Released RAD Studio 12.3 Athens Delphi and C++ Builder version of all the Mitov Software libraries including 64 Bit IDE Support

   I have just released the first version of all of the Mitov Software libraries for RAD Studio, Delphi and C++ Builder 12.3 Athens including the new 64 Bit IDE Support!

The libraries are available for download here:

https://mitov.com/downloads

Here is also a list of some of the major improvements and new features of the libraries:

• Added RAD Studio 12.3 Athens support
• Added support for the new 64 bit RAD Studio IDE
• Improved IGDIPlus image codecs support
• Added IGPMatrixStore.Restore method
• Added IGPGraphics.ForHDC
• Added IGPGraphics ForSavedRenderingOrigin, ForSavedCompositingMode, ForSavedCompositingQuality, ForSavedTextRenderingHint, ForSavedContrast, ForSavedInterpolationMode, ForSavedSmoothingMode, ForSavedPixelOffsetMode, ForSavedTransform, and ForSavedClip
• Added DivideBy, Bottom, and Right to TIGPRect and TIGPRectF
• Added TIGPFMXBitmap class
• Added TIGPFMXBitmapHelper, TIGPFMXGraphics, and TIGPFMXCanvasHelper class helpers
• Added ForGraphics to TIGPVclBitmapHelper, and TIGPVclCanvasHelper
• TJsonParser renamed to JsonParser
• Initial migration to using Make instead of Create class methods for creating interfaced objects
• Improved performance
• Added component name highlighting in the property editor
• Improved Sockets error handling
• Added option to pass multiple patterns to ForFiles
• Added support for hint images
• Improved 64 bit support
• Added support for paste multiple items
• Added ForNames and ReadAnyString to IReader
• Added IsConnectedByIDs with Set parameter
• Improved C++ Builder Win64x compatibility
• ClockPin renamed to ClockInputPin in some of the components
• Added IsConnected to the Socket and ComPort components
• Improved HEX editor
• Added Playing, CanPlay, and CanStart properties to TVLVideoPlayer
• Added OnPaint support for the VideoDisplays

Please enjoy!

With best regards,

   Boian

Teaser: Visuino Live Q&A - Feb 22, 2025 11AM Pacific Time

 To celebrate the 10th Visuino Anniversary I will have a live Q&A this Saturday :-)

Here is a short teaser:

Please join, me to ask questions, suggest new features, and dive into discussions on everything microcontroller-related. Discover what it’s like to be a Visuino developer as I share my personal journey—from how it all started to the insights that have shaped my projects. 

I hope you will all enjoy it! :-)

Cheers,

  Boian

Just released the 10th anniversary edition of Visuino and Visuino Pro - Graphical Development for Arduino - 8_0_0_138 with Texas Instruments MSP432, RP2350, ATtiny controllers, RFID support and much more...

10 years ago to the day, I created the first Visuino prototype version. In the following few days, all the initial features were added, and I showed it for the first time during the 2015 Delphi week.

To celebrate the occasion, I have made a new release today :-)

https://www.visuino.com/downloads

It has been a long journey since then, the initial version was able to program only Arduino boards, and required the Arduino IDE to be able to compile the generated code.

Today, Visuino supports practically all controllers, and even Raspberry Pi, and is able to compile and upload directly from the IDE.

The new release is a huge update, including support for Texas Instruments MSP432, RP2350, many ATtiny series controllers, RFID, and much more.

This version also comes with significant speed improvements, especially when adding/deleting/ connecting and disconnecting components.

There is a lot more, but I will leave it for you to discover all the goodies :-)

Please Enjoy!

  Boian

 

Startup Weekend Conejo Valley 2024 at Hub101

Last weekend, I attended Startup Weekend Conejo Valley 2024 as a mentor.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/startup-weekend-conejo-valley-2024-tickets-1013981996447

This was a great event organized by the nice folks at Hub101 :-)

Part of California Lutheran University’s Steven Dorfman Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Hub101 is the premier startup community hub for the Conejo Valley and Ventura County.

Hub101 also offers coworking space, and organizes some great events!

