Product Tour: Direct Transfer of Variables
If you think about it, it's all about your data: getting it from the PC browser to the device (or the other way around), and doing it quickly and easily. TCPmaker's transfer variables act like named shipping containers, so the generated code works in a way that's simple to understand and easy to maintain.
TCPmaker uses our proprietary Direct Transfer of Variables technology. Here's how it works:
1. In TCPmaker, you define transfer variables with names that are meaningful to you, like "Pot1" for example.
2. TCPmaker generates code that declares those variables, and uses them as named shipping containers.
3. TCPmaker does all the packing and unpacking at each end.
4. Now all you need to do is USE those variables. For example:
- Read ADC and put result into variable Pot1 at the sending end (PIC)
- Set a transmit flag that TCPmaker created for this Pot1 variable
- The value sent to the PC browser and is displayed on any controls that use Pot1.
It's that simple!
Next: Define Your Data >>
Being able to use beautiful 3-D looking screen controls like buttons, sliders, gauges, and graphs, makes TCPmaker a joy to use.
There is no easier or faster way on the planet than TCPmaker, to make embedded web servers that look great, are highly interactive, and work in a wide variety of PIC microcontrollers. Gets your project up and running fast!
Get Instant Access Now at Our Store :
- TCPmaker sounds too good to be true. Does it actually work?
- Can I get a time-limited evaluation version of TCPmaker?
- Is there a student version of TCPmaker?
- Is there an educational discount for using TCPmaker in a class?
- Is there any guarantee?
- Do I get tech support?
- Is there some equivalent of USB's "Vendor ID" that I need before I can sell my Ethernet product?
- Do I need to pay for an OUID or IAB if I am not selling a product, but only experimenting in my own lab?
- Is there a royalty for selling products that use TCPmaker code?
- Are there any license restrictions?
- Is the license permanent?
TCPmaker sounds too good to be true. Does it actually work?
It may sound too good to be true, but our customers find that it works brilliantly. We've worked hard to keep it that way, and to help our customers when they run into problems.
We have added written and video testimonials from real customers in various places throughout our site, as well as a Showcase section that displays real products that our customers have developed with our tools. We hope that these will put your mind at ease, and help settle any doubts that you might have.
But if those won't convince you, then please consider this: our products are also sold by Microchip itself, in their MicrochipDIRECT online store. If our products didn't work, or if we didn't provide great tech support for our customers, Microchip wouldn't sell our stuff. It's as simple as that!
And if THAT won't convince you, then check out our TCPmaker Test Drive pages, where you can download some sample projects and see for yourself.
Can I get a time-limited evaluation version of TCPmaker?
Sorry, no, we really cannot do that. We have a problem with trial editions. Our software is so powerful that it can generate your whole project in a matter of minutes, so if we were to give out trial editions that can actually generate code, no one would have any need to buy the product!
For that reason, the
demo board like Microchip's PicDem.net2 board or an Explorer 16 board with an Ethernet PICtail board. There are demos for the PIC18F97J60 "EtherPic" for the PICDEM.net2, and for the Explorer 16 board, we provide the same demos for either the PIC24FJ128GA010 (which is one of the Plug In Modules that comes with the Explorer 16) or the PIC32MX360F512L (which is a Plug In Module that works with the Explorer 16). With each project, we also provide instructions, and some experiments you can try with the demo.
Is there a student version of TCPmaker?
At the moment, we do not have a student version that can be bought by an individual student. However, we CAN offer the next best thing. If you are a student at an accredited college or university or technical school, please have your professor contact us to buy a copy of TCPmaker that you can use for a student project. That way, you don't have to pay a thing, and your university gets a tool that other students can use as well, under the direction of a faculty member.
Is there an educational discount for using TCPmaker in a class?
If you are an educator, we'd love to help you make use of TCPmaker in a classroom setting. Please contact us for volume discount pricing.
Is there any guarantee?
Absolutely! We guarantee that our generated code will work correctly, perfectly, every time, or we will make it right! If you can show evidence that you contacted us for technical support, followed our instructions repeatedly on a known good microcontroller board (like a commercial demo board), and yet were still not able to get your first project working, we will refund your money up to 90 days after purchase.
Do I get tech support?
