Looking for a windows software programmer for bikey related project

[WildBoarMouse]

Hi all, this probably won't apply to 99% of the people here but it's worth a go! :whistle:

Another bikey friend and myself are going through the motions of putting together a bit of a project and require the aid of a windows software engineer to build up a windows head-end. We have the electronics and embedded software sorted but need assistance with building up a functional, but idealy pretty, PC user interface. Knowing a thing or three about putting together graphical interfaces would definitely help :)

If you are interested in finding out a bit more, or know someone that may fit the bill, can you please PM me or email me (darcywatsatlandotcodotnz)

Cheers
WBM

PS: We'd prefer someone in the upper North Island...

[M1CRO]

PM Sent :)

[GR81]

hope you have deep pockets :P

[WildBoarMouse]

We're after someone who's interested in this as a hobby... :) We're not getting paid a cent either, but who knows what it might turn in to. It won't be a super huge job to do... and if the person is interested, they'd get a direct benefit out of it at the other end, in the form of one of these things for themselves. :yes: If anyone responding is just in it for the money, they're probably not the sort of person we're looking for. ;)

[imdying]

Post up some more details... I know heaps of Windows programmers (might even be one myself...), and lots of embedded guys.

[WildBoarMouse]

Have a look at...

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php?t=23908

It's a little out-dated now but that's essentially it.

We have ideas of what we'd like to see for a windows head-end, but they're just ideas. :)

Cheers
WBM

[imdying]

What's the interface? Serial communications?

[Wonko]

I'd be keen to give it a crack. What is the data source, and do you havve any preference to what it's writen in?

[bugjuice]

so will windows crash, or the bike?

This taunt was brought to you by:
The KB Mac Community.

[WildBoarMouse]

What's the interface? Serial communications?
Eventually we'd like the device to appear as a USB mass storage device (exactly like your digital camera) but for now we'll just use the SD/MMC card and a seperate USB card reader ($12-15).

We ruled serial comms out very quickly. If you've been mucking about for more than an hour you'd be looking at having to download around 5Mb over a serial connection. Most PC serial ports can't handle more than 115k2bps so for 5Mb you'd have to wait around 8 minutes. An entire 32Mb card over serial would take 50 minutes :p This method also lets riders swap cards out very quickly. If it were to be used for off-season racing (in the distant future) - one card out, the spare card in, download the data off the first card while the bike is out racing. It would possibly be easier (but more expensive) just to have a radio link and not have to fiddle around with cards and cables when you're in a hurry. :)


I'd be keen to give it a crack. What is the data source, and do you have any preference to what it's writen in?
This is one of the things we'd like to talk about with whoever does the work. We could store the data in CSV format (for example) or as binary structures. The latter is more efficient as far as storage space goes but whatever works really. Possibly just our own file format and call it .bik :)

We don't have any preferences for languages. It would be nice if the person had directx experience, but if they didn't and were keen to learn, hey! here's a project to learn it on/for :p If we had to choose, I'd have to say VC++, VB, C#...


so will windows crash, or the bike?
We can make up a special one just for you... ;)

Thanks for the feedback folks!

[aff-man]

so not so sure but your just after an interface??

I was doing this for a project before I canned it due to a shitty supervisor for tech.. was just gonna write a delphi interface cause its free and really easy OOP.

[WildBoarMouse]

so not so sure but your just after an interface??

I was doing this for a project before I canned it due to a shitty supervisor for tech.. was just gonna write a delphi interface cause its free and really easy OOP.
That's basically the jist of it. I don't know enough about Delphi to be able to make a call on that. I think I'd probably prefer to stick with VC/VB/C# as they're things I either understand, or somewhat understand. :) I've been told that it is harder to create "graphical" programs in Delphi...? I need education in that language.

Cheers

[imdying]

Ok, so if there's no comms, it's an easy project. Graphing, data grids, all those sorts of things are easy peasy in .NET. I'd be keen to see your file format (or just whatever you want to store) and what you want out of the interface. C# is .net, so all native Windows calls, be easy to knock something up.