Here are some pictures I took from the event:

Friday the event kickoff - the path to the event:

The swagger:

In preparation for the event:

The gathering crowd:

Including the smallest attendee :-) :

The opening:

There were many Startup proposals. We all voted on them. In the end, 5 proposals were selected for the event, and teams were formed:

Saturday the teams were busy working on the projects. Here is some of the food that was prepared for them:

Sunday evening the time was up, and the teams had to present what they had done, and the judges were getting ready to vet the Startups:

Team 1 - AI-powered filter for privacy settings and policy agreements:

Team 2 - AI-powered personal companion, helping with mental challenges:

Team 3 - Platform for easy building and management of ADUs:

Team 4 - AI Alter Ego - create an AI copy of yourself that will take a different career path:

Team 5 - Platform directly connecting fishermen with consumers.

Awards were given to all teams for different achievements:

And finally, we all had a nice final dinner :-) :

All in all, it was another great event organized by Hub101. I am looking forward to their next event :-).

Visuino is updated to support the new ESP32 3.0 platform!

Few days ago Espressif released new version of the ESP32 Arduino platform 3.0.

Unfortunately the 3.0 version has a large number of breaking changes, and was not compatible with the Visuino generated code :-( .
This sent me scrambling to update Visuino to the new version, and today finally I was able to make a release fixing this :-).

Here is a video showing how to upgrade the ESP32 platform to 3.0.X:

Please note that while Visuino mostly uses its own libraries, there are couple of exceptions. As example it uses the IRremote library to work with Infrared Remote transmitters.

Sadly ESP32 3.0 does not support the Hall Sensor any more, so I was forced to also remove the support for it :-( . Trust me, I tried all I could to find any way to support it, but since there was no source for the support on low level, that I was able to find, I had to give up :-( .

ESP32 3.0 also changes the default partitions for the boards. You may need to change the partition if you are building a big project!

Here is a video showing how to change the ESP32 Partition:

Currently the IRremote library is not yet ESP32 3.0.X compatible. Hopefully it will be updated in the coming days, but at present there are problems when using Infrared Remote devices with ESP32 :-( .

You can download the latest Visuino here:

https://www.visuino.com/downloads/

Please Enjoy! :-)

Assemble Penguin-Bot Arduino Robot KIT Ver1 - Step 10: Install the Battery Box

     Couple of years ago I received another Cool Penguin-Bot Arduino Robot KIT from Elegoo donated for the Visuino development :-). Unfortunately due to health issues, and work on Visuino, I was not able to finish posting all the assembly videos at the time :-(.

Finally now I have a chance to post all the remaining videos.

This is the Final Production Version of the Robot. I already posted videos for the Preproduction version, and now here is the first assembly video of the production version.

I already posted:
Unboxing Video 
Step 1:  Assemble The Feet, and Install the Servos controlling them
Step 2: Assemble The Legs - Part 1
Step 3: Assemble The Legs - Part 2

Step 4: Assemble The Baseplate

Step 5: Install The Legs

Step 6: Install The Arduino Control Board

Step 7: Install The Speakers

Step 8: Install the Side Panels

Step 9: Install the Ultrasonic Ranger

Here is the tenth Install the Battery Box

I am preparing the rest of the Assembly videos and will post them in the following days. I also have showed programming the Robot with Visuino and controlling it from Delphi Application:

Controlling Visuino Programmed Arduino Robots from Delphi Apps

Cheers,
  Boian

#Visuino #Arduino #Elegoo #Robot #PenguinBot

Assemble Penguin-Bot Arduino Robot KIT Ver1 - Step 9: Install the Ultrasonic Ranger

    Couple of years ago I received another Cool Penguin-Bot Arduino Robot KIT from Elegoo donated for the Visuino development :-). Unfortunately due to health issues, and work on Visuino, I was not able to finish posting all the assembly videos at the time :-(.

Finally now I have a chance to post all the remaining videos.

This is the Final Production Version of the Robot. I already posted videos for the Preproduction version, and now here is the first assembly video of the production version.