Definitely! Many of our customers find that our tech support is the best support they have ever seen. We are determined not to let you fail.
Is there some equivalent of USB's "Vendor ID" that I need before I can sell my Ethernet product?
Yes, there is. In order to be able to sell a product that uses network connectivity, you must obtain the rights to commercially use either an Organizationally Unique ID (OUID) or an Individual Address Block (IAB). You must purchase this from the
These are two different options: you do not need both. The more expensive OID option (USD $1,650 at the time of this writing) gives you the ability to make 2^24 = 16,777,216 product units, each with a unique MAC address.
The less expensive IAB option (USD $550 at the time of this writing) gives you the ability to make 2^12 = 4,096 product units, each with a unique MAC address.
Both of these options provide you with numbers that become part of the physical or MAC address of each unit of your product. THE MAC ADDRESS FOR EACH UNIT OF ANY OF YOUR COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS MUST BE GUARANTEED TO BE UNIQUE IN THE WORLD. Please note that there is no separate equivalent of USB's Product ID, so there is no additional "Product ID" type number that could let you re-use the same MAC address in two different products.
An OUID is a 24-bit number that is used as the first 3 bytes of the MAC address of each unit of your product, to uniquely identify your organization. (See file TCPIPConfig.h in the examples in the Microchip TCPIP Stack, or the file of the same name in your TCPmaker project.) You must then provide a unique set of numbers for the last 3 bytes of the MAC address, for each unit of your product. THE MAC ADDRESS FOR EACH UNIT OF YOUR COMMERCIAL PRODUCT MUST BE GUARANTEED TO BE UNIQUE IN THE WORLD.
An IAB is used in a similar way, but you are only allowed to provide 4,096 unique MAC addresses.
You can learn more about OUID and IAB registration at the IEEE Registration Authority's Frequently Asked Questions page at http://standards.ieee.org/faqs/OUI.html .
Sadly, there is no free option available for OUIDs or IABs: IEEE rules explictly forbid the "subletting" of these IDs to third parties that are not directly registered with the IEEE.
However, Microchip does offer several low cost chips (budgetary prices range from $0.21 - $0.30 at the time of this writing) that you can design into your product's circuitry that provides a complete, globally unique MAC address for each unit of your product. These chips also a provide 1.5 KB of serial EEPROM for your use. These chips are offered with SPI, I2C, and Uni-I/O interface formats. Search the Microchip web site these devices: 25AA02E48 (SPI version),
Do I need to pay for an OUID or IAB if I am not selling a product, but only experimenting in my own lab?
We don't think so. We have never heard any reports of any sort of "Ethernet Police" breaking down your door if you use a OUID that is not your own, as long as you are only experimenting in your own lab AND BEHIND A HARDWARE FIREWALL. In this situation, the key is to find a MAC address that is not already in use on your Local Area Network that you already use. If you pick a MAC address that is already in use on your network, then you may create an address conflict, and one of your devices will not be accessable.
IF YOU DO USE A MAC ADDRESS THAT IS NOT YOUR OWN, YOU DO SO ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Make sure that you never give software or a device made from this experimental work to anybody else, without changing it to use a MAC address that you are entitled to use. DISTRIBUTING A DEVICE OR SOFTWARE THAT USES SOME OTHER COMPANY'S MAC ADDRESS WITHOUT THEIR PERMISSION COULD SUBJECT YOU TO LEGAL ACTION. TRACE SYSTEMS WILL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR ACTIONS.
Is there a royalty for selling products that use TCPmaker code?
No, there is no royalty for using TCPmaker's generated code in your products. TCPmaker gives you a permanent, paid-up right to use the code that it generated, with your modifications, in binary form in your products.
Are there any license restrictions?
Yes, there are a few. In plain language, the License Agreement prohibits you from using our product against us. You are prohibited from using TCPmaker to create a development tool that competes against us.
Also, you may not publish the source code that TCPmaker has generated for you, with or without modifications. TCPmaker does things that nobody else knows how to do, so we don't want our generated source code flying around the Internet. Our customers do not find this to be a problem, because they too want to protect the source code for their product.
Is the license permanent?
Yes. We are instituting an low annual maintenance fee for technical support and upgrades, which starts a year after you purchased our product. Whether or not you purchase a support package has no bearing on your right to use the tool that you have purchased, or your right to sell products that have been made with it.
