David's Opinions

Hot Plug and Play – USB Missile Launchers – Mac OS X 31 July 2006

Development on the “USB Missile Launcher NZ” program has continued at an exciting pace!

I’m pleased to report that the program now detects the connection (and disconnection) of multiple USB Missile Launches without having to restart the software.

Below are the list of changes that have been completed and will be available in the next public release.

– Replaced Fire with Red Button
– Added Triple Fire Button
– Corrected timing on Test and Park buttons
– Cosmetic changes to layout of Launcher control screen
– Added Nuclear Klaxon sound to certain button operations
– Added USB driver support for multiple USB Rocket Launchers!
– Added detection of USB Rocket Launcher connection while program running (Hot Plug!)
– Added detection of USB Rocket Launcher removal while program running (Hot unplug!)
– Added version history and readme details to the About Dialog box
– Altered autolock preverences – a zero value will never lock the launcher now
– Altered attributes on main window so that resizing is not allowed

Control Multiple Missile Launchers 30 July 2006

It’s working! [no release yet]

The program now detects more than one USB Missile Launcher and issues the same command to all missile lauchers it has found. I’ve got some testing to do with plugging and unplugging as well as on/off missile launchers.

The USB Missile Launcher detection software is a combination of C and Cocoa (Objective-C). When I release the program it will include the source code for those that are interested.

Control of multiple Missile Launchers starts you thinking…  all launchers working together or independant control of specific launchers… and how does one implement this, what would the interface look like?

Programming these devices could be a great school project. You get to program an interface to yours or others requirements and can demonstrate physical control of devices!

Anyway enough ramblings I’m off to test the software again.

Control Multiple Missile Launchers 29 July 2006

Just to let you know that I’m working on the Missile Launcher software at the mom’ve borrowed another launcher from Glenn and working through the USB device control code at the moment.

In other changes, the fire button is now RED! and there’s also a “3 Fire” button.

I do not currently have a planned release date. The release date is more dependant on getting the code clean compiled and working as intended.

Cocoa Source – USB Missile launcher – SS_PrefsController 1 July 2006

I have re-released the USB Missile Launcher NZ with updated source code, version 1.2b. No functionality has changed for the launcher.

I have made a change to the source code so that the preferences subsystem is now Universal. Further I have tidied up and included the updated preferencePane XCode  projects. The previous implementation used Legacy Cocoa Bundles. The issues that I was having with Legacy Cocoa Bundles and “normal” Cocoa Bundles have been resolved.

I have written up some documentation for Matt Gremmell on the SS_PrefsController source and provided this to Matt. Hopefully he will release a new SS_PrefsController package soon. I’ve built some documentation with screen shots and example source code on the tips and tricks for getting these preference panes working with your program. It is relatively easy to get working and can save you a lot of time “re-inveting the wheel”. Matt’s preferences subsystem is very good and will save you quite some time – if you follow the documentation.

Did you know that I have a shareware screensaver for Mac OS X? – LogoSaver – Please consider paying the shareware fee, it’s only US$5.00. The software also appears on VersionTracker and MacUpdate.

Have Fun.