I already posted:
Unboxing Video 
Step 1:  Assemble The Feet, and Install the Servos controlling them
Step 2: Assemble The Legs - Part 1
Step 3: Assemble The Legs - Part 2

Step 4: Assemble The Baseplate

Step 5: Install The Legs

Step 6: Install The Arduino Control Board

Step 7: Install The Speakers

Step 8: Install the Side Panels

Here is the ninth Install the Ultrasonic Ranger

I am preparing the rest of the Assembly videos and will post them in the following days. I also have showed programming the Robot with Visuino and controlling it from Delphi Application:

Controlling Visuino Programmed Arduino Robots from Delphi Apps

Cheers,
  Boian

#Visuino #Arduino #Elegoo #Robot #PenguinBot

Assemble the official version 1 Elegoo Penguin-Bot Arduino Robot KIT Step 8: Install the Side Panels

   Couple of years ago I received another Cool Penguin-Bot Arduino Robot KIT from Elegoo donated for the Visuino development :-). Unfortunately due to health issues, and work on Visuino, I was not able to finish posting all the assembly videos at the time :-(.

Finally now I have a chance to post all the remaining videos.

This is the Final Production Version of the Robot. I already posted videos for the Preproduction version, and now here is the first assembly video of the production version.

I already posted:
Unboxing Video 
Step 1:  Assemble The Feet, and Install the Servos controlling them
Step 2: Assemble The Legs - Part 1
Step 3: Assemble The Legs - Part 2

Step 4: Assemble The Baseplate

Step 5: Install The Legs

Step 6: Install The Arduino Control Board

Step 7: Install The Speakers

Here is the eighth Install the Side Panels

I am preparing the rest of the Assembly videos and will post them in the following days. I also have showed programming the Robot with Visuino and controlling it from Delphi Application:
Controlling Visuino Programmed Arduino Robots from Delphi Apps

Cheers,
  Boian

#Visuino #Arduino #Elegoo #Robot #PenguinBot

Assemble the official version 1 Elegoo Penguin-Bot Arduino Robot KIT Step 7: Install The Speakers

  Couple of years ago I received another Cool Penguin-Bot Arduino Robot KIT from Elegoo donated for the Visuino development :-). Unfortunately due to health issues, and work on Visuino, I was not able to finish posting all the assembly videos at the time :-(.

Finally now I have a chance to post all the remaining videos.

This is the Final Production Version of the Robot. I already posted videos for the Preproduction version, and now here is the first assembly video of the production version.

I already posted:
Unboxing Video 
Step 1:  Assemble The Feet, and Install the Servos controlling them
Step 2: Assemble The Legs - Part 1
Step 3: Assemble The Legs - Part 2

Step 4: Assemble The Baseplate

Step 5: Install The Legs

Step 6: Install The Arduino Control Board

Here is the seventh Install The Speakers

I am preparing the rest of the Assembly videos and will post them in the following days. I also have showed programming the Robot with Visuino and controlling it from Delphi Application:
Controlling Visuino Programmed Arduino Robots from Delphi Apps

Cheers,
  Boian

#Visuino #Arduino #Elegoo #Robot #PenguinBot

Assemble the official version 1 Elegoo Penguin-Bot Arduino Robot KIT Step 6: Install The Arduino Control Board

 Couple of years ago I received another Cool Penguin-Bot Arduino Robot KIT from Elegoo donated for the Visuino development :-). Unfortunately due to health issues, and work on Visuino, I was not able to finish posting all the assembly videos at the time :-(.

Finally now I have a chance to post all the remaining videos.

This is the Final Production Version of the Robot. I already posted videos for the Preproduction version, and now here is the first assembly video of the production version.

I already posted:
Unboxing Video 
Step 1:  Assemble The Feet, and Install the Servos controlling them
Step 2: Assemble The Legs - Part 1
Step 3: Assemble The Legs - Part 2

Step 4: Assemble The Baseplate

Step 5: Install The Legs

Here is the sixth Install The Arduino Control Board

I am preparing the rest of the Assembly videos and will post them in the following days. I also have showed programming the Robot with Visuino and controlling it from Delphi Application:
Controlling Visuino Programmed Arduino Robots from Delphi Apps

Cheers,
  Boian

#Visuino #Arduino #Elegoo #Robot #PenguinBot

Assemble the official version 1 Elegoo Penguin-Bot Arduino Robot KIT Step 5: Assemble The Baseplate

Couple of years ago I received another Cool Penguin-Bot Arduino Robot KIT from Elegoo donated for the Visuino development :-). Unfortunately due to health issues, and work on Visuino, I was not able to finish posting all the assembly videos at the time :-(.
Finally now I have a chance to post all the remaining videos.

