend on the number in the array
Dim columnHeight As Integer
' the starting x coordinate for the rectangle (top left)
Dim startX As Integer
' the starting x coordinate for the rectangle (top left)
Dim startY As Integer
For count As Integer = 0 To arrayLength - 1
columnHeight = CInt(display.Height / maxScore * numberArray(count))
startX = columnWidth * count
startY = 0
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayRectangle(GT.Color.White, 1, GT.Color.White, startX,
startY, columnWidth, columnHeight)
Next
End Sub

Type in the code above. When you run your program you should have a graph of 8 columns on the display.
Make sure that you understand how it works before going on to try out the exercises below.

E XERCISES
1.
2.
3.

4.

Our current graph is actually upside down! It starts from y coordinate 0 which is at the top of the display.
Edit the program so that the bars on your graph go up from the bottom of the display.
Edit the previous program to add the number values inside the bars on the graph.
Create a graph of light values. Attach a light sensor and adapt your program to take a light reading every
5 seconds (or whatever time interval you prefer). Store these readings in an array and display them in a
graph.
Random shape drawer create modern art! Use the random functionality in Visual Basic to create an array
of 10 integers filled with random values. These will represent the radius of 10 circles. Create another array
of circle x coordinate and another one of circle y coordinates. Run the program to see a variety of circles

72 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

drawn on the display. Your image should be different each time. To find out how to create a random number
look ahead to the next chapter on page 75.

S UMMARY
In this chapter, you have learned to:

declare an array with pre-defined values;

use a For loop to iterate (cycle through) an array;
pass a parameter into a function;
use SimpleGraphics functions to draw lines and shapes on the display.

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74 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

CHAPTER 11.

REACTION GAME

K EY TERMS

M ODULES YOU WILL NEED

Random values
Using two timers
Using a function to return a Boolean value
Logical operators: AND, OR and NOT

Cerberus mainboard
usbClientSP power module
Display N18 module
Joystick

O VERVIEW
In this chapter you will create a game using the joystick and the display. In the game you need to move the
joystick in the direction of a shape that appears on the screen. If you do this quickly you get a point, if you are
too slow you are out! In developing this game you will work with two timers: one to repeatedly read the joystick
position at very short intervals; the other one to time out if the user is too slow or to provide the next shape. You
will also learn to work with random values, as we do not want the player to know where the next shape will
appear. The next section explains how to do all this in Visual Basic.

N EW CONCEPTS : W ORKING WITH RANDOM VALUES

Sometimes programs need a value that is chosen randomly. All programing languages have a function which
enables the creation of an integer which is different each time the program is run this is done using a random
number generator provided by the programming language. In your program you can specify the bounds of your
random number this means the range of possible values which you want it to have.
Producing a random number in Visual Basic requires four different lines of code:
1.

At the top of the program, you will need to add an Import statement to tell the program to import the
library with the random functions in.

Imports System.Random

2.

Secondly, again towards the top of your program (before ProgramStarted()), declare a variable
random as below which will allow you to create random numbers.

Dim random As New Random

3.

Thirdly, you will need to also declare a variable to hold the random value you create so that you can
use it in your program. I have called it randValue in this example, but you could use any sensible name.

Dim randValue As Integer

4.

Finally, in order to create a random number you use the function next() as in the example below (this
will create a random number between 0 and 3).

randValue = random.Next(4)

Sometimes you want to generate random number between 1 and something (e.g. 1 to 6 to generate a random
dice throw). In this case you need to generate a number between 0 and 5 and then add 1 to it:
randValue = random.Next(6) + 1

Many games involve some sort of random element so this is a good function to be able to incorporate into your
programs.

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75

N EW CONCEPTS : L OGICAL OPERATORS

So far we have used a number of arithmetic operators, for example, + (plus) and (minus) and used operators
to compare numbers such as > (greater than) and = (equals). A full list of operators is given in Error! Reference
source not found..
We use conditions a lot in programming to determine whether or not something should happen, and this is
programmed using an if statement. When using a condition it must always be evaluated as TRUE or FALSE. For
example, It is raining is always going to be either TRUE or FALSE. We might instead want to ask if a counter is
greater than 10 again this will either be TRUE or FALSE. Conditions are also used in some kinds of loops.
On many occasions, conditions are more complex. For example, we might want to ask if it is NOT raining. We
might want to combine conditions to ask, for example, whether It is raining and today is Sunday are both
true. We then need to use the logical operators AND, OR and NOT. These are described in Table 19. In the
program in this chapter you will use the NOT operator when testing to see if somebody has scored (or not
scored!) in the game.
Table 19: Logical operators in Visual Basic
Operator
NOT
AND

Visual Basic example using if

If Not timer.IsRunning then
If counter > 5 And username = Bob

OR

If counter > 5 Or username = Bob

Meaning
The condition is TRUE If the timer is not running
The condition is true if the counter is greater than 5
and also the user is called Bob
The condition is TRUE if either the counter is greater
than 5 or the user is called Bob or if both are the
case.

More information on logical operators can be found in Error! Reference source not found..

T UTORIAL : B UILDING THE R EACTION TIMER GAME

Step 1: Assemble these modules
Firstly, assemble these modules, connecting them using the letters on the modules to help you.

Cerberus mainboard

usbClientSP power
module

Display N18 module

Joystick

Figure 49: Modules needed for Reaction game project

Step 2: Use the Gadgeteer Designer to link the modules together

Now use the Gadgeteer Designer to link the modules together ensuring that your version matches the sockets
you have used when linking the hardware together.
When you initially drag the modules on to the Designer screen the display module will be called display_N18.
This can be seen as text which appears under the photo of the module. You should rename the display by clicking
76 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

on the text display_N18 underneath the picture and then changing it to read display. This will make your
code easier to read and is renamed for all exercises in this book.

Change the name of the display N18 to display. This will make
your program easier to read.
Figure 50: Modules in the Designer for the Reaction game project

Step 3: Write your program

To write your program the first stage is to understand how it will work, in terms of the sequence of events in the
game.
There will be two timers. One ticks every second i.e. every 1000 milliseconds and at each tick produces a
new shape. The second reads the joystick position very often, for example 50 times per second. 50 times per
second is once every 1/50th of a second which equals once per 2/100th or once per 20/1000th of a second.
The way the program will work is shown below. This is the underlying algorithm for this game.
Every second:
Check if the player scored by moving to the last shape
If not, say Game Over and stop the game
If they did then proceed to the following:
Choose a random value between 1 and 4
Draw the rectangle representing that number (e.g. 1 is yellow, 2 is red, etc.)
Start the fast timer (the joysticks timer)
Set correct to False
Once the fast timer (joysticks timer) is enabled it will repeatedly:
Check if the joystick has been moved towards the shape
If it has then set correct to True
Once correct has been set to True, it will add one to the score
The fast timer will then stop
If you feel confident that you can write the code for the above algorithm written in English, then go ahead and
do so. If not follow these instructions to make the game.

