Greetings -
I am working on a software manager (GUI) for instruments that I manufacture. It will interface to a variety of real hardware instruments and dummy demo (virtual) instruments. I would like to make this modular (1 module = interface for one device type) so that it can be expandable over time, with one module per instrument. Instruments normally connect by USB, so for real instruments, the module will just implement the serialport-over-USB for that module. For virtual instruments, the module will be a full instrument simulator with everything going in and out as if it were using serialport-over-USB.
In past eons, one of the ways of doing this was tcp/ip. Is this still a recommended method when the host app and the modules all within the same machine and across operating systems? If so, is any of the protocols (e.g. udp, tcp, etc) more appropriate? If tcp/ip is not recommended, what DO you recommend?
What is the recommended location for such modules?
Is there a recommended way for the host app to learn what modules are present? I can see some kind of scan mechanism and I can see a text-based index list in the module directory; any better way?
Any comments or suggestions about designing such a system would really be appreciated.
Many thanks
Jim Wagner
Oregon Research Electronics
2 posts - 2 participants