Visual Basic .NET - Motion Detector Bricklet

This is the description of the Visual Basic .NET API bindings for the Motion Detector Bricklet. General information and technical specifications for the Motion Detector Bricklet are summarized in its hardware description.

An installation guide for the Visual Basic .NET API bindings is part of their general description.

Examples

The example code below is Public Domain (CC0 1.0).

Callback

Download (ExampleCallback.vb)

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Imports System
Imports Tinkerforge

Module ExampleCallback
    Const HOST As String = "localhost"
    Const PORT As Integer = 4223
    Const UID As String = "XYZ" ' Change XYZ to the UID of your Motion Detector Bricklet

    ' Callback subroutine for motion detected callback
    Sub MotionDetectedCB(ByVal sender As BrickletMotionDetector)
        Console.WriteLine("Motion Detected")
    End Sub

    ' Callback subroutine for detection cycle ended callback
    Sub DetectionCycleEndedCB(ByVal sender As BrickletMotionDetector)
        Console.WriteLine("Detection Cycle Ended (next detection possible in ~3 seconds)")
    End Sub

    Sub Main()
        Dim ipcon As New IPConnection() ' Create IP connection
        Dim md As New BrickletMotionDetector(UID, ipcon) ' Create device object

        ipcon.Connect(HOST, PORT) ' Connect to brickd
        ' Don't use device before ipcon is connected

        ' Register motion detected callback to subroutine MotionDetectedCB
        AddHandler md.MotionDetectedCallback, AddressOf MotionDetectedCB

        ' Register detection cycle ended callback to subroutine DetectionCycleEndedCB
        AddHandler md.DetectionCycleEndedCallback, AddressOf DetectionCycleEndedCB

        Console.WriteLine("Press key to exit")
        Console.ReadLine()
        ipcon.Disconnect()
    End Sub
End Module

API

Since Visual Basic .NET does not support multiple return values directly, we use the ByRef keyword to return multiple values from a function.

All functions and procedures listed below are thread-safe.

Basic Functions

Class BrickletMotionDetector(ByVal uid As String, ByVal ipcon As IPConnection)

Creates an object with the unique device ID uid:

Dim motionDetector As New BrickletMotionDetector("YOUR_DEVICE_UID", ipcon)

This object can then be used after the IP Connection is connected.

Function BrickletMotionDetector.GetMotionDetected() As Byte
Returns:
  • motion – Type: Byte, Range: See constants

Returns 1 if a motion was detected. How long this returns 1 after a motion was detected can be adjusted with one of the small potentiometers on the Motion Detector Bricklet, see here.

There is also a blue LED on the Bricklet that is on as long as the Bricklet is in the "motion detected" state.

The following constants are available for this function:

For motion:

  • BrickletMotionDetector.MOTION_NOT_DETECTED = 0
  • BrickletMotionDetector.MOTION_DETECTED = 1

Advanced Functions

Sub BrickletMotionDetector.SetStatusLEDConfig(ByVal config As Byte)
Parameters:
  • config – Type: Byte, Range: See constants, Default: 2

Sets the status led configuration.

By default the status LED turns on if a motion is detected and off is no motion is detected.

You can also turn the LED permanently on/off.

The following constants are available for this function:

For config:

  • BrickletMotionDetector.STATUS_LED_CONFIG_OFF = 0
  • BrickletMotionDetector.STATUS_LED_CONFIG_ON = 1
  • BrickletMotionDetector.STATUS_LED_CONFIG_SHOW_STATUS = 2

New in version 2.0.1 (Plugin).

Function BrickletMotionDetector.GetStatusLEDConfig() As Byte
Returns:
  • config – Type: Byte, Range: See constants, Default: 2

Returns the configuration as set by SetStatusLEDConfig().

The following constants are available for this function:

For config:

  • BrickletMotionDetector.STATUS_LED_CONFIG_OFF = 0
  • BrickletMotionDetector.STATUS_LED_CONFIG_ON = 1
  • BrickletMotionDetector.STATUS_LED_CONFIG_SHOW_STATUS = 2

New in version 2.0.1 (Plugin).

Sub BrickletMotionDetector.GetIdentity(ByRef uid As String, ByRef connectedUid As String, ByRef position As Char, ByRef hardwareVersion() As Byte, ByRef firmwareVersion() As Byte, ByRef deviceIdentifier As Integer)
Output Parameters:
  • uid – Type: String, Length: up to 8
  • connectedUid – Type: String, Length: up to 8
  • position – Type: Char, Range: ["a"C to "h"C, "z"C]
  • hardwareVersion – Type: Byte Array, Length: 3
    • 0: major – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 255]
    • 1: minor – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 255]
    • 2: revision – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 255]
  • firmwareVersion – Type: Byte Array, Length: 3
    • 0: major – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 255]
    • 1: minor – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 255]
    • 2: revision – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 255]
  • deviceIdentifier – Type: Integer, Range: [0 to 216 - 1]

Returns the UID, the UID where the Bricklet is connected to, the position, the hardware and firmware version as well as the device identifier.