This is the Final Production Version of the Robot. I already posted videos for the Preproduction version, and now here is the first assembly video of the production version.

I already posted:
Unboxing Video 
Step 1:  Assemble The Feet, and Install the Servos controlling them
Step 2: Assemble The Legs - Part 1
Step 3: Assemble The Legs - Part 2

Step 4: Assemble The Baseplate

Here is the fifth Install The Legs

I am preparing the rest of the Assembly videos and will post them in the following days. I also have showed programming the Robot with Visuino and controlling it from Delphi Application:
Controlling Visuino Programmed Arduino Robots from Delphi Apps

Cheers,
  Boian

#Visuino #Arduino #Elegoo #Robot #PenguinBot

Visuino at Maker Faire LA

Last Saturday I was presenting Visuino at the Maker Faire LA. The event was organized together with City of Stem and hosted at the Los Angeles State Historic Park :-)

Daniel Sidman also came and joined me at the booth helping me as volunteer, and I am very grateful for his help!

It was huge event, with tens of thousands of visitor, and it was extremely exhausting. I barely found time to snap few pictures between the visitors, and here are some of them:

Here are some pictures of the Visuino booth:

 

And some of the great neighbors :-)

Travis Hughes and Scarab: the Environmental Data Collection Robot:

Mandel Lum and his super cool "Flip a Table" project! :-)

And some pictures of the crowd! :-)

Altogether, it was a fantastic event, and I really enjoyed it! 

It was the first time I was presenting at a Maker Faire or any event of such huge size, and I made a lot of mistakes in preparing for it, but at the end it went better than I anticipated!

Looking forward to attending more fun events in the near future, and presenting Visuino to the excited crowd!

Released RAD Studio 12.0 Athens Delphi and C++ Builder version of all the Mitov Software libraries

  I have just released the first version of all of the Mitov Software libraries for RAD Studio, Delphi and C++ Builder 12.0 Athens!

The libraries are available for download here:

https://mitov.com/downloads

Version Delphi and C++ Builder version 12.0 is a huge upgrade from the 11.0 release, and comes with significantly polished GUI, and major quality and performance improvements all across the board.

The latest Mitov Software release of the libraries has benefited considerably from the new and improved Delphi compiler, and IDE :-)

Here is also a list of some of the major improvements and new features of the libraries:

• Redesigned installation not requiring Admin privileges when compiling the libraries
• Improved Performance
• Added Sets support
• Improved Mitov TypeInfo
• Improved Dynamic Type Info
• Improved Mitov Design Time API
• Redesigned Persistent Collection Editor
• Modernized Dialogs
• Improved Win64 support
• Improved Container Classes
• Added TDirecory helper
• Large number of bug fixes
• Improved Property and Component Editors
• Added MouseHitPoint to Scope Channels, and Waterfall Highlighting
• Improved LAVVideoPlayer

Please enjoy!

With best regards,

   Boian

Learn how to Control Arduino Manipulator Robot with Delphi and Visuino over Serial, WiFi or Bluetooth - Tomorrow at Coding Boot Camp 2022

 Join me during my Coding Boot Camp session tomorrow - August 24, 2022, 4:00 PM CDT to learn how to program Arduino Manipulator Robot with Visuino, and how to create Delphi applications to control it over Serial Port, WiFi or Bluetooth.