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77

First you will need to declare the variables that you will use throughout the game. You will need a score variable
which will be an Integer, a correct variable that will be True or False, a Random object as described above and
a Font so that you can write the score on the display. Since these variables will be accessed by the different
procedures in our program they must be declared outside of any Sub, after the Partial Public Class
Program line. Write the variable definitions as shown below:
Dim
Dim
Dim
Dim
Dim

font As Font = Resources.GetFont(Resources.FontResources.NinaB)

score As Integer = 0
correct As Boolean = True
random As New Random
randValue As Integer

The next stage is to declare the two timers:

Dim WithEvents timer As GT.Timer = New GT.Timer(1000) ' once every 1000 milliseconds
Dim WithEvents joyTimer As GT.Timer = New GT.Timer(20) ' once every 20 milliseconds

Create two procedures for the Tick() events of these two timers you will fill the code in for these two later.
Create these as you normally would using the drop-down in Visual Studio.
Private Sub timer_Tick(timer As Gadgeteer.Timer) Handles timer.Tick
End Sub
Private Sub joyTimer_Tick(timer As Gadgeteer.Timer) Handles joyTimer.Tick
End Sub

Figure 51: Four coloured rectangles act as targets in the Reaction game
Next, set up the display to look like the image in Figure 51. On the display there are four rectangles and some
text written inside a rectangle shape. On a 128 x 160 pixel display, the code needed for this would be as
below:
Public Sub ProgramStarted()
font = Resources.GetFont(Resources.FontResources.NinaB)
' Display four blocks on each side of the screen and a message in
' the middle
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayRectangle(GT.Color.Blue, 1, GT.Color.Blue, 0, 50, 20, 60)
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayRectangle(GT.Color.Red, 1, GT.Color.Red, 40, 0, 60, 20)
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayRectangle(GT.Color.Green, 1, GT.Color.Green, 40, 140, 60, 20)
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayRectangle(GT.Color.Yellow, 1, GT.Color.Yellow, 110, 50, 20, 60)
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayTextInRectangle("Ready...", 40, 50, 60, 40, GT.Color.White, font)
End Sub

Enter this code and check that it works so far.

78 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

The next stage is to write a short procedure that draws just one of these rectangles on the screen, based on a
number that is passed into the procedure as a parameter. This procedure will be used with the random number to
randomly choose which rectangle to draw on the display. It uses a Select ... Case statement.
Private Sub showRectangle(number As Integer)
Select Case number
Case 1
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayRectangle(GT.Color.Blue, 1, GT.Color.Blue, 0, 50, 20, 60)
Case 2
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayRectangle(GT.Color.Red, 1, GT.Color.Red, 40, 0, 60, 20)
Case 3
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayRectangle(GT.Color.Green, 1, GT.Color.Green, 40, 140, 60, 20)
Case 4
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayRectangle(GT.Color.Yellow, 1, GT.Color.Yellow, 110, 50, 20, 60)
End Select
End Sub

This procedure will be called every second, according to the algorithm shown above.
We need a corresponding function to check that the joystick has moved to the correct rectangle. This function will
return a Boolean value. The function will return True if the joystick movement has gone towards the correct
rectangle, which it calculates by looking at the x and y coordinates of the position of the joystick. It will return
False otherwise.
A joystick in Gadgeteer supports several events and properties, including the following:
Name

Function

GetPosition.X

Property

GetPosition.Y

Property

JoystickPressed

Event

JoystickReleased

Event

What it is for?
Returns the X coordinate of the joystick as a real number (Double
data type). It ranges between -1 and 1, returning a 0 when the
joystick is in the middle of is range of movement.
Returns the Y coordinate of the joystick as a real number (Double
data type). It ranges between -1 and 1, returning a 0 when the
joystick is in the middle of is range of movement.
You can write what you want to happen when the joystick is
pressed. In this case we want to start the game by starting the
timer.
As above, you can use this to write what you want to happen
when the joystick is released

We need this logic to detect which shape the joystick is moving towards:

If 1is chosen (blue rectangle) return correct as True if the joystick.GetPosition.X < - 0.5 (blue
is to the left of the display)
If 2 is chosen (red rectangle) return correct as True if the joystick.GetPostion.Y > 0.5 (red is to
the top of the display)
If 3 is chosen (green rectangle) return correct as True if joystick.GetPosition.Y < -0.5 (green is
to the bottom of the display.
If 4 is chosen (yellow rectangle) return correct as True if joystick.GetPosition.X > 0.5 (yellow is
at the right of the display).

For each of these it is assumed that the joystick is used with the words Joystick 1.2 at the bottom as shown in
Figure 52.

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79

Keep the words

Joystick facing
you

Figure 52: Orientation of joystick

This logic can be put into a function called detectJoystickMovement() which returns a Boolean value.
Private Function detectJoystickMovement(number As Integer) As Boolean
' function to return true or false depending on position of joystick.
Dim x As Double = joystick.GetPosition.X
Dim y As Double = joystick.GetPosition.Y
Select Case number ' random colour chosen by number
The data type
Case 1 ' blue chosen - low x value
of the return
If x < -0.5 Then
value of the
Return True
function must
Else
Return False
be included.
End If
Case 2 ' red chosen - high y value
If y > 0.5 Then
Return True
Else
Return False

number is passed
into the function as a
parameter this will
be the random
value for the current
round.

End If
Case 3 ' green chosen - low y value
If y < -0.5 Then
Return True
Else
Return False
End If
Case 4 ' yellow chosen - high x value
If x > 0.5 Then
Return True
Else
Return False
End If
End Select
Return False
End Function

The two helper sub-routines have now been written so the next stage is to write the code for the two timers which
will call these sub-routines. Looking back to the flow of control described at the beginning of this section you can
see that every second when the timer event is called the program needs to do the following:

80 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

Check if the player scored by correctly moving to the last shape

If not, say Game Over and stop the game
If the player did score then proceed to do the following:
o Display the score
o Choose a new random value between 1 and 4
o Draw the rectangle representing that number (e.g. 1 is yellow, 2 is red, etc.)
o Start the fast timer (the joysticks timer)
o Set correct to False to indicate that the new shape has not been completed yet

The code for each of these steps is given in Table 20 below, including some initialisation.
Table 20: The steps necessary for the reaction timer
Declare variable message
Stop the fast timer
Clear the display
Check if the player scored by moving to the
last shape
If not, say Game Over and stop the game

Dim message As String

joyTimer.Stop() ' stop the other timer
display.SimpleGraphics.Clear()
If Not correct Then
message = "GAME OVER!"
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayText(message, font,
GT.Color.White, 25, 40)
message = "Score " & score.ToString()
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayText(message, font,
GT.Color.White, 40, 60)
timer.Stop()

Otherwise (if they did score) then proceed to

the following

Else

Display the score

display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayText("Score " +
score.ToString(), font, GT.Color.White, 40, 60)

Choose a random value between 1 and 4

randValue = random.Next(4) + 1

Draw the rectangle representing that

number (e.g. 1 is blue, 2 is red, etc.)

showRectangle(randValue)

Set correct to False

correct = False

Start the fast timer (the joysticks timer)

joyTimer.Start()

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81

Putting this all together gives the following code:

Private Sub timer_Tick(timer As Gadgeteer.Timer) Handles timer.Tick
Dim message As String
' should be true first time and then indicate whether last block was successful
joyTimer.Stop() ' stop the other timer
display.SimpleGraphics.Clear()
If Not correct Then ' didn't get last one
Debug.Print("Timed out")
message = "GAME OVER!"
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayText(message, font, GT.Color.White, 25, 40)
message = "Score " & score.ToString()
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayText(message, font, GT.Color.White, 40, 60)
timer.Stop()
Else
' select the next random block to show
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayText("Score " + score.ToString(), font, GT.Color.White, 40, 60)
randValue = random.Next(4) + 1
showRectangle(randValue)
correct = False
joyTimer.Start()
End If
End Sub

The final step is to run the code for the fast timer. The logic behind what happens each 20 milliseconds (checking
if the joystick has moved) is as follows:

check if the joystick has been moved towards the shape;

if it has then set correct to True;
once correct has been set to True, add one to the score;
otherwise continue checking.

