Phidget webservice fun

[fixstuff555]

Hi all,

I was playing around today with the Phidget remote webservice and flowstone.

Attached is a screenshot, and the fsm file, and the phidget webservice log that I was testing with.

If you have a Phidget LCD display, you can test this also. I had 1 computer on the network (ip # 192.168.1.151) connected to the Phidget locally. I had 3 other computers, and the local computer (total of 4) connected to the webservice. I had 2 desktops, 1 HTPC, and a netbook, all connected simultaneously.

Each computer had 6 connections, for a total of 24 connections. Individually, I tried up to 12 or 13 connections on a computer (had 2 computers with 12), but I never saw a limit, although I'm sure there is one. Even with 12 connections, my CPU was only at around 6% or so. The only trouble I saw was the LCD display itself had issues connecting multiple instances on XP machines, the 8/8/8 module could connect just fine. On Vista and Windows 7 I could connect to multiple instances just fine to both the LCD and 8/8/8 module.

Using HTPC's as "nodes", I can have local Phidget modules plugged into individual HTPC's. I can access these from a Master PC with a Flowstone app, and I can have a lot of local control as well. This would be an example of the distributed control I have talked about in other posts. I plan on using a web cam, that is tied into the network directly, that will allow visual feedback from a master controller. Has anyone else done any testing with other Phidget modules over the webservice? I'm curious to know what is possible. This capability would greatly reduce my need to have client / servers set up for basic I/O. I still would need them for COM port interfacing, but wouldn't need to worry about the Phidget data. One nice thing about the webservice is that for each connection, a new port is defined for that connection. This allows the multiple connections to the same device. I would not be able to do this with flowstone, since each server will connect to only 1 IP address, although I need to test this to make sure.

Well enough for this post, feel free to comment or make suggestions. Sorry about the big JPG, I just wanted the info in the serial setup to be visible.

[fixstuff555]

As a side note, the netbook where I had trouble connecting to the LCD module only, I downloaded the latest C++ redistributable from Microsoft, and that fixed the problem. Without that updated file, Flowstone will also crash when the connection is lost. With the file, it will re-connect automatically. Just so everyone knows...

BTW, to get all of that working, you have to have the Phidget dlls installed on every machine, The Phidget webservice running on every machine, and Bonjour print service installed as well. This needs to be installed so that the local Phidget machine can also connect to the Phidgets.