Control Arduino Manipulator with Delphi and Visuino over WiFi or Bluetooth

You will learn:

• How to install and work with Arduino Shields and modules
• How to program the Robot with Visuino
• How to receive and record data from the Robot with Delphi
• How to create Animation TimeLine and use it to control the Robot
• How control the Robot from Windows and Android Delphi Applications
• How to communicate with the Robot over Serial, WiFi and Bluetooth

And much more! :-)

Looking forward to have you all join the fun next week! :-)

Cheers,

  Boian

Delphi and C++ Builder XE versions of the libraries

Hi folks, We are in process of designing new version of the site. We expect to have it operational soon. In the mean time I am posting the downloads to the new Delphi and C++ Builder XE versions of the libraries: http://www.mitov.com/InstrumentLab_VCL_4_8_XE.zip http://www.mitov.com/VideoLab_VCL_4_8_XE.zip http://www.mitov.com/AudioLab_VCL_4_8_XE.zip http://www.mitov.com/SignalLab_VCL_4_8_XE.zip http://www.mitov.com/PlotLab_VCL_4_8_XE.zip http://www.mitov.com/VisionLab_VCL_4_8_XE.zip When the new site becomes operational, we will have the links to the downloads available there as well. This is a special edition of the libraries version 4.8 for XE only. The next official release for all versions of Delphi and C++ Builder is under development, and we hope to have it available for download soon. With best regards, Boian Mitov

Happy 27th Birthday Delphi! Here are some free components for you! :-)

Today is the 27th Delphi Birthday!

Happy Birthday Delphi!

To celebrate it, I have just uploaded updated versions of my Open Source TBMDThread Delphi components set with added Delphi 10.1 Berlin, 10.2 Tokyo, 10.3 Rio, 10.4 Sydney, and 11 Alexandria support.

You can download the ZIP from the Free Downloads Page on the site:

https://mitov.com/free_downloads

Please enjoy!

Cheers,

    Boian

Learn how to Control Arduino Manipulator Robot with Delphi and Visuino over WiFi or Bluetooth - next week at DelphiCon 2021

Join me during my DelphiCon 2021 session next week - November 17, 2021, 1:00 pm PST to learn how to program Arduino Manipulator Robot with Visuino, and how to create Delphi applications to control it over Serial Port, WiFi or Bluetooth.

Control Arduino Manipulator with Delphi and Visuino over WiFi or Bluetooth

You will learn:

• How to install and work with Arduino Shields and modules
• How to program the Robot with Visuino
• How to receive and record data from the Robot with Delphi
• How to create Animation TimeLine and use it to control the Robot
• How control the Robot from Windows and Android Delphi Applications
• How to communicate with the Robot over Serial, WiFi and Bluetooth

And much more! :-)

Looking forward to have you all join the fun next week! :-)

Cheers,

  Boian

Released RAD Studio 11.0 Alexandria Delphi and C++ Builder version of all the Mitov Software libraries

 I have just released the first version of all of the Mitov Software libraries for RAD Studio, Delphi and C++ Builder 11.0 Alexandria!

The libraries are available for download here:

https://mitov.com/downloads

Version Delphi and C++ Builder version 11.0 is a huge upgrade from the 10.4 release, and comes with significantly polished GUI, and major quality and performance improvements all across the board.

The latest Mitov Software release of the libraries has benefited considerably from the new and improved Delphi compiler, and IDE :-)

Here is also a list of some of the major improvements and new features of the libraries:

• Improved Performance
• Improved Property Editors
• Improved Debugger Visualizers
• Added more Format Converters
• Improved JSON support
• Improved FMX Waterfall implementation
• Improved Packet/Unpacket components
• Improved Boolean Random Generator
• Improved error Serial Component handling
• Improved error Sockets handling
• Improved Terminal component
• Added 4bit grayscale image support
• Added option for user provided polygons in the TVLDrawPolygonsLayer

Please enjoy!

With best regards,

   Boian

Just published my new "Delphi Dynamic Type Info (Creating Components in Runtime?)" article in the Blaise Pascal Magazine :-)

  Hello everyone,

For the last few months, I have been working hard on a new revolutionary Delphi technology, that I call Dynamic Type Info. It extends the RTTI allowing you to create new data types at runtime similarly to dynamic languages such as Java Script and Python, effectively allowing Delphi to compete head to head with them :-) .

