Thursday, September 24, 2020

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


Sunday, September 20, 2020

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/

Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Assemble SNARM500/SNAM1900 4DOF Arduino Robot Manipulator Arm Step 7: Finish and Program with Visuino

     I have finished the 7th and final assembly video on the Arduino Robot Manipulator Arm .

The Manipulator is based on the original MeArm manipulator: http://learn.mearm.com/

I already posted :

Unboxing Video
Step 1: Assemble the Base
Step 2: Assembly Video - Install the side servos
Step 3: Assembly Video - Assemble the Servos Block
Step 4: Assembly Video - Prepare and Install the Rotating Base
Step 5: Assembly Video - Assemble the Joints
Step 6: Assembly Video - Assemble the Claw

And here is the 7th Assembly Video - Finish and Program with Visuino


Here is the Visuino project from the video:
https://www.visuino.com/installs/RobotArmPotentiometerControl.zip


I am preparing the rest of the Assembly videos and will post them in the following days.

After that I will try to make some Visuino tutorials for the Manipulator.

Cheers,
  Boian

#Visuino #Arduino #Robot

Wednesday, September 02, 2020

Assemble SNARM500/SNAM1900 4DOF Arduino Robot Manipulator Arm - Step 6 - Assemble the Claw

    I have finished the 6th assembly video on the Arduino Robot Manipulator Arm .

The Manipulator is based on the original MeArm manipulator: http://learn.mearm.com/

I already posted :

Unboxing Video
Step 1: Assemble the Base
Step 2: Assembly Video - Install the side servos
Step 3: Assembly Video - Assemble the Servos Block
Step 4: Assembly Video - Prepare and Install the Rotating Base
Step 5: Assembly Video - Assemble the Joints

And here is the 6th Assembly Video - Assemble the Claw


I am preparing the rest of the Assembly videos and will post them in the following days.

After that I will try to make some Visuino tutorials for the Manipulator.

Cheers,
  Boian

#Visuino #Arduino #Robot

Sunday, August 30, 2020

Assemble SNARM500/SNAM1900 4DOF Arduino Robot Manipulator Arm - Step 5 - Assemble the Joints

   I have finished the 5th assembly video on the Arduino Robot Manipulator Arm .

The Manipulator is based on the original MeArm manipulator: http://learn.mearm.com/

I already posted :

Unboxing Video
Step 1: Assemble the Base
Step 2: Assembly Video - Install the side servos
Step 3: Assembly Video - Assemble the Servos Block
Step 4: Assembly Video - Prepare and Install the Rotating Base

And here is the 5th Assembly Video - Assemble the Joints


I am preparing the rest of the Assembly videos and will post them in the following days.

After that I will try to make some Visuino tutorials for the Manipulator.

Cheers,
  Boian

#Visuino #Arduino #Robot

Thursday, August 20, 2020

Assemble SNARM500/SNAM1900 4DOF Arduino Robot Manipulator Arm - Step 4 - Assemble the Servos Block

  I have finished the 4th assembly video on the Arduino Robot Manipulator Arm .

The Manipulator is based on the original MeArm manipulator: http://learn.mearm.com/

I already posted :

Unboxing Video
Step 1: Assemble the Base
Step 2: Assembly Video - Install the side servos
Step 3: Assembly Video - Prepare and Install the Rotating Base

And here is the 4th Assembly Video - Assemble the Servos Block .



I am preparing the rest of the Assembly videos and will post them in the following days.

After that I will try to make some Visuino tutorials for the Manipulator.

Cheers,
  Boian

#Visuino #Arduino #Robot

Monday, August 17, 2020

Assemble SNARM500/SNAM1900 4DOF Arduino Robot Manipulator Arm - Step 3 - Prepare and Install the Rotating Base

 I have finished the third assembly video on the Arduino Robot Manipulator Arm .

I already posted :

Unboxing Video
Step 1: Assemble the Base
Step 2: Assembly Video - Install the side servos

And here is the third Assembly Video - Prepare and Install the Rotating Base assemble the central joint and install the rotating base on the baseplate servo.


Here is how to make Visuino project to center the sero. Just add and connect servo component. It will automatically set the servo to centered position:

Here is the Visuino project that I used:

https://www.visuino.com/installs/ZeroRobotManipulatorServo.zip

I am preparing the rest of the Assembly videos and will post them in the following days.

After that I will try to make some Visuino tutorials for the Manipulator.

Cheers,
  Boian

#Visuino #Arduino #Robot

Thursday, August 13, 2020

Assemble SNARM500/SNAM1900 4DOF Arduino Robot Manipulator Arm - Step 2 - Install the side servos

I have finished the second assembly video on the Arduino Robot Manipulator Arm .

I already posted :

Unboxing Video
Step 1: Assemble the Base

And here is the second Assembly Video - Install the side servos assemble the 2 sides of the robot, and install the servos on them.



I am preparing the rest of the Assembly videos and will post them in the following days.

After that I will try to make some Visuino tutorials for the Manipulator.

Cheers,
  Boian

#Visuino #Arduino #Robot

Tuesday, August 11, 2020

Assemble SNARM500/SNAM1900 4DOF Arduino Robot Manipulator Arm - Step 1 - Assemble the Base

Recently I bought an Arduino Robot Manipulator Arm to use for the Visuino development. Last week it arrived, and I assembled it.



The Robot Manipulator was a good price, and came with quite nice MG90S Metal Gear Servos, and it included original Arduino UNO, and quite handy Potentiometers Shield, however it also came without any assembly instruction :-( .

Once assembled however the Manipulator turned out to be way better than what I anticipated based on its price. I also added support for the included Shield in Visuino and even used the shield for few small experimental Visuino projects :-)

I already posted Unboxing Video for the Manipulator, and promised Assembly videos.

Here is the first Assembly Video - Assemble the Base


I am preparing the rest of the Assembly videos and will post them in the following days.

After that I will try to make some Visuino tutorials for the Manipulator.

Cheers,
  Boian

#Visuino #Arduino #Robot

Saturday, June 27, 2020

Just received a cool 18650 battery powered ESP8266 Board with OLED Display, and Joystick for the Visuino development :-)



I have received another surprise from my new friends at MakerFocus! A new 18650 Battery powered ESP8266 Board with OLED Display, and Joystick generously donated for the Visuino development!
Thank you MakerFocus!
But this is not all! They have also registered me as Affiliate! This is right! From now on, if you order any of the MakerFocus boards from the links I will be posting, you will be sponsoring my videos, projects. and the Visuino development, and you will be helping me to develop and post more stuff!
So if you like the board and need it for your development, please consider ordering it from this link :-) :



And now without further ado, it is time for Unboxing Video :-) :



After recording the Unboxing Video, I went ahead, and added support for the board in Visuino :-)
Here is now it is mapped currently. This is a acrenshot os a simple test I did to check the module functionality with Visuino:

The module support will be included in the next official Visuino version. I also plan to post Betas of the next version in the Visuino MeWe community, so if you want to get your hands on the new support, please consider joining the community :-)


I hope you all will enjoy the Video :-)
Please stay safe from COVID-19, and try to enjoy more your Arduinos and other controllers, and try to catch up with your DIY Projects!
I am working on more videos, and adding a lot of new cool stuff in Visuino so stay tuned.. ;-)

Cheers everyone,
  Boian