This can be written in Visual Basic using the code shown against each statement in the table below.
Table 21: Further steps in the Reaction game
Stop the timer (keeping sthe timer
going while checking the joystick
movement creates a backlog of
timer events)

joyTimer.Stop()

Check if the joystick has been moved

towards the shape

correct = detectJoystickMovement(randValue)

If it has then correct is set to True

(randValue is the number of the shape passed into the function)

Once correct has been set to True

If correct Then

add one to the score

score += 1

Otherwise the fast timer should start

again.

Else

(has moved joystick in right direction)

joyTimer.Start()
End If

Putting this all together gives the following code inside the joyTimer_Tick() function:
Private Sub joyTimer_Tick(timer As Gadgeteer.Timer) Handles joyTimer.Tick
joyTimer.Stop()
' keep checking to see if they have moved the joystick
correct = detectJoystickMovement(randValue)
If correct Then ' has moved joystick in right direction
score += 1
Else

82 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

joyTimer.Start()
End If
End Sub

Finally, start the timer! This can be done in programStarted() if you want the game to start straight away.
Alternatively you could use the joystickPressed() event to start the timer. The yellow highlighted line in the
code below shows you where to add the code to start the timer in programStarted().
Public Sub ProgramStarted()
font = Resources.GetFont(Resources.FontResources.NinaB)
' display four blocks on each side of the screen and a message saying click to start
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayRectangle(GT.Color.Blue, 1, GT.Color.Blue, 0, 50, 20, 60)
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayRectangle(GT.Color.Red, 1, GT.Color.Red, 40, 0, 60, 20)
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayRectangle(GT.Color.Green, 1, GT.Color.Green, 40, 140, 60, 20)
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayRectangle(GT.Color.Yellow, 1, GT.Color.Yellow, 110, 50, 20, 60)
display.SimpleGraphics.AutoRedraw = True
display.SimpleGraphics.DisplayTextInRectangle("Ready...", 40, 50, 60, 40, GT.Color.White, font)
Thread.Sleep(2000)
timer.Start()
End Sub

Test that the program works correctly! Then try out the exercises below.

E XERCISES
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Extend your program to include a button and program the button to reset the game when it is over.
Extend your program so that it speeds up when you reach a score of 10, 20, 30 etc.
Add sound effects to your game by adding a Tunes module.
Extend your game to save high scores to the SD card.
Devise a new game using random values and moving the joystick.

S UMMARY
In this chapter, you have learned to:

produce a random number using the random.Next() function;

write a function that returns a Boolean value;
use the not keyword
use two timers for different purposes.

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83

84 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

CHAPTER 12.

K EY TERMS

BUILD YOUR OWN MODULE

M ODULES YOU WILL NEED

C OMPONENTS YOU WILL

NEED

Extending Gadgeteer
Audio

Cerberus mainboard
USBClientSP power module
Button module
Extender module

Piezo sounder

O VERVIEW
This chapter shows you how to build your own module! Using an Extender module (or a Breakout module) as a
starting point you can easily connect electronic components to a Gadgeteer mainboard. Here we create a simple
buzzer module which is like the GHI Electronics Tunes module. There are many extension exercises that lead from
this project.

T UTORIAL 1: M AKE A NOISE !

Step1: Assemble these modules

Cerberus mainboard

usbClientSP power
module

Joystick

Extender module

Figure 53: Modules needed for Build your own module project

Step2: Examine your piezo sounder

In addition to Gadgeteer modules, for this project you also need an electronic component called a piezo
sounder or sometimes referred to as a piezo transducer. From the outside this looks like a round piece of
plastic, usually black or white. It has a small hole on one side (where the sound emanates from!). The other side
will either have two metal legs or two flexible wire leads. In this project it will be easier to use a piezo which has
the flexible wire leads. These components are fairly cheap perhaps 1-2 and can be found in electronics
shops and online. Be careful to use a sounder which is designed to be driven at 3-5V and at a range of
frequencies. Suitable parts are shown in Figure 54:

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

85

Maplin FM59P

Farnell 1827943

RS 498-2596

Figure 54: Some example piezo sounders which will work with this project with the supplier and order
number for each. All are available online and Maplin also have high street retail park stores in the UK.

Step 3: Use the Gadgeteer Designer to link the modules together

Figure 55: Modules in the Designer for the Build your own module project

Step 4: Connect the piezo sounder to the extender module

For this project once the Gadgeteer modules are connected to the mainboard you will also need to connect the
flying leads on your piezo sounder to two of the electrical connection points on your Extender module. One lead
needs to connect to the connection point marked GND and the other lead connects to the point marked P9. The
sounder will work whichever way around you connect the leads, but its good practice to connect the black lead
to the GND because this carries the more negative voltage. Similarly, connect the red lead to the P9 connection
point.
Your piezo sounder is probably supplied with just 3-4mm of bare wire protruding at the end of each flying lead.
This is perfect for soldering the end of each wire to the Extender module connection points, but if you dont have
access to a soldering iron you can instead simply thread each bare wire end through the appropriate hole in the
connection point, bend it around and twist it tightly. Its important that the bare wire makes good contact with the
metal of the connection point and that the two wire leads do not touch each other. You may want to start by
removing around 10-15mm of the plastic insulation on each wire because there will probably not be enough
bare wire otherwise. You can do this with wire strippers, a knife or scissors if you are careful not to cut the wire,
only the plastic insulation.

86 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

Soldering the piezo sounder to the Extender module is the most robust way of attaching it. Push the bare ends of
the flying leads through the holes on the extender module, heat with a soldering iron and apply solder to leave a
shiny joint. See for photos of what this should look like.

Figure 56: Soldering the piezo to the extender module

However, rather than soldering it may be easier to simply pass the bare ends of the flying leads through the
holes in the Extender module connection points, bend them around and twist them tight, ensuring a good metal-tometal contact and making sure the two leads do not touch each other.
Twisting the flying leads together is a good way to keep things neat.

Figure 57: If you dont want to solder you can simply twist the wires in place if you are careful

Step 5: Write your program

As you may have noticed when using the designer in Step 3, the socket on the top of the extender module is
compatible with every socket on the mainboard! This is why it doesnt have any letters written on it to indicate
compatibility it works with any socket. It is a general-purpose building block module with a large variety of
potential uses.
For this project we are extending the functionality of Gadgeteer by creating a new type of module. Depending
on where we plug the Extender into the mainboard we will be able to interface to (i.e. connect up) different
types of electronic components. In this case we have chosen socket 4 on the Cerberus mainboard, and the letters
A, O, P and Y indicate three basic ways of interfacing that we can choose between. We are going to use this
socket in its P mode of operation P stands for Pulse Width Modulation output or more simply PWM output.
This lets us create a PWM signal which is continually changing between two different voltages in a repetitive (or
periodic) way.

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When we generate a PWM signal on socket 4 and connect the piezo sounder it will turn into a sound we can
hear. The frequency of the PWM signal is the same as the pitch of the note which the buzzer plays. As a reminder
we used frequencies with the Tunes module in Chapter 3. To get an idea of a suitable value for this frequency,
its useful to know that the human hearing range goes from around 20 Hz to around 15,000 Hz, though the
buzzer probably cant play frequencies as low as 20Hz.
The first thing we will do is generate a fixed tone:

we need to create a buzzer object and specify that it is going to use Gadgeteers PWM Output
interface;
the buzzer object is then set up so that it works with the Extender module we have plugged in, and we
have to specify which pin of the Extender we will connect our piezo sounder to;
finally we can set a pulse waveform going.

