Hello!! This is my first post in this forum and I hope I dont bother you with my problem. You see, Im not a Hardware programmer, I kinda of a wannabe. Ok lets go to the problem.
I have this friend that assembled a little machine to simulate a voting proccess, in this voting proccess the users (the voters) have only 2 choices [YES] of [NO] and the machine counts the votes and shows them in displays. The CKT used a PIC MC, the displays and other weird things I dont know what they are.
My friend wants me to create an Interface program to work with the device from the PC (running Windows). The program is to make user job easier and prettier. The machine works by itself but the Idea is that through the software the User can be prompted to Enter its vote (press the buttons of the machine), the software will Display the current values of the votes, the operator of the software will be able to end the program and finally display the Winner of the election.
Now here is the deal:
1. I havent seen the CKT so I dont have access to it right now.
2. I know it will be linked with the Computer through the COM ports (or is it LPT?, I know are the ones used also for Printers)
3. I Dont need help to develop the program I just talked about in the previous lines... what I need is help to get started the communication.
You see, that is the problem. How do I communicate my software with that device? How does it work?
I know I'll probably use theandCode:outpfunctions or other similars. But that is not what worries me, what worries me is things like getting the address of the ports, knowing what Im receiving when I'll be reading the input from the hardware and that stuff.Code:inp
Notice this is the first time I do such task so I know to little about it, I'd appreciate any kind of help. For me would be great to help my friend out and understand how to do this kind of stuff since I believe is more powerfull than the conventional programming desktop style I am used to.
Finally here Im providing the maps for the CKT and stuff, I dont understand them, but I also have been told that I really dont need to. (Id like to, but that is too much to ask)