.dll help please!

[MadStan]

Hi all,

I am working on a project for my class involving a USB missile launcher. I am working in Labview 11 and the missile launcher came with some .dll's which I have attached. I am pretty incompetent in C and most programming languages but from the tutorials I see there is a wizard that might help me use the Call Library function if I can only find a header file. Problem is, the software has no .h file and I can't open the .dlls in an discernible format to see what I have! I am hoping that using the Call Library functions will be easy enough for me to do with a little help from you all but it if it turns out to be complicated, I will probably just break my little toy apart and see if I can get it going via DAQ. Any suggestions or help is much appreciated! Also, I was not sure if I should put this on the general board or the VC++ board since I'm not even 100% sure it is a C file!

Thank you all in advance,

-Kevin

p.s. I hoped I compressed this correctly!

[myle00]

You need the h file to be able to communicate with the dlls because otherwise you wouldn't know what parameters the dll functions expect. However, wherever you got the dlls from should be able to provide the h file. Can you maybe name the product so we can help you find the h file (probably on the company's website)?

[mikeporter]

Well if you are trying to run it from LV you are in the right place. Do you have any documentation on the DLLs? The vendor should have some form of documentation telling how to call their code.

Mike...

[MadStan]

Hi all,

thank you for the quick responses! The Missile launcher is the Satzuma Missile Launcher from http://www.satzuma.com/usb-computer-controlled-missile-launcher.html. As for any form of documentation, all I have is in that zip file besides the actual interface images they give me (a little program that holds the actual control buttons) and some PDFs about how to plug it an and not to shoot at your pets and things. While researching this product, I had also found this but it is outdated so I'm not sure how useful it is but it might have some good insight. I would note, however, that he is using the the DreamCheeky missile launcher while I have the satzuma so I don't know if it is relevant. http://dgwilson.wordpress.com/windows-missile-launcher/

Thank you all again!

-Kevin

[myle00]

I didn't understand completely, the dlls came from satzuma? Because I couldn't find it on their site. If so I'd contact them and ask for the header (h file). I'd contact them anyway and ask if they know how to control it from dlls or any other c code for that matter. Their website seems bare of any support docs.

Regarding the DreamCheeky software. I could only find where to download for mac. All the windows download links are dead or don't have complete source code (the link you posted). Here (http://dgwilson.wordpress.com/usb-rocketmissile-launcher-testimonials/) he says that it should work with Windows. In the link you posted he says to email him for full source code so I'd email him (or post here http://dgwilson.wordpress.com/windows-missile-launcher/) and ask him about the status of the code for windows and ask for the most recent source code for windows. This way you could first test to see if his code can work on Windows and if it does and provided he provides the full source code we can get it into LabVIEW by making dlls out of the code, which I can help you with.

If he provides full source and it works with satzuma it shouldn't be too complicated to get it to work in LabVIEW (hopefully), otherwise it'll be more difficult.

[MadStan]

Thank you again for your help.

Well the missile launcher came with a CD that contained the .dll's and drivers. When I got the product, I simply popped in the CD, installed the drivers, and was pretty much good to go. So yeah, I will take your suggestion and e-mail Satzuma and see if they have any more information for me to use but I have my doubts seeing as they are primarily a toy company. I will e-mail them and let you know! In the meantime I think I will start looking into the hardware of this device and see if that is any easier or more accessible. Thank you again for your guidance!

-Kevin