First, declare the buzzer:

Namespace GadgeteerApp1
Partial Public Class Program
' Specify that the buzzer will use the Gadgeteer PWM Output interface
Dim buzzer As GT.Interfaces.PWMOutput

Then add the two additional lines outlined below along with appropriate comments:
Public Sub ProgramStarted()
Debug.Print("Program Started")
' set up the PWM Output to use pin 9 of the Extender module
buzzer = extender.SetupPWMOutput(GT.Socket.Pin.Nine)
' set a repetitive pulse going
buzzer.Set(2000, 0.5)
End Sub

Now test that the program works so far.

When you run it you should hear a constant pitch sound coming from the sounder. If it doesnt work check that the
ends of the two flying leads are connected to the metal part of the Extender module connection points. Once you
have it working, the buzzer wont stop until you do one of the following:
-

disconnect the piezo or Extender module;

remove power from the Gadgeteer mainboard; or
program the mainboard to switch off the PWM Output with buzzer.Active = False

T UTORIAL 2: U SE THE JOYSTICK TO CONTROL THE PITCH AND DURATION

Step 1: Extend your program.
The next stage is to start and stop the buzzer programmatically. Well use the button functionality that is built
into the joystick module to turn on and off the buzzer. This is done using the JoystickPressed event handler to
toggle a state variable buzzerOn.
We also want to control the pitch of the sound. This is done by altering the first parameter (the frequency) of the
buzzer.Set() method. We can use a timer every 200 milliseconds (0.2 seconds) to read the joystick and set the
frequency appropriately, as long as buzzerOn is True. The joystick is read using joystick.GetPosition().X
to get a value between -1 and 1 depending on the X position of the joystick.
The code to do this is below, and goes after ProgramStarted:

88 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

Dim WithEvents timer As GT.Timer = New GT.Timer(200)

Dim buzzerOn As Boolean = False
Private Sub joystick_JoystickPressed(sender As Joystick, state As Joystick.JoystickState) Handles jo
ystick.JoystickPressed
If (buzzerOn) Then
buzzerOn = False
Debug.Print("Buzzer off")
buzzer.Active = False
Else
buzzerOn = True
Debug.Print("Buzzer on")
timer.Start()
' buzzer will actually be turned on by timer_Tick
End If
End Sub
Private Sub timer_Tick(timer As Gadgeteer.Timer) Handles timer.Tick
If (buzzerOn = False) Then
timer.Stop()
Exit Sub
End If
' define useful constants for calculating the PWM frequency settings
'
' the maximum frequency we want to play
Const maxFrequency = 15000
' the minimum frequency we want to play
Const minFrequency = 100
' the middle of the range of frequencies
Const middleFrequency = (maxFrequency + minFrequency) / 2
' half of the frequency range, i.e. how much we should deviate from the middle frequency
Const halfRangeOfFrequency = (maxFrequency - minFrequency) / 2
' calculate the new frequency to use based on the joystick X position
'
' X position is between -1.0 (fully left) and 1.0 (fully right)
' so we convert this to a number between minFrequency and maxFrequency
Dim newFrequency As Double = middleFrequency + (joystick.GetPosition().X * halfRangeOfFrequency)
' set the PWM pulse output to the new frequency
buzzer.Set(CInt(newFrequency), 0.5)
' and print out newFrequency
Debug.Print(CStr(newFrequency))
End Sub

In addition to adding the code above, dont forget to remove the buzzer.Set(2000, 0.5) line you used in the
first exercise since this is no longer needed. In this project the buzzer will start to make a noise the first time that
the joystick is pressed. Note that the volume of the buzzing will change depending on the frequency the buzzer
is particularly efficient at some frequencies and so it will be much louder.

E XERCISES
1.

2.

3.

You will notice a stuttering sound to the buzzer due to the PWM being changed every 200ms (fifth of a
second). Edit your program so that if the new frequency is only a tiny bit different from the old one
(which youll have to store in a variable), then the call to buzzer.Set() is omitted, to eliminate the
stutter.
Edit your program so that it only plays notes from one octave on a piano keyboard. Wikipedia has a
Piano key frequencies page. Store the frequencies in a constant array and select which to use based
on the position of the joystick.
You may notice that the values returned by a joystick can be quite noisy this means they vary a bit
each time even if the joystick isnt being moved. Extend your program to keep a running average of the
last 10 joystick values using an array and use this to control the pitch.

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S UMMARY
In this chapter, you have learned to:

use the Extender module to create a new type of module, a piezo sounder;
generate a pulse-width modulation (PWM) signal which causes the sounder to emit a constant tone;
control the pitch of the tone using a Joystick module.

90 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

APPENDIX A. WHERE TO BUY .NET GADGETEER

The following list is intended as a guide and is valid at the time of writing. It is not a complete listing of all
manufactures and suppliers. This is because the platform is open-source and anyone can build and distribute .NET
Gadgeteer hardware. Note that some suppliers only ship to certain geographical areas and so may not be
applicable in your location.
NAME

MAINBOARD
MANUFACTURER

MODULE
MANUFACTURER

Amazon
http://www.amazon.com
Antratek Electronics
http://www.antratek.com
Australian Robotics
http://www.australianrobotics.com.au
Cool components
http://www.coolcomponents.co.uk
DFRobot
http://www.dfrobot.com
Gnration Robots
http://www.generationrobots.com
GHI
http://www.ghielectronics.com
Ingenuity Micro
http://ingenuitymicro.com
Let Elektronik
http://www.let-elektronik.dk
Lextronic
http://www.lextronic.fr
Love Electronics
http://www.loveelectronics.co.uk
Micro mint
http://micromint.com
Mountaineer Boards
http://www.mountaineer-boards.com
Mouser
http://mouser.com
Proto pic
http://proto-pic.co.uk
Robot Shop
http://www.robotshop.com
SaveComm mfDevices
http://savecomm.net
Seeed Studio
http://www.seeedstudio.com
Solder Monkey
http://www.soldermonkey.net
Sparkfun Electronics
http://sparkfun.com
Sytech
http://sytechdesigns.com
UAM Czech Republic
http://shop.microframework.eu
Watterott Electronic
http://www.watterott.com

SUPPLIER

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APPENDIX B. INSTALLING THE FEZ CERBERUS TINKER KIT

Before you get started with your Fez Cerberus Tinker Kit, you need to install some software on your computer.
The easiest way to achieve this is to visit the GHI website (http://www.ghielectronics.com ) and follow the latest
installation instructions. Below is an overview of the process. Note that the order of installation is important.
There are three pieces of software required:
1) In order to edit code and deploy applications to hardware you need an Interactive Development
Environment (IDE), in this case Visual Studio. Different versions of Visual studio are supported, the most
common is the latest free version called Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows Desktop.
(http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/downloads). Once installed you should be able to select
VS Express for Desktop from the start menu and the IDE will load as shown in Figure 58.

Figure 58: Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows Desktop

2) The .NET Micro Framework (NETMF) is the core set of libraries upon which .NET Gadgeteer is based. It
can be downloaded from https://www.ghielectronics.com/support/.net-micro-framework , but it can
also be found on http://www.netmf.com. Once installed (or if you wish to check that it is installed) you
can see NETMF in Add or remove programs as shown in Figure 59. At the time of writing the version
you will have installed will depend on which version of Visual Studio you wish to use.

92 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

Figure 59: Check to see the NETMF is installed by selecting Add or remove programs
3) The final installation step is for the Software Development Kit (SDK) for the hardware you are using as
well as for the .NET Gadgeteer platform. Fortunately GHI wrap both these installs into a single
package (available at https://www.ghielectronics.com/support/.net-micro-framework). The GHI installer
is downloaded as a zip file. Please right-click this file and select Extract All to a temporary folder
somewhere on your computer and then run setup.exe. If you try to run setup.exe directly from the zip
file it can cause problems.
Later you can make sure that the software installed correctly by checking Add or remove programs.
You should see the GHI .NET Gadgeteer SDK (Figure 60) and the Microsoft .NET Gadgeteer Core
(Figure 61).

