Practical Arduino logic analyser can't get going

I could do with some assistance please. I am trying to get the Practical Arduino digital logic analyser going.
I cannot get past phase one, get the oscilloscope on the screen, it opens a window but it goes off top and bottom of screen and so I cannot get it to move or resize.
I actually only want four channels not the six displayed, so a smaller window would be required anyway.
I am sure there will be other issues once this is solved, but one step at a time.
I also note that on going to the Google site the Arduino Patch is not present.

If I open the same oscilloscope in a NetBook the window is white only and I cannot see the difference. Arduino is not plugged in either way.

I could do with some assistance please.

Unfortunately, you are a long ways from getting any with the information you provided.

Start with a link to the project you are talking about.

Arduino is not plugged in either way.

Pray tell, why not? What exactly are you expecting to see, if the Arduino is not sending data to be shown?

I appreciate what you say about a link. Sorry!

The oscilloscope part is the one on the Google site
http://code.google.com/p/arduinoscope/

I did say that 6 inputs were displayed on the oscilloscope and later said that on a netbook only a white screen. They are therefore different and should not be.

I did also say that Arduino was not plugged in either way.
Therefore Arduino has nothing to do with it.

I work on the principle of one thing at a time then when it doesn't work at least it is clear which part.

That part is getting the oscilloscope to display a reasonable size and be moveable so I can then start the next phase.

The downloads tab on the arduinoscope link contains several links. Which one(s) did you download? Which one(s) are you running?

Well this inexplicity seems to be a failing of mine. Sorry.
The precise links are...
http://code.google.com/p/arduinoscope/downloads/detail?name=application-win32.zip
http://code.google.com/p/arduinoscope/downloads/detail?name=processing-arduinoscope.zip
http://code.google.com/p/arduinoscope/downloads/detail?name=arduino-arduinoscope.pde

It is the win32 application that runs on a Windows 7 laptop 800pixels high and shows the channels (that will fit) but on the netbook 600pixels high (not really relevant) it shows only a white window equally unmovable and overlapping top and bottom of screen.
That is the only thing that I have run because one of them failed and both have the size problem.
I read that an Arduino patch is available but the link is dead (again irrelevant to this problem).
In a nutshell it is as if the software were developed on a large screen and no account taken of other sized systems.
I thought that if I used 4 channels only the size would be reduced but I must admit that my noviceness in this particular area means that I could not understand.

I hope I have finally given all required, as I should have done at the start. I will try harder next time.

If you are running the .exe file that you unzipped from the 1st link, that is posting a pre-defined size window, with a predefined number of channels (6).

The 2nd link contains the source code. You should be able to modify that to have the number of channels and size that you want.

Thank you for that. Unfortunately I am not familiar with Java and the file is not well documented. Even if I assumed that 1024 was the figure for the window height and I changed it, I still wouldn't know how to 'compile' Java to give me the final exe.
I don't mind experimenting and spending time with guesswork editing but not knowing what to do then is a problem.
Continued assistance would be warmly welcomed.

The Processing program is a .pde file, too, except that it is opened in Processing, not Arduino. After you edit the code, you click Run, which compiles, links, and executes the resulting application. It is as easy to do as it is in the Arduino IDE.

As for what changes need to be made to the program, that depends on what you want to do. There are help files in Processing just like in Arduino.

Make a small change, and run. See if that gives you the results you want. Repeat until the program is yours.

I think you may be looking in the wrong place to change the code: what you're probably looking at is the Oscilloscope.java file, which is a library that provides functions to make it easier to write a software oscilloscope in Processing. You shouldn't need to modify that at all. The changes you need are most likely in the oscilloscope project itself.

One way to think of it is to analogize it to an Arduino project such as a web server. You'd probably use a library such as Ethernet to let you use an Ethernet shield, but you won't typically modify the library itself. Your sketch would written on top of it and use features of the Ethernet library for connectivity.

In the same way, the arduinoscope project uses Oscilloscope.java to provide features that can then be used by the actual scope project itself, which is written in Processing.

Where you probably need to look is around line 44 of "SimpleSerialArduinoscope.pde" in the "examples" directory. There's a setting there to specify how many channels you want.

Jon
Arduino-compatible board with prototyping area built in: TwentyTen (100% Arduino Compatible) | Freetronics

Thank you Jon for coming in on this. Are you suggesting that if I change the settings as you say; when I then run the Windows application AND the Arduino part, the window will adjust to the size and channels I set?
Therefore, the visual result of running the Windows app on its own is a red herring.
I thank you and will have a play with it. I am a total newbie to MCUs and to C/C++ having been a Delphi-er. I haven't grasped this 'processing' file.
I still do not understand the white blank window on the NetBook which is running Windows 7 also.
Any more help on those would be gratefully received.
As a GMT-er I am off to bed.

I work on the principle of one thing at a time then when it doesn't work at least it is clear which part.

All well and good but you will find that one part is dependant on the other so even if everything is OK with one part unless you connect it up to the other part you will not see any functionality.
Your best bet is to get it all working first and then try and modify the code to get it to work exactly how you want.

Thank you and I understand of course, under normal circumstances but my first test was to find that I had two different windows on two systems with the same software.

I did not consider that it was interdependent on anything at that stage.
I am waiting to find the time to work on this but one question I have is, do I have to move the downloaded items to a particular place before running the whole?

do I have to move the downloaded items to a particular place before running the whole?

You have to upload the arduino software into the arduino if that is what you mean.

