Getting Started With The Shared Phidgets Infrastructure

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Overview

  1. Installation of all required tools
  2. Create a new server
  3. Start Connector tool to share local Phidgets to the global space
  4. Overview of all connected Phidgets
  5. Development and tutorials


1. Installation of all required tools

Follow the setup instructions to install the SharedPhidgets toolkit on your computer, and any computer that is included in the infrastructure that you will use.

2. Create a new server

On one of the connected computers in your infrastructure you have to run the SharedPhidgets server. Read the server setup instructions to create a new server.

3. Start Connector tool to share local Phidgets to the global space

With the SharedPhidgets Connector tool, you can share all the Phidgets that are connected to your local computer, to the server. When Phidgets are shared, all the connected applications and tools can access this Phidget device.
Read the instructions for the SharedPhidgets Connector.

4. Overview of all connected Phidgets

You have many ways to discover the available Phidget devices:

  • Start the SharedPhidget Manager program: you see a list of all available devices
  • Start the SharedPhidgets Controller GUI: you see a list of all available devices, and when selecting a device from the list, the associated skin for this device will eb displayed and allow overview and control of the device
  • Create a PhidgetManagerSkin object in your application: just click on the entry in the SharedPhidgets toolbox in VisualStudio.NET and click on your form.
  • Use the PhidgetManager object: you can iterate over the Devices list of the PhidgetManager
  • SharedPhidgets Maps Controller: can create overview maps of located sensors and Phidget devices. Allows some customization; only the GroupLab standard configuration is avilable as saved XML configuration.
  • Remote Controller and Sensor Spy: these applications are designed for using with a Tablet PC, and allow the RFID enhanced exploration of Phidget devices by simply attaching RFID tags to any of the avilable devices and creating associations between the tags and the device shared dictionary entry.

5. Development and tutorials

If your infrastructure is ready, you can continue reading the tutorial for getting started with SharedPhidgets programming.