Figure 60: Add or remove programs shows that the GHI .NET Gadgeteer SDK is installed

Figure 61: Add or remove programs shows that the Microsoft .NET Gadgeteer Core is installed

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APPENDIX C. GETTING TO KNOW VISUAL STUDIO

T HE S OLUTION E XPLORER W INDOW
The Solution Explorer window is on the right hand side of the Visual Studio window by default. It provides a list
of all the files and resources in your solution (a collection of one or more projects). In this book, a solution is
always made up of a single project, for example the Clicker project shown in Figure 62. If this window is not
visible it can be enabled by selecting Solution Explorer from the View menu.

Figure 62: Solution Explorer window for the Clicker project

T HE T OOLBOX WINDOW
The Toolbox window appears on the left hand side of the screen by default. When you have the Designer open,
the Toolbox will display all the hardware modules that you can potentially connect to your project. The Toolbox
can take a few seconds to populate but if it is empty be sure that you have the Designer open as it will be empty
when the source code is visible. If you cannot find the Toolbox or it has been closed, it can be reopened by
selecting Toolbox from the View menu.

Figure 63: Opening the Toolbox from the View menu in Visual Studio

94 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

T HE D ESIGNER WINDOW
When you first create a .NET Gadgeteer project in Visual Studio the Designer is opened and visible. The
Designer window is where you drag and drop modules to and connect your hardware. If you close this window
and need to reopen it, have a look in the Solution Explorer window on the right hand side of the screen as shown
in Figure 64. Clicking on Program.gadgeteer will re-open the Designer.

Figure 64: Solution Explorer window for the Clicker project

T HE O UTPUT WINDOW
It is always handy to have the Output window displayed in Visual Studio. Whilst this may appear obvious it is not
on by default in some versions of Visual Studio. Select Output from the window on the Debug menu as shown in
Figure 65. This window provides information about building and deploying your application to the hardware as
well as displaying any debug messages you have inserted into your code.

Figure 65 : Output window showing a .NET Gadgeteer project, successful build and deploy

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I NTELLI S ENSE IN V ISUAL S TUDIO

IntelliSense is a collection of useful features that Visual Studio supports to assist you with coding. There are a few
features that are essential to learn as they help you type faster and more accurate code as well as indicating
where potential problems may arise. Below is a summary of relevant features.

Word completion
Word complete is used to automatically finish off words for you. For example, if you work on a Gadgeteer
project with just a button module displayed in the Designer, then when you start typing code Visual Studio will
produce a drop down menu showing a number of relevant options. In Figure 66, typing the first few letters of
button will produce a menu with the correct option at the top. You can use the mouse to select the correct option
from this menu, but it is quicker to press the Tab key on the keyboard. Tab will autocomplete the word with the
top item of the displayed option list. If you ever need to see the option list again (perhaps you pressed space or
clicked on the wrong option) you can press the keys Ctrl and Space on your keyboard.

Figure 66: Word completion in Visual Studio

Listing members
There are properties and methods associated with objects, for example, a button object. By adding a dot (.)
after the object name, Visual Studio will display a drop down menu of all those properties and methods. The icon
next to a member of the menu lets you know what type it is (properties are and methods in Visual Studio
2012). When a member has been selected, either by typing or by using the mouse or arrow keys, Visual Studio
will show a QuickInfo description next to the dropdown. This tells you a little about the selected item and is a
great way to explore the capability of hardware modules. For example, you can discover that the button module
also has an LED on it which you can turn on and off and check the current status (see Figure 67).

Figure 67: On the left, a list of button members, showing properties, methods and events. To the right more
details of the selected member are shown.

Parameter Info
Some methods require parameters that provide some extra information needed to execute the method. For
example, the Debug.Print method requires the text that you wish to print. If you are unsure about which
parameter(s) Print requires, then when you type the opening bracket, Visual Studio will show more information.
In Figure 68, the Print method takes a single parameter which is a string.
96 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

Figure 68: Parameter Info box showing that the Print method expects a single string parameter.
Let us look at a more complicated example, using the Tunes module. Some methods have more than one
signature, meaning that you can supply different sets of parameters depending on which signature you choose.
For example, to make a noise on the Tunes module you call the Play method. The parameter info box looks
slightly different as there are 4 different ways to call this method. Figure 69 shows that you can call the Play
method without any parameters, but that you must first add notes using the AddNote method.

Figure 69: Parameter info for a method with multiple signatures

You can look at the different signatures by using the up/down arrows
. For example, if you wanted to
play a note based on a frequency you can simply supply a single integer (number).

Figure 70: Playing a note based on a frequency

However if you created a melody as shown in Chapter 3 then you can supply the melody to the Play method.

Figure 71: Playing a melody using the Play method on the tunes module

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APPENDIX D. UPDATING THE FIRMWARE

The software that you install from the hardware manufacturer (SDK) must match the software that is running on
the mainboard (the so-called firmware). There should not be many updates and it is best to stick to the same
version of the SDK and firmware across all your devices and computers, unless there is a particular problem to
solve. If the software on the computer and the firmware get out of sync you will see a Firmware version does not
match managed code version error in the Output window. You may need to scroll to the top of the output window
to see the error.
If you do not have the output window showing then this problem is harder to identify as the deploy will look as it
is doing nothing, but really it has failed and put the error on the Output window and halted the deployment.

Figure 72 : Example of a firmware version mismatch error in the Output window

If you need to update the firmware to solve an issue or due to a mismatch you will need to follow the
manufacturers updating instructions. In the case of the FEZ Cerberus Tinker Kit, there is a tool called the FEZ
Config that will let you update your hardware to the latest firmware version. This is the recommended option
and should be used to perform any software updates to your FEZ Cerberus mainboard. A summary is shown on
page 100.
For those that wish to know more or are having issues updating the firmware there are a few manual steps that
can confirm firmware versioning and perform an update. The firmware comes in two parts, the TinyBooter (page
100) and the TinyCLR (Page 103). Both have to be updated separately, although the TinyBooter does not need
updating as often. Before you do any update, check the version number to be sure you need to update.

C HECKING THE FIRMWARE VERSION

Depending which version of NETMF you have installed look inside the Tools folder for a tool called
MFDeploy.exe, for example, C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft .NET Micro Framework\v4.2\Tools or
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft .NET Micro Framework\v4.3\Tools

Connect your mainboard to your computer via USB and load MFDeploy. Select USB and you should see your
device listed. To test that everything is connected properly press the ping button and you should see the response
TinyCLR as shown in Figure 73.

98 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

Figure 73: MFDeploy showing the FEZ Cerberus mainboard connected via USB.
Next select Device Capabilities from the Target menu. This will query your device to see which version of the
firmware is currently running on your hardware as shown in Figure 74. If your firmware is out of date, you may
want to consider updating it.

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Figure 74: Fez Cerberus showing that the firmware dates from 23 August 2013 and is version 4.2.6.0

U PDATING THE FEZ C ERBERUS F IRMWARE USING THE FEZ C ONFIG T OOL ( RECOMMENDE D )
At the time of writing the FEZ Config firmware updater is NOT distributed with the GHI SDK and needs to be
downloaded separately from GHI (https://www.ghielectronics.com). Once downloaded, run the config tool and
you will see a screen similar to that shown in Figure 75.

100 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

Figure 75: The FEZ Config tool without any devices attached (you need to connect your mainboard using the
USB cable)
1) Connect your mainboard using the USB cable and select the device.

