Using Serial Tablets 1

[perplexd]

I have a project where I am updating some old Basic code, written for DOS!! This program reads in coordinates from a tablet and then does some integration calculations.

The problem is arising with communicating with the tablet.

I now have a new tablet (a Wacom Intuos2). I have installed all the software necessary for it to run on the computer...it can now act as a pointer instead of the mouse in all applications, and all the other features work. The problem is that rather than moving the mouse about on the screen I have to find the coordinates at which the pen is pointing. How do I do this?

The old software used an open channel command:
OPEN "COM2:9600, E, 7, 2" AS #1.
However this doesn't with the new tablet and OS.

Any help much appreciated...and before you ask, no I haven't got a programming manual for the tablet!! I wish I did!

 

[johnwm]

If it looks like a mouse, try standard mouse location stuff

Private Sub Form_MouseMove(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, X As Single, Y As Single)
'do your move stuff here, mouse at x,y
End Sub

There are similar events for MouseDown and MouseUp that you can use to pick up clicks etc
Let me know if this helps
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[perplexd]

Is there any way to "catch" the position data before it gets to the screen though? (The data is coming in through Com2.)

If I do have to use mouse position, it will decrease the number of available coordinates as there are only going to be 1024x768 pixels on the screen, but about 32000x28000 pixels on the pad.

In the old system it opened a channel to the com port...how do I do that?

 

[DangerPowers]

Try using the Microsoft COMM control to deal with the COM port.

Check out

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/comm98/html/vbobjComm.asp

for more info on the COMM control.

 

[johnwm]

WowEE! I'm impressed! <g>

You must have very steady hands, or a very big pad. Reasonable muscle control will control movements of about .25mm or 10 thou. That makes your pad about 26 foot x 23 foot if you can actually use all the resolution

Sorry I couldn't help

Good Luck Let me know if this helps
________________________________________________________________
If you are worried about how to post, please check out FAQ222-2244 first

'There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.'

 

[perplexd]

As you said yourself reasonable muscle control will control movements of .25mm. As my pad's active area is 305mm x 226mm, this means with reasonable muscle control I will have a resolution of 1220x904, which is better than the 1024x768 resolution of the screen.

In addition the whole point of this is to do it as accurately as possible, hence the user will be concentrating more causing better than reasonable muscle control!!

Plus what's the point in losing accuracy at this early stage, when it is available? It will only skew the final results.

 

[DonQuichote]

Under windows, All digitizer (tablet) routines are in the library WINTAB.DLL. Look for documentation of this on the internet. You'll have quite some programming to look up to, but it can be done (did it myself and it works).

Good luck and patience!

 

[perplexd]

Thankyou to DangerPowers and DonQuichote, I'll take a look and see what I make of it!

 

[perplexd]

Definitely the Wintab.dll is the way to go about it

Thank you all.