No, I meant does the downloaded Win32 app and the processing software need to be in a particular folder?
I find that I am missing some basic information regarding this. I have found it difficult to find documentation that explains what each part is doing and how they interact. I can see that the Win32 app can be run from the exe. I can see that the Arduino software needs to be uploaded, though I am sure there was more than one pde file, and which ones.
When I tried to save the file after attempting a change it said that it had to be in a folder, which of course it wasn't.
So the missing fundamentals of what actually goes on with any of these multi-part projects means that I am guessing and feel more out of my depth than I should be. Documentation nearly always seems sparse.
Perhaps you can point me to some explanatory tutorial on how a project like this (with java) hangs together and intercommunicates.

Suddenly I had a Eureka moment. Things became a little clearer when I found the 'Processing' page in Playground, and then I realised what Processing actually is.
My problem is obviously caused by not knowing what I need to know and what relationship each has to the other. There is no guide other than writing a Sketch in the IDE. A kind of list of important subjects to learn might be useful. The Arduino site (wiki?) seems a little haphazard, with few clues regarding reading order etc. Add to that (I think) that forumers often seem to assume that this required learning has been done.

I am not blaming everything else but a better guide to Arduino life might be useful. I think I am now on my way to solving this problem on my own due to this Eureka.

This is what I hear you saying:
"I jumped in the pool, and found that the end I jumped into was deeper than I thought".

Not a lot we can do about that. We preach "Start simple. Do some easy stuff first. Learn how the hardware and software work by doing simple things first", but people still don't want to wade in from the shallow end.

Massive additions to the wiki aren't going to help people that jump in the deep end, like you.

Ah well; I didn't want to play with the oscilloscope/logic analyser, I simply wanted to use them as tools to do exactly what you say, wade in with experiments but be able to see some data which I think would have made results clearer. I could not get the scope working so no tool.
I asked for help to get it going, not to develop/redevelop it or even at this wading stage find out the intricacies of how it works.
Much like driving a car to work, I don't care how the engine works but I do want to get there and it is too far to walk.

I therefore feel justified in 'appearing' to jump in at the deep end. Perhaps I just didn't explain all this guff before asking for help, so that people could decide whether to help or not based on whether I was ignorantly and stupidly jumping in at the deep end.

Perhaps now that I have given my excuse for daring to ask about a non-newbie subject, I might have created a Eureka moment elsewhere. Things are not always what they seem!

Are you a junior school teacher PaulS?

Are you a junior school teacher PaulS?

No, I'm an engineer by training and a software developer by choice. It's the training that provides (enhances?) the ability to think logically, and describe things completely (maybe too much). The software development has come with many learning curves. I've learned to understand one portion of a process at a time, much like you were trying to do.

The only issue we have with what you were doing is that you didn't start by explaining your background with the software (or lack thereof), so we assumed that you knew more than you did.

There's nothing wrong with jumping in the deep end, as long as you can swim (or have a life-preserver), you know it is the deep end, and you know where the shallow end is.

My programming background is Delphi, assembler 6502-6809 over a number of years, electronics (excluding MCUs of any type) including design and prototyping Microprocessor systems (but old... 6502, 6809, 68008) machine code, again old-PDP8, but I started with Intel 8008, no, not 8080). Design of dynamic memory boards (again old). Technical writing for company manuals and logic circuit design (again old-TTL).
Teaching data processing equipment and component level fault finding (again old... Univac punched card machines, mechanical logic of Teletype etc etc etc., data processing, mag tape interfacing)
I could go on all day recounting over 40 years of electronics and logic.

However... I have not used MCUs (aren't they wonderful), prototype boards for MCUs I had never heard of the Processing language and so it didn't 'twig' what I was reading (pde file extension as with Arduino programming. Never heard of Arduino until a week or two ago. All new, however I am not a newbie to electronics or programming and so I would not consider it is the deep end, just that I could not find the beginning and did not know that Processing was an interface between the PC and external devices. As soon as I did, it all fell into place.
So I think I can swim, I just needed to find which way the beach was because my eyes were still full of water; after jumping in.

I think I have answered my own questions now thanks to Pythagorus.
I just needed that single missing link about Processing it seems.

pde file extension as with Arduino programming

Yes, that's quite a trap and you're a long way from being the first person to be caught by it. Like PaulS, I assumed you already knew what Processing was but if you don't it's certainly confusing. The difference is explained in Practical Arduino, and because you mentioned you were building a PA project I assumed you had a copy of the book and had read the explanation of the oscilloscope project.

The Arduino IDE is based on a fork of the Processing IDE (via the Wiring project, but that's a whole other story) and in the early days the Arduino developers didn't bother changing the file extension. The "p" in "pde" is actually for Processing. Now, of course, Arduino has become insanely popular and is used by many people who have never heard of Processing or the origins of Arduino, and they just assume that all .pde files are Arduino sketches. Oh, and the term "sketch" is also taken from Processing where the IDE is referred to as the "sketchbook", and the language structure is similar as well. So what we've ended up with is programs called "sketches", using the same structure and the same file extension, and created using almost identical IDEs, but are intended for totally different target systems and purposes.

One of the changes being discussed for the v1.0 release of Arduino is giving it its own file extension.

So, for the benefit of anyone else coming across this thread in future:

http://www.processing.org
Processing - Wikipedia

Jon
Arduino Shield List: http://shieldlist.org
Practical Arduino: http://www.practicalarduino.com/