I made the new technology part of the free Mitov.Rintime Delphi library available here:

https://mitov.com/products/mitov-runtime#overview

In the same timeframe, I also rewrote the Visuino from the ground up to use the new technology, and yesterday made a the official release of the new design.

Thanks to DTI most of the Visuino components are now defined in easy to edit plain text files, and are available as Open Source here:

https://bitbucket.org/mitov/visuino-libraries/src/master/

To commemorate the new technology, I also wrote a new article in the Blaise Pascal Magazine showing you how you can use the new technology in your Delphi projects.

The article is now available here:

https://www.blaisepascalmagazine.eu/product/issue-94-95/

You can download the source code of the project in the article here:

http://www.mitov.com/DynamicTypeInfoDemo.zip

I hope you will enjoy it, and use the new Dynamic Type Info functionality in your Delphi project :-)
I am already working on the next Article, so stay tuned ;-)

Cheers,

  Boian Mitov

#Delphi #OpenWire #DynamicTypeInfo

Join me tomorrow for TCoffeeAndCode discussing Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning!

Join me tomorrow at Wed 28-Apr - 5 PM UTC/GMT for TCoffeeAndCode discussing Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning!

https://blogs.embarcadero.com/tcoffeeandcode-spring-central-time-series/

Hope to see you all there and have exciting discussion with a panel of great Delphi, AI and ML enthusiasts :-)

Cheers,
    Boian

Released RAD Studio 10.4.2 Delphi and C++ Builder Beta of all the Mitov Software libraries

I have just released the first version of all of the Mitov Software libraries for RAD Studio, Delphi and C++ Builder 10.4.2!

UPDATE: Major update of the libraries has been released today - 05/12/2021!

http://www.mitov.com/AnimationLab_VCL_8.0.0.21.zip
http://www.mitov.com/CommunicationLab_VCL_8.0.0.21.zip
http://www.mitov.com/LogicLab_VCL_8.0.0.21.zip
http://www.mitov.com/PlotLab_VCL_8.0.0.21.zip
http://www.mitov.com/InstrumentLab_VCL_8.0.0.21.zip
http://www.mitov.com/IntelligenceLab_VCL_8.0.0.21.zip
http://www.mitov.com/SignalLab_VCL_8.0.0.21.zip
http://www.mitov.com/AudioLab_VCL_8.0.0.21.zip
http://www.mitov.com/VisionLab_VCL_8.0.0.21.zip
http://www.mitov.com/VideoLab_VCL_8.0.0.21.zip
http://www.mitov.com/ControlLab_VCL_8.0.0.21.zip
http://www.mitov.com/LightingLab_VCL_8.0.0.21.zip
http://www.mitov.com/BasicAudio_VCL_8.0.0.21.zip
http://www.mitov.com/BasicVideo_VCL_8.0.0.21.zip

http://www.mitov.com/MegaLab_VCL_8.0.0.21.zip

When Embarcadero released RAD Studio version 10.4, it was a massive and impressive redesign of everything from the compiler to the IDE and Code Insight. This unfortunately resulted in some serious compiler bugs that made it impossible for me to port any of the Mitov Software's libraries to it :-( .

I have worked close with Embarcadero to fix the compiler bugs, and finally with RAD Studio version 10.4.2 enough fixes have been made to the compiler so with some rework, I was able to make the first 10.4 release of all of the Mitov Software libraries.

I am working on the official release, and hopefully it will be available in about a week :-)

With best regards,
   Boian

A new Visuino Beta is now available with Raspberry Pi RP2040 support and new Open Source component framework!

  Hello everyone,

I have just released a new major Visuino Beta with Raspberry Pi RP2040 support and new Open Source component framework!

I have posted download links for the Beta:

In the MeWe community:

https://mewe.com/group/5bc7b647058ed309f3286589

And in the Visuino - Visual Arduino Developers group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/861801593868581

This is the biggest Visuino redesign in its 6 years! Visuino has been redesigned from the ground up to use new way to define components. You can now create Visuino components, Shields, and boards by simply using any text editor, PNG image for the icon. In addition I have rewritten most of the Visuino components and Shields in this format, as well as all of the boards, and I have made all of them open source!