Figure 76: The FEZ Config tool with Cerberus connected as indicated in the bottom right corner
2) Next click on the Firmware Updater button on the left, to display a list of firmware updates for
different devices. Select FEZ Cerberus. Ticking the Ethernet option selects different firmware
depending on if you want to use a network module. Default to un-ticked unless you really need
networking.

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Figure 77: The FEZ Config tool can update different mainboards. Be careful to select the correct mainboard
3) The next screen confirms which files will be loaded. Leave as the default and select Next. Agree to any
warnings about loss of data (it will erase the device) and follow the menus.

Figure 78: The FEZ Config tool showing the location of the firmware to be flashed
4) Wait while the device is being updated, you will get a progress indicator.

102 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

Figure 79: Firmware update progress indicator

5) Finally you should see a successful update message. Your device is now ready. If you had any issues
during this process check the USB connection and common troubleshooting issues. Alternatively GHI have
a forum with up-to-date information about known issues
(https://www.ghielectronics.com/community/forum).

Figure 80: Successful firmware update

U PDATING THE FEZ C ERBERUS T INY B OOTER MANUALLY

If you need to update the firmware either to solve an issue or due to a mismatch you will need to follow the
manufacturers updating instructions. In the case of the FEZ Cerberus Tinker Kit, use the FEZ Config tool as
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described on page 100. This is the recommended option and should be used to perform any software updates to
your FEZ Cerberus mainboard.
To manually update the TinyBooter, you will need the latest TinyBooter (usually a DFU file) and the STDFU Tester
application installed.
GHI distribute the STDFU Tester application with the firmware for example C:\Program Files (x86)\GHI
Electronics\GHI OSHW NETMF v4.2 SDK\FEZ Cerb Family\Firmware\STM_DFU.zip. And if not already
installed, you will need to run the installer and load the STDFU Tester application as shown in Figure 81.

Figure 81: STDFU Tester application showing the Cerberus mainboard in boot mode
The FEZ Cerberus mainboard needs to be started in boot mode. This is achieved by starting the device (powering
up) with the BOOT button on the mainboard pressed. Do not hold the BOOT button down for longer than a few
seconds. If the device has restarted in boot mode it will appear in the STDFU Tester application devices menu as
shown in Figure 81. Updating the TinyBooter has two steps, erase and updating. Be sure you are familiar with
the process below as it can break your hardware. GHI have more complete instructions online.

Erase
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)

Ensure you can see the device in the devices menu at the top of the SDTFU Tester application.
Select the protocol tab (top of screen).
Press the Create from Map button on the Protocol menu.
Tick the Erase radial.
Press Go.

104 Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

Updating
1) Press the Load DFU file button from the protocols tab.
2) Tick the Download radial
3) Press Go

U PDATING THE FEZ C ERBERUS T INY CLR MANUALLY

If you need to update the firmware either to solve an issue or due to a mismatch you will need to follow the
manufacturers updating instructions. In the case of the FEZ Cerberus Tinker Kit, use the FEZ Config tool as
described on page 100. This is the recommended option and should be used to perform any software updates to
your FEZ Cerberus mainboard.
To manually update the TinyCLR, open MFDEploy and ping your device (see page 98) to check that all is working
and ensure that an update is required. Next you will need to find the latest firmware files to install, typically visit
the GHI website, or check your SDK install directory, for example C:\Program Files (x86)\GHI
Electronics\GHI OSHW NETMF v4.2 SDK\FEZ Cerb Family\Firmware. In this case there are two firmwares
depending if you require Ethernet support.
The firmware comprises of two files a config and a firmware file (there could be 2 further signature files, but
ignore these). You need to select these image files by selecting the browse button for the Image file selector,
navigating to the directory with your new firmware and selecting both the Config.hex and the Firmware.hex files.
With both files selected press the deploy button.

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Figure 82: Selecting both the config and firmware files, pressing deploy will update the TinyCLR

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APPENDIX E. HOW TO DEBUG VISUAL BASIC IN VISUAL STUDIO

The debugger is a very useful feature in Visual Studio. It lets you inspect your program while it is running and is
an invaluable tool to help solve those annoying bugs where you dont understand the behaviour of your program.
The debugger has a series of different capabilities. In this section we cover only the basic capabilities but as your
programs become more complicated the topic is worth further investigation.
All the debugger examples in this section are based on the code for the Clicker project shown on page 23. When
the example code is opened in Visual Studio make sure to check that it compiles and deploys, and every time
you press the hardware button the number on the screen increments on the display.
When you run your code by pressing the play button
or by pressing F5 or by selecting Start Debugging from
the Debug menu (they are all the same thing), your code is deployed to the hardware with debugging enabled,
and then your code is executed.

P RINTING DEBUG MESS AGES

.NET Gadgeteer projects have a line that prints Program Started to the debug window. This shows that your
program has deployed and successfully started. You can add your own debug print statements to show the
progress of your code, for example to see if a button has been pressed. In the Clicker project example we can
write the count value to the debug window every time the button is pressed by simply adding a single print line
as shown in Figure 83.

Figure 83 : Writing text and variables to the Debug window

S ETTING A BREAKPOINT
A breakpoint is a way of pausing the code running on the hardware when a particular line of code is about to be
executed. Once the execution has been paused you can inspect the variables to check their values. For example
we can set breakpoint on the line of code that increments the counter. This can be done by placing the cursor on
the line of code where you want to pause execution and selecting Toggle Breakpoint from the Debug menu (Or
pressing F9).

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Figure 84 : Use Toggle Breakpoint to enable or disable breakpoints. Alternatively press the F9 key
You will see that a red dot appears in the left hand side margin next to the line that will pause execution, as
shown in Figure 85. Note that it is not always sensible to have a breakpoint, for example on a blank line or on a
line between sub-routines. If you attempt to set a breakpoint where it is not feasible, none will appear and the
status bar at the bottom of the screen in Visual Studio will display the message This is not a valid location for a
breakpoint. You can also enable and disable breakpoints by simply clicking in the margin where the red dot has
appeared.

Figure 85 : Setting a breakpoint on the counter increment line

The line of code that will cause execution to pause will also turn red. Since you can have any number of
breakpoints you may also want to show a list of breakpoints. This will help with enabling or disabling breakpoints
in bulk. To show the breakpoint list, select DEBUG Windows Breakpoints or press <Alt>+<F9>. You can
even add or change breakpoints once your code is being executed. Figure 86 shows the single breakpoint that
has been set in the code shown above.

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Figure 86 : Breakpoint window listing all breakpoints. You can multi-select breakpoints and enable/disable
them in bulk if required. This is useful if you want to simply run your code wihtout pausing.
Once you have set the breakpoint press the play button
as normal, execution will only pause when a
breakpoint gets hit. In our example case we need to press the hardware button in order for the routine to be
executed, thus triggering the breakpoint. You will know when a breakpoint has been reached because Visual
Studio will automatically highlight the breakpoint in yellow and bring the code into view. The code has now
paused on the mainboard, so the screen will not update with the latest value.
If you hold your mouse over any variable that is in scope (for example variables in the current sub-routine, and
global variables) a little window will pop up showing the actual value that is stored in memory. If the variable
was more complicated such as an array, you would be able to see all the values stored in the array.

Figure 87 : Visual Studio highlights the current active breakpoint in yellow. You can then inspect variables
by holding the mouse over to see their contents.
It is important to note that the execution is paused before the line with the break point is executed. It is for this
reason that the count variable is still set to 0. Once you have hit a breakpoint see page 110 to see how you
can step through your code one line at a time. Alternatively select Continue from the Debug menu (<F5>) to carry
on running your program.