The position can be 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g' or 'h' (Bricklet Port). A Bricklet connected to an Isolator Bricklet is always at position 'z'.

The device identifier numbers can be found here. There is also a constant for the device identifier of this Bricklet.

Callbacks

Callbacks can be registered to receive time critical or recurring data from the device. The registration is done by assigning a procedure to an callback property of the device object:

Sub MyCallback(ByVal sender As BrickletMotionDetector, ByVal value As Short)
    Console.WriteLine("Value: {0}", value)
End Sub

AddHandler motionDetector.ExampleCallback, AddressOf MyCallback

The available callback property and their type of parameters are described below.

Note

Using callbacks for recurring events is always preferred compared to using getters. It will use less USB bandwidth and the latency will be a lot better, since there is no round trip time.

Event BrickletMotionDetector.MotionDetectedCallback(ByVal sender As BrickletMotionDetector)
Callback Parameters:
  • sender – Type: BrickletMotionDetector

This callback is called after a motion was detected.

Event BrickletMotionDetector.DetectionCycleEndedCallback(ByVal sender As BrickletMotionDetector)
Callback Parameters:
  • sender – Type: BrickletMotionDetector

This callback is called when the detection cycle ended. When this callback is called, a new motion can be detected again after approximately 2 seconds.

Virtual Functions

Virtual functions don't communicate with the device itself, but operate only on the API bindings device object. They can be called without the corresponding IP Connection object being connected.

Function BrickletMotionDetector.GetAPIVersion() As Byte()
Output Parameters:
  • apiVersion – Type: Byte Array, Length: 3
    • 0: major – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 255]
    • 1: minor – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 255]
    • 2: revision – Type: Byte, Range: [0 to 255]

Returns the version of the API definition implemented by this API bindings. This is neither the release version of this API bindings nor does it tell you anything about the represented Brick or Bricklet.

Function BrickletMotionDetector.GetResponseExpected(ByVal functionId As Byte) As Boolean
Parameters:
  • functionId – Type: Byte, Range: See constants
Returns:
  • responseExpected – Type: Boolean

Returns the response expected flag for the function specified by the function ID parameter. It is true if the function is expected to send a response, false otherwise.

For getter functions this is enabled by default and cannot be disabled, because those functions will always send a response. For callback configuration functions it is enabled by default too, but can be disabled by SetResponseExpected(). For setter functions it is disabled by default and can be enabled.

Enabling the response expected flag for a setter function allows to detect timeouts and other error conditions calls of this setter as well. The device will then send a response for this purpose. If this flag is disabled for a setter function then no response is sent and errors are silently ignored, because they cannot be detected.

The following constants are available for this function:

For functionId:

  • BrickletMotionDetector.FUNCTION_SET_STATUS_LED_CONFIG = 4
Sub BrickletMotionDetector.SetResponseExpected(ByVal functionId As Byte, ByVal responseExpected As Boolean)
Parameters:
  • functionId – Type: Byte, Range: See constants
  • responseExpected – Type: Boolean

Changes the response expected flag of the function specified by the function ID parameter. This flag can only be changed for setter (default value: false) and callback configuration functions (default value: true). For getter functions it is always enabled.

Enabling the response expected flag for a setter function allows to detect timeouts and other error conditions calls of this setter as well. The device will then send a response for this purpose. If this flag is disabled for a setter function then no response is sent and errors are silently ignored, because they cannot be detected.

The following constants are available for this function:

For functionId:

  • BrickletMotionDetector.FUNCTION_SET_STATUS_LED_CONFIG = 4
Sub BrickletMotionDetector.SetResponseExpectedAll(ByVal responseExpected As Boolean)
Parameters:
  • responseExpected – Type: Boolean

Changes the response expected flag for all setter and callback configuration functions of this device at once.

Constants

Const BrickletMotionDetector.DEVICE_IDENTIFIER

This constant is used to identify a Motion Detector Bricklet.

The GetIdentity() function and the IPConnection.EnumerateCallback callback of the IP Connection have a deviceIdentifier parameter to specify the Brick's or Bricklet's type.

Const BrickletMotionDetector.DEVICE_DISPLAY_NAME

This constant represents the human readable name of a Motion Detector Bricklet.