You can access the source for the components here:

https://bitbucket.org/mitov/visuino-libraries/src/master/

This version also adds support for the new Raspberry Pi Pico, and a lot of other boards. Here are the highlights:

• Added MKR ZERO
• Added Atmel SAMD21 RTC support
• Adafruit Feather RP2040
• Added Adafruit ItsyBitsy 32u4 - 5V
• Added Adafruit ItsyBitsy 32u4 - 3V
• Added Adafruit ItsyBitsy M0 Express
• Added Adafruit ItsyBitsy M4 Express
• Added Adafruit ItsyBitsy RP2040
• Added Adafruit QT Py - SAMD21
• Added Adafruit QT Py 2040
• Added Seeeduino XIAO
• Added Adafruit Feather HUZZAH32
• Added Pimoroni Tiny 2040
• Added Teensy 4.1
• Added SparkFun Micro Pro - RP2040
• Added SparkFun Thing Plus - RP2040
• Added Raspberry Pi Pico
• Added Generic RP2040 Board
• Improved Feather M0 support
• Significantly improved and expanded Infrared Remote support, including full mapping of few popular IR Remotes

Please Enjoy!

Cheers,

Boian

New! Steaming Hot "Steamduino"! Just add water!

 For the last decade Arduino boards have become the central piece of many maker's, research and engineering projects, bringing to life countless dreams.

Affordable, reliable, well suited for real time tasks, and coming in many shapes and with a wide range of processing, peripheral and I/O capabilities, they have become indispensable tool for any maker today. While their capabilities as powerful controller boards are beyond any doubt, sometimes we as makers need more...

Having a capable board controlling our project is great, but we also need to power the mechanical motion of our projects. Having a reliable mechanical power source for many modern maker's projects is a must. For years we have had to rely on addons as motor shields, DC, Servo or stepper motors, and other improvised solutions just to be able to get some level of mobility or motion for our project. Not only that, but to top it off we often struggle to power it all, be it by adding unreliable batteries, or by running messy power wires, and adding power adapters to an already complex project. 

Have you ever looked at the mess of cables and wished you can go away with them? Or maybe you were somewhere in the jungle, or in deep cave, or on high mountain at night and wondered how do I power this great mud swinging, or maybe snow ball making contraption? Sure you can use batteries, but what to do when the power in them inevitably runs out?

And while we all enjoy the high speed of all those Arduinos, there are the times when we want to slow down the execution, and enjoy the view of the passing bytes while the processor leisurely strolls down the execution paths of the algorithms. And would not it be really nice sometimes to have a way to just switch to reverse and go back that branch we just entered, reliving all those beautiful binary sceneries on the way?

Say it no more, as there is a salvation steaming your way!

The board with shining boiler, and slim cylinders - Steamduino ! The very first steam powered Arduino compatible board!

Combines the computing power of traditional Arduino controller board, with the mechanical power of a modern steam engine. Compatible with all standard Arduino shields. steam engine line shafts, and capable to use wide range of fuels, Steamduino is the board to go for any modern makers project!

Steamduino can be powered from almost any type of fuel, wood, coal, gasoline, diesel, alcohol,  methane, and even hot dreams...! Just add water!

With fully reversible Stephenson Valve Gear allowing precise speed control, you will always be able to slow down the execution speed end even reverse it for easy debugging.

But wait! There is more... A special Cappuccino making steam wand attachment is available as add on!

So now you can sip your favorite drink while enjoying your new project off the power grid!

And all this just in time for April 1st 2021! :-)

Released updated versions of all the Mitov Software's Delphi/C++ Builder RAD Studio libraries

  Hello everyone,

With the huge success that Visuino has been, many of you maybe are wondering if I have given up on the development of my Delphi and C++ Builder libraries...

Nothing can be further from the truth, the development of the libraries has continued rapidly in parallel with the Visuino work, and some of you, that have contacted me over the last few months, have received pre-release updates :-)

I have been planning an official release of the libraries for Delphi and C++ Builder for a while, but wanted to also add support for RAD Studio 10.4 Sydney. Unfortunately when RAD Studio 10.4 Sydney was released it came with some compiler bugs that make it impossible to compile my libraries with it :-( .