T HE CONDITIONAL BREAKPOINT
When you set a breakpoint, execution will pause every time execution reaches that line of code. This can be
inconvenient, for example, if you have a long loop that iterates say 100 times, and you know something fails on
the last iteration of the loop. You could set a breakpoint at the beginning of the loop and press continue 99 times
until you get to the last iteration. There is an easier way: the conditional breakpoint. This will only pause at a
particular line of code if a condition is met or if the value has changed, for example when the variable counter is
equal to 99.
In the Clicker example we can set the condition on the counter breakpoint by right-clicking and setting the
condition to only pause when the counter is equal to 5, as show in Figure 88 and Figure 89.

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Figure 88 : To create a conditional breakpoint, right click a breakpoint and select condition

Figure 89 : Set the condition that when true will pause execution. Keep expressions simple here to avoid
errors.
There are a few other conditional break capabilities that are handy (see Figure 88).
Another useful feature that could be used in this example is the hit count option shown in Figure 88. Every time a
breakpoint is hit this counter is incremented. You can set it to only pause when it has been hit a certain number of
times, a multiple of a certain number, or greater than a certain number. In this example we could use it to pause
when the hit count is equal to 5.

W ALKING THROUGH YOUR CODE

Once you have paused on a breakpoint you will notice that there are now a few more options on the debug
menu (see Figure 90). These options let you choose how to resume execution of your program, for example by
letting you step line by line through your code. Remember you can hold your mouse over any in-scope variables
to see their contents. It can be helpful to remember the shortcut keys for these different step options, particularly
the Step Over (F10) option, but the options are also shown as the following icons on the toolbar at the top of
Visual Studio.
Figure 90 shows a brief description of the various options:

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Figure 90 : The Debug menu showing the options once a breakpoint has been hit. There are various step
options to step through your code.

Continue (F5)
Once you have paused on a breakpoint and have finished inspecting the variables, you can simply press
Continue or <F5> and your program will continue running. It will only pause again if it hits another breakpoint.
In the example shown in Figure 87, inserting a second breakpoint on the last line of the sub-routine and
deploying your project will cause it to pause on the first breakpoint. Pressing Continue or <F5> will then advance
execution to the second breakpoint as shown in Figure 91. The counter will be incremented and the screen
cleared but the new text will not yet be displayed as the current line has not been executed.

Figure 91: Pressing Continue will advance to the next breakpoint

Step Over (F10)

This is probably the most useful option and will let you step to the next line of code executing the line that was
shown in yellow. You can then hold your mouse over any variable to see how it has changed. In the example
shown in Figure 87 when you step over the current line, it is executed and the next line of code is displayed in
yellow. You can then hold the mouse over the counter variable to see that it has been incremented from 0 to 1, as
shown in Figure 92.
Note that execution has paused on the clear display line of code. The display will not yet have cleared as the
current line (shown in yellow) has not been executed. Stepping over this line will execute this line and you will see
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the display clear and stepping over yet again will then put the text on the display. You will then probably want
to press Continue or <F5> to resume your program as normal.
If you press the hardware button again, it will halt on the breakpoint again and you can step through the next
increment of the counter.

Figure 92 : Using the Step Over option will advance execution to the next line of code. In this case we can
see that the counter has been incremented.

Step Into (<F11>) and Step Out (<SHIFT>+<F11>)

These two options are used for getting into and out of sub-routines. If execution has been paused on a line of
code that calls a sub-routine (for example other code that you have written) then you can use the Step Into option
to view the sub-routine and then step line by line. If you had used the Step Over option then the sub-routine
would be executed in a single step and you would not be able to step through each line of code in the subroutine.

D EBUGGING TIPS

Remember that your code is paused when it hits a breakpoint. You may reach one, not realise and then
wonder why nothing is working. An easy way to tell is to look at the Visual Studio title bar at the top of the
screen. It will tell you if it is running or debugging, for example see Figure 93.

Figure 93 : The title of the Visual Studio window shows the solution name as well as the current status,
Running or Debugging if a breakpoint has been reached.

You may find that you end up with many breakpoints as you debug issues. It can be useful to disable a
breakpoint rather than delete it, as you may want to use it later on, for example in a loop. Use the debug
view window to list all breakpoints and then enable/disable them in bulk.
Always keep an eye on the status bar at the bottom of the screen, while you may be waiting for the
deployment and the first breakpoint to be hit, Visual Studio may be telling you something important. For
example, it may indicate a failed deployment (Figure 94).

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Figure 94 : Visual Studio status bar showing that the deployment failed

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APPENDIX F. COPING WITH OUT-OF-MEMORY EXCEPTIONS

The Cerberus mainboard (used in this book) is a low-cost, low-power processor making it great for a wide range
of applications. However it has limitations. It cannot do everything at the same time and certainly will not
compete with your latest laptop. For example, reading files from an SD card and displaying graphic at the same
time can stretch the limits of the hardware. You notice this when you deploy (F5) your code and it just hangs (try it
a few times to be sure there is no other issue) displaying Failed allocation for xxx blocks, xxxx bytes
in the Output window, more than once.
If this is the case, try reducing the amount of tasks you have asked the hardware to perform. It is also easier to
start with a simple project, check it works and then extend it slowly, testing that each stage works.
You may also get a memory exception window as shown in Figure 95. If your program ran once and then you
get a memory error, it is likely that it is very close to the maximum limit. Try cleaning the project (Build -> Clean
Solution) then redeploy your program (F5).

Figure 95: Visual Studio Out Of Memory exception

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APPENDIX G. TROUBLESHOOTING: VISUAL STUDIO WILL NOT

DEPLOY

When Visual Studio complains that there are deployment issues yet everything is plugged in, there are a few
things you need to check.

Figure 96 : Visual Studio deployment error

Figure 97 : To view the Output window in Visual Studio Express 2012 select Debug Windows Output
The Output window will show you errors and is usually located at the bottom of the main Visual Studio window
(you may need to select the tab). Below is the output of a blank project once it has been successfully rebuilt.

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Figure 98 : Blank .NET Gadgeteer project, successful build and deploy

Before you go any further it is worth doing a few sanity checks:

Did the project build without errors? Have a look at the output window to see if there are errors. You
can always open a new project in Visual Studio and quickly try a blank Gadgeteer project. The default
template for a new project will build and deploy without errors.
Check that the hardware is plugged in properly, try another USB port on the computer or swap the USB
cable to check it is not faulty.
Dont plug into any USB3.0 ports on your computer if possible. There can be compatibility issues with
these. They tend to have blue plastic showing and/or be labelled with the text USB 3.0.
Does hitting the reset switch on the mainboard help? Wait about 20 seconds before trying to deploy
from Visual Studio.

If you are satisfied that everything should work or it was just working but is not anymore, the first step is to check
that your computer has found the mainboard. Plug the mainboard into a USB port, go to Device manager and
see if the device has been found. To load Device Manager click Start, then in the Run box type the following
command mmc compmgmt.msc or select Device Manager from the hardware and sound section of the control panel
as shown in Figure 99.

Figure 99 : Locating the Device Manager in the Control Panel

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Have a look in the Device Manager for the .NET Gadgeteer mainboard. Not all mainboards appear in the same
section in the Device Manager. The FEZ Cerberus is located under Universal Serial Bus controllers and is called
GHI NETMF Debugging Interface as shown in Figure 100. Note that future firmware updates may rename or
move this in the Device Manager. You can easily check if you have the correct device on the list by unplugging
the USB cable. It should disappear when you remove it and reappear when you reconnect the USB cable.