The TCPmaker Software Framework for PIC ethernet controller software has other events, with corresponding event handlers that you can customize:
Read more: Using simple event handlers >>
Read more: Sending data to the PC browser >>
Read more: Control Messages >>
Next: Applications for TCPmaker >>
Being able to use beautiful 3-D looking screen controls like buttons, sliders, gauges, and graphs, makes TCPmaker a joy to use.
There is no easier or faster way on the planet than TCPmaker, to make embedded web servers that look great, are highly interactive, and work in a wide variety of PIC microcontrollers. Gets your project up and running fast!
Get Instant Access Now at Our Store :
If you think about it, every Windows program you have ever run has changed its appearance in subtle ways from one moment to the next, usually to guide your actions. These are called context sensitive displays, because their appearance changes according to the context of what the user is doing at any time.
• Controls like buttons or text boxes will sometimes appear grayed out (disabled) in order to show you that it is not meaningful for you to click them right now. Even if you do click on them when they are in the disabled state, nothing will happen.
• Similarly, sometimes menu items will appear or disappear at times, to restrict your choices and prevent you from choosing something that would cause harm.
• Some Windows programs will sometimes change the color of some screen controls or text, to indicate a good or bad condition.
You Can Do This In Your TCPmaker Device, With NO PC PROGRAMMING
The ability to change the appearance of controls on the screen is useful technique that Windows software developers use a lot. As a TCPmaker Pro developer, you can do those sorts of things as well. You can easily add a few lines to the code in your embedded web server device to tell the TCPmaker controls on your browser screen to change their text, color, transparency, rotation, and so on.
This is all driven from your PIC code, with simple function calls: there is NO PC PROGRAMMING AT ALL.
Here are just some of the things you can do with TCPmaker's Control Messages:
- Change the variable that is being graphed on the oscilloscope control
- Make controls disappear at times when it would be inappropriate for the user to click or drag them
- Change the colors of buttons or gauges, to show warnings that are easy to see from across the room
- If your device senses a danger condition in the hardware it is controlling, make the browser go to an emergency page that you designed into your multi-page TCPmaker layout
The possibilities are endless - what will YOU think of next?
TCPmaker's Control Message API Functions
Text
mtSetTextColor() - Set the color of a Tx text display
mtSetTextRom() - Set the text of a control
mtSetTextSize() - Set the size of text on the Tx text display
Position and Appearance
mtSet_x() - Move a control in x direction only
mtSet_y() - Move a control in y direction only
mtSet_xy() - Move a control in both x and y directions
mtSet_rotation() - Rotate a control
mtSet_alpha() - Change transparency of a control
mtMoveControl() - Move a control and change its appearance at the same time
mtSetColorIndices() - Set both c and a color indices for a Pb or Ld control
mtSetColorIndex() - Set the cx (i.e., the one and only) color index for controls Hs, Bx, C1
Navigation
mtGoToPage() - Go To A Page
mtSetButtonGoToPage() - Set the "GoTo" page (g property) of a Pb button control
Behavior
mtOkToSend() – Is it OK to transmit a control message to the browser?
mtSetButtonMode() - Set the operating mode for a button
Variables and Associations
mtSetAssociationIv() - Associate an integer web variable with a control
mtSetAssociationNv() - Associate a float web variable with a control
mtSetAssociationSv() - Associate a string web variable with a control
mtSetFormat() - Set the format string and argument list of an Sv string variable
mtSetScale() - Set the scaling factors for a floating point Nv variable
mtSetScale_NoFloatLibs() - Set the scaling factors for a Numeric variable, specifying the PC side floating point parameters, pn and px, as strings
Read more: Using simple event handlers >>
Read more: mtServer events >>
Read more: Sending data to the PC browser >>
Next: Applications for TCPmaker >>
Being able to use beautiful 3-D looking screen controls like buttons, sliders, gauges, and graphs, makes TCPmaker a joy to use.
There is no easier or faster way on the planet than TCPmaker, to make embedded web servers that look great, are highly interactive, and work in a wide variety of PIC microcontrollers. Gets your project up and running fast!
Get Instant Access Now at Our Store :