[aff-man]

That's basically the jist of it. I don't know enough about Delphi to be able to make a call on that. I think I'd probably prefer to stick with VC/VB/C# as they're things I either understand, or somewhat understand. :) I've been told that it is harder to create "graphical" programs in Delphi...? I need education in that language.

Cheers

Na man delphi is a piece of piss. It's OOP so basically drag.. add a bit of code and your away....

I'll see if I can get a mock up of it for ya ..... I'm not into the higher level programming side of my degree as much (prefer micro programming) but I might have a play around

[WildBoarMouse]

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the massive amount of feedback from all this! :)

[WildBoarMouse]

Ok, so if there's no comms, it's an easy project. Graphing, data grids, all those sorts of things are easy peasy in .NET. I'd be keen to see your file format (or just whatever you want to store) and what you want out of the interface. C# is .net, so all native Windows calls, be easy to knock something up.
We don't have any kind of file format yet. :) I figured that would be something to knock together with the person that would end up having to read from it. We're probably a few weeks away from beginning to log data. I figured it would be a good idea to have a chat to a GUI person first so I/we don't go down a path that makes their life difficult :yes:

[imdying]

You'd be hard pressed to make life too difficult. .NET (and I'm pretty sure Delphi) has heaps of string manipulation functions and classes that'll take any data you want to throw at it. Throw up some ideas and we'll put our collective brains together :)

[WildBoarMouse]

You'd be hard pressed to make life too difficult. .NET (and I'm pretty sure Delphi) has heaps of string manipulation functions and classes that'll take any data you want to throw at it. Throw up some ideas and we'll put our collective brains together :)
Will do. :p I'll throw up another post once we have some sample data.

[Wonko]

What sort of look/feel are you after?
mI my minds eye I see the interface being a screen full of different dials and graphs showing all the data as it happens.

could be run in two modes. One "real time", and one at 1/10(or whatever) for more analysis of what's happening. also have the ability to step forward throught time blocks one by one.

I imagin that your data loging would be a csv type file.

I'd use VB.net by choice, but would need to learn about directX.

*sits back and waits for the "My programming language is better than yours" internet fight*

[WildBoarMouse]

What sort of look/feel are you after?
In my minds eye I see the interface being a screen full of different dials and graphs showing all the data as it happens.
Sounds good. Because so many things will be happening, it might be useful to keep all the data the user needs to look at in one place. Possibly something akin to the Windows performance monitor? Sounds like the ideas are heading down the same track though... To begin with, something that displays everything in a simple, easy to use fashion. Something that non-computer people will have no effort in understanding. :)

Could be run in two modes. One "real time", and one at 1/10(or whatever) for more analysis of what's happening. also have the ability to step forward through time blocks one by one.
Yep, we're on par with that one :)

I imagine that your data loging would be a csv type file.
i had a think about this one, and we'd actually end up wasting a huge amount of storage space on comma's. Easy to process, but a little wasteful. This should be an easy thing to sort out...

I'd use VB.net by choice, but would need to learn about directX.
The idea of having the graphical feedback is for the "that could be cool for the future" type thing.

*sits back and waits for the "My programming language is better than yours" internet fight*
Bah, no one here seems to use C# anyway. :)

[imdying]

Something like the windows perf mon would be easy, add and remove traces as necessary.

If not csv, then fixed length fields?

Shouldn't need directx for this, that's pretty overkill, but quite cool.

80% of .net in this country is c#, would be a good oppurtunity to learn (it's dead dead easy if you know Java, and still quite easy if you know any ,net languages. I'm assuming you know at least one curly brace language?). I'd be happy to help you if you get stuck.

[WildBoarMouse]

Yeah, fixed length of some sort... :) TBD There will be some variation in the data logged but that can be specified in a file format specifier at the beginning of the file. That specifier can be a fixed format. I'll have a good think about it next week. I've written a few data logs for security systems and larger projects so this should be relatively straight forward.

Agreed. For the first part of this directX will definitely not be needed. We've got some ideas of what we'd like to do in the future so not having to re-write everything that's been done would definitely be an advantage :)

I'm fluent in C, fairly in C++, less so in VC++, barely C# :) A few of the guys here at work use C# so there's always a helping hand. Just a pity none of them ride bikes!