Figure 100: The FEZ Cerberus mainboard shown in Device Manager

If you can see your hardware listed in the Device Manager and there are no warnings then you can move on and
assume that you hardware has been recognised correctly by your computer. If you get a yellow exclamation
mark on the mainboard in Device Manager then the driver did not load and the hardware will not work until you
get the driver fixed. Simply try a different USB port on the computer, particularly if it worked before. Failing
that it is best to reinstall the SDK provided by the manufacturer for the kit you are using.
If you got a deployment issue and your hardware is displayed in the Device Manager, the next step is to check
that Visual Studio can see the hardware and is attempting to deploy to the correct device. In the Solution
Explorer right click on the project (not solution) and select Properties. To open the Solution Explorer if it is not on
the left of the screen, select it from the Visual Studio menu, VIEW Other Windows Solution Explorer.

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Figure 101 : Selecting the project Properties in Visual Studio

Figure 102: FEZ Cerberus mainboard recognised in Visual Studio

The properties window has a .NET Micro Framework tab which will show you which device Visual Studio is
attempting to deploy. The transport should be set to USB (if you are using a USB cable to connect the mainboard
to the computer) and you should see the device listed. If your device is not listed here then it was not recognised
by your computer. Check to be sure it is listed in the Device Manager. If you change this setting you need to save
for the change to take effect.
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If your hardware is recognised and Visual Studio can see the device, you should not get a deployment error. Be
sure your project compiles (test with a blank new Gadgeteer project). Check the Output window for errors and
check to see if it is a firmware version issue.

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APPENDIX H. LIST OF CURRENT SOCKET TYPES

Three analogue inputs, with pins number 3 and 4 doubling as general-purpose input/output. In
addition, pin number 6 is a general-purpose input/output, and pin number 3 supports interrupt
capabilities.

Display (LCD) interface, carrying the blue component on pins 3 to 7, as well as the LCD enable
line on pin 8 and the clock signal on pin 9.

Controller-area network (CAN, or CAN-Bus). Pins number 4 and 5 serve as the CAN transmit
(TD) and receive (RD) pins, and double as general-purpose input/outputs. In addition, pins
number 3 and 6 are general-purpose input/outputs, and pin number 3 supports interrupt
capabilities.

A USB device interface for the mainboard to connect to a PC, usually for programming. Pins 4
and 5 are used as the dedicated USB data pins (D- and D+). In addition, pins 3, 6 and 7 are
general-purpose input/outputs, with pin 3 supporting interrupt capabilities.

Ethernet PHY connection. Pins 6 to 9 are the dedicated transmit/receive lines to an Ethernet
connector with integrated magnetics. Pins 4 and 5 are optional connections to the LEDs on the
Ethernet connector.

Secure Digital Card (SD) or MMC (Multi Media Card) interface. Pins 4 to 9 are the dedicated
data and control lines for this interface. In addition, pin 3 is a general-purpose digital
input/output with interrupt capabilities.

Display (LCD) interface, carrying the green component on pins 3 to 8, as well as the backlight
control line on pin 9.

USB host interface to connect USB peripherals to the mainboard. Pins 4 and 5 are used as the
dedicated USB data pins (D- and D+). In addition, pin 3 is a general-purpose input/output with
interrupt capabilities.

I2C interface. Pins 8 and 9 are the dedicated I2C data (SDA) and clock (SCL) lines. Note that a
mainboard should include pull-up resistors for these pins, in the region of 2.2K Ohms. Modules
must not include their own pull-ups on these lines. In addition, pins 3 and 6 are general-purpose
input/outputs, with pin 3 supporting interrupt capabilities.

UART (serial line) interface operating at TTL levels, with hardware flow control capabilities.
Pin 4 (TX) is data from the mainboard to the module, and pin 5 (RX) is data from the module to
the mainboard. These lines are idle high (3.3V), and can double as general-purpose
input/outputs. Pin 6 (RTS) is an output from the mainboard to the module, indicating that the
module may send data. Pin 7 (CTS) is an output from the module to the mainboard indicating
that the mainboard may send data. The RTS/CTS are 'not ready' if high (3.3V) and 'ready' if
low (0V). In addition, pin 3 is a general-purpose input/output, supporting interrupt capabilities.

Analog output on pin 5. In addition, pins 3 and 4 are general-purpose input/outputs, and pin 3
includes interrupt capabilities.

Three pulse-with modulated (PWM) outputs on pins 7, 8 and 9. Pins 7 and 9 double as GPIOs.
In addition, pin 3 is an interrupt-capable GPIO, and pin 6 is a GPIO.

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Display (LCD) interface, carrying the red component on pins 3 to 7, as well as the VSYNC line
on pin 8 and the HSYNC line on pin 9.

Serial peripheral interface (SPI). Pin 7 is the master-out/slave-in (MOSI) line, pin 8 is the
master-in/slave-out (MISO) line, and pin 9 is the clock (SCK) line. In addition, pins 3, 4 and 5
are general-purpose input/outputs, with pin 3 supporting interrupt capabilities.

Four-wire touch screen interface.

UART (serial line) interface operating at TTL levels. Pin 4 (TX) is data from the mainboard to the
module, and pin 5 (RX) is data from the module to the mainboard. These lines are idle high
(3.3V), and can double as general-purpose input/outputs. In addition, pins 3 and 6 are
general-purpose input/outputs, with pin 3 supporting interrupt capabilities.

Three general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins, with pin number 3 supporting interrupt
capabilities.

Seven general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins, with pin number 3 supporting interrupt
capabilities.

Manufacturer specific. The pinout for this socket will vary between mainboards. Please refer to
the individual mainboard's documentation for details.

*(DaisyLink)

DaisyLink downstream interface. Pin 3 is used for the DaisyLink neighbour bus, pin 4 is used for
I2C SDA, pin 5 is used for I2C SCL. Note that this socket type should not appear on a
mainboard, only on DaisyLink modules. The [MS] pins on this socket type can optionally support
reflashing the firmware on the module.

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APPENDIX I. OPERATORS IN VISUAL BASIC

Operator

Description

Is equal to

<=

Is less than or equal to

>=

Is greater than or equal to

<>

Is not equal to

>

Is greater than

<

Is less than

And

Performs a logical conjunction on two

Boolean expressions

Not

Performs logical negation on a Boolean

expression

Or

Performs a logical disjunction on two

Boolean expressions

Xor

Performs a logical exclusion on two

Boolean expressions

AndAlso

Performs short-circuiting logical conjunction

on two expressions

OrElse

Performs short-circuiting inclusive logical

disjunction on two expressions

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APPENDIX J. TYPICAL LUX VALUES

Lux (lx) is an international standard unit for ambient light and is often used in light sensors. It represents the
amount of light incident per unit area its actually calculated as lumens per square metre. Below is a table of
typical Lux ranges for different scenarios.
Table 22: Typical Lux values
Lighting condition

Typical Lux (lx) values

Pitch black

0 10 lx

Very dark

11 50 lx

Dark indoors

51 200 lx

Dim indoors

201 400 lx

Normal indoors

401 1000 lx

Bright indoors

1001 5000 lx

Dim outdoors

5001 10,000 lx

Cloudy outdoors

10,001 30,000 lx

Direct sunlight

30,001 100,000 lx

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APPENDIX K. RESOURCES AVAILABLE ONLINE

Main Microsoft site for .NET Gadgeteer: http://www.netmf.com/gadgeteer

Resources to learn about .NET Gadgeteer: http://gadgeteering.net

Source code: http://gadgeteer.codeplex.com

Consider searching http://www.codeplex.com for either Gadgeteer or NETMF to

discover alternative drivers for modules or helpful libraries. For example,
StringBuilder: http://netmfcommonext.codeplex.com

Books using other languages

o

Microsoft .NET Gadgeteer : Electronics Projects for Hobbyists and

Inventors

Getting Started with .NET Gadgeteer

Learning to Program with Visual Basic and .NET Gadgeteer

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