As result I decided to go ahead and make an updated release for RAD Studio 10.3 Rio Update 3 with all the latest features.

You can download the libraries from the Mitov Software's web site:

https://mitov.com/

This version comes with a huge number of speed, and stability improvements and enhancements across all the components, redesigned OpenWire Editor, OSX64 bit support and much more...

There is also an updated Beta release of the OpenWire Studio compatible with this release of the libraries.

If you want me to release RAD Studio 10.4 Sydney versions, please help me and vote for the bug on the Embarcadero's Quality Central site.

Here are the RAD Studio 10.4 Sydney bug links:

https://quality.embarcadero.com/browse/RSP-30215

https://quality.embarcadero.com/browse/RSP-30214

I hope you will enjoy the new release, and as soon as Embarcadero fixes the compiler, I will make sure to make release for RAD Studio 10.4 Sydney as well :-)

Cheers everyone,

  Boian Mitov

Book Review: "Modern C++ for Absolute Beginners"/“A Friendly Introduction to C++ Programming Language and C++11 to C++20 Standards” by Slobodan Dmitrovic

Recently Slobodan Dmitrovic published his first C++ Book - “Modern C++ for Absolute Beginners”.

You can find the book on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Absolute-Beginners-Introduction-Programming/dp/1484260465?fbclid=IwAR3IssSt_N0c6sXJWjwTuqvEBSAGW0KNjXVbg0zEiq5ASns5S3xQ_u1GISg

I have read his book, and here are my thought on it:

Writing a C++ and especially Modern C++ Book is extremely challenging task. The language is huge and even a simple list of the language features takes hundreds of pages. It is even more challenging to write a Modern C++ Book for complete beginners. The language is quite complex with huge number of advanced and challenging for the beginner concepts such as OOP, Polymorphism, operator overloading, copy and move constructors, templates, functional programming with lambda expressions, and many others. Slobodan Dmitrovic has faced an enormous task trying to cover as much as possible without making the book thousands of pages, and big enough to scare any beginner. Indeed the book has a much more fitting second name: “A Friendly Introduction to C++ Programming Language and C++11 to C++20 Standards” . In my opinion this name fits the book better.

The book takes somewhat unusual approach. While most C++ books that I have seen cover the C++ starting with introduction to programming concepts and logic, starting with variable declaration, then structural programming, and finally Object Oriented Programming, the book instead focuses exclusively on Modern C++. Many of the traditional old school language features and programming approaches are intentionally omitted or barely mentioned as not recommended to be used in Modern C++ development. While the book is named “Modern C++ for Absolute Beginners” this in my opinion is not a book for beginners in software development. Instead this book is for software developers with existing experience and knowledge that are complete beginners in Modern C++.

The book covers one by one each aspect of Modern C++, covering each topic in details before moving to the next one. As example, only after going through every single type of declaration, the book moves to statements. While each feature description is somewhat brief, it allows the book to fit in a reasonable size of around 300 pages, and still to cover all aspects of the Modern C++. This also makes the book a very valuable and easy to navigate reference manual. Me being a more traditional relatively old school C++ developer, used to only some of the Modern C++ features, the book helped me fill very well the gaps of my Modern C++ development without overwhelming me. During the entire book, I needed to check external references only once when trying to understand the practical application of Move constructors and Move Assignment operators.

Each chapter ends with exercises. Here again the author has taken unusual approach. Instead of showing the answers at the end of the exercise, he has used the opportunity to show in the exercise some alternative cases of using each feature introduced in the chapter. While unorthodox, I have discovered that for me this approach worked as a reinforcement of the new knowledge of the chapter, and allowed me to absorb the new concepts better.

As an added bonus the final chapter of the book is a great reference on what features were added at what version of the C++ Standard - something very valuable for anyone, like me, that has to work with variety of C++ compilers for different platforms.

I hope all of you will enjoy reading the book as much as I did, and will find it valuable source of information.

You can find more information about the author - Slobodan Dmitrovic on his web site:
https://www.cppandfriends.com/