New Coding 4 Fun Column - Serial Controlled LCD Panel with DBComm

Duncan Mackenzie describes how to control a serial-port-connected LCD panel using Microsoft Visual Basic .NET and Microsoft Visual C# .NET using a couple of serial components.  One of components mentioned is my very own DBComm component available on GotDotNet Workspaces, mentioned right along side the SAX component that ships as part of the Visual Basic .NET Resource Kit and the legacy MSComm32.ocx.

I wrote this component several months ago prior to the proliferation the ones that exist today. However, what does make DBComm stand out from the rest of the pack is that a) it’s written in VB.NET and b) it’s a clone of the MSComm32.ocx that ships with Microsoft Visual Studio 6.  So if you know how to use the MSComm component from the VB3/4/5/6 days, you’ll feel right at home with DBComm.  It also works great for those porting VB6 code to VB.NET.  Of course a few changes were made to accommodate the .NET way of doing things, but overall the documentation for MSComm is pretty much the documentation for DBComm.  I’ve even commented the code heavily using the documentation pulled directly from the MSComm.  And finally, it doesn’t lock up waiting for data coming into the serial port.

I feel pretty special now… my name is now on the MSDN site ;-)  Not quite immortalized, but hey, it’s still pretty cool!  Thanks to Duncan for using DBComm as one of the examples!