SimpleHMI allows your touch screen Android phone to control your machine via Bluetooth.
SimpleHMI can be used to create a user interface for an embedded controller with a fraction of the effort required by most alternatives. It also has a set of features that are useful as a developer's tool and for product research.
It is available as an Android app, as a standalone Windows program and as a built in feature of SPLat/PC.
Features:
- Very simple to use, very flexible;
- Programmable buttons;
- XY cursor addressing for text;
- Bar graphs;
- Data entry keypad with min/max filtering;
- Allows background images;
- No programming required of the Android device ... it's all in the host controller;
- Versatile data logging.
Price: Free!
How it works
SimpleHMI is an app that runs in an Android phone or Windows PC. Everything that appears on the SimpleHMI screen is controlled by serial commands from the controller (SPLat or 3rd party). For example, to display some text the controller sends the text with a position and colour. For a button, it sends the size, position and text label, plus a code that is to be returned to the controller when the user clicks the button.
Android devices use Bluetooth to communicate with the host. We offer a Bluetooth adaptor for SPLat controllers, and adaptors are available for many 3rd party hobby products such as Arduino. The Windows versions of SimpleHMI use wired serial communication.
The basic design goal for SimpleHMI was that it be easy to program and that all programming be in the controller. This means that you all you need to prepare an Android device for a SimpleHMI application is the standard SimpleHMI client from Google Play. Download from Google Play.
SimpleHMI and SPLat EC1 - the perfect match for experimenters
The SPLat EC1 microcontroller board, along with a $8 3rd party Bluetooth adaptor, is all you need to get started with fun hobby projects using your Android device as a Human-Machine Interface. Control colourful LED lights or your home made infernal apparatus with screens that will impress your friends or Significant Other. You can even have your photos as a background images to buttons, bargraphs and messages. Programming is simple and intuitive, and we have lots of EasySteps to get you started.
Of course, SimpleHMI can also be used with our industrial grade controllers. Many customers use that for initial Proof of Concept work, before having us engineer a total solution for their controller needs.
The data logging function
SimpleHMI includes a versatile data logging function. This saves data to the SD card on an Android device or the hard drive on a PC. It has been designed to require the least possible manual intervention by an end-user (assuming you, the developer, are developing for an end-user who is not very tech savvy). The data logging can generate .csv files, with host-controlled options for date stamped file names, sequentially numbered file names and date or time stamped individual records.
Debugging features
The Windows versions of SimpleHMI include two additional "bonus" functions that are aimed at embedded controls developers. The Trace function is a simple scrolling ASCII display that can be written to disk. It is a useful alternative to a terminal emulator like SuperTerm in certain situations. The Terminal function is also a serial terminal, but with a choice of ASCII or hex display formats. It also has several text boxes that you can type hex codes into, and buttons to send them to the host. This is particularly useful for debugging serial communications protocols.
Download
Download SimpleHMI for Windows V1.3.020
Download SimpleHMI for Android from Google Play.
SimpleHMI programming tutorial for SPLat programmers (really easy stuff!)