Robot Helper
------------
Copyright 1993-1995 W.J. Montgomery VE3EC
Last changed: 31-MAY-95 (see release notes at end)
Introduction
Robot Helper is a Mirosoft Windows 3.1 application designed to assist
in the use of a Robot 1200c color scan converter. Robot Helper (RH) permits
slow scan tv images to be stored on your hard disk and provides an easy to
use disk storage manager, complete with thumbnail previews of all images.
Images can be displayed in two on-screen full color preview windows before
uploading them to the 1200c scan converter. A separate panel allows you to
control the operation and mode of the 1200c directly from within RH.
Robot Helper comunicates with the 1200c through a standard 8255 based
interface. The interface port addresses are fully configurable from within
the software.
Robot Helper will also run in the background under Windows, permitting the
simultaneous use of other Windows programs to provide paintbox and image
processing functions. Images may be also stored on remote servers and
accessed over a local area network (LAN). Clip-art images can also be
loaded directly off CD ROMs.
NOTICE: Robot Helper is a Shareware software product. You are encouraged
to give it a try for a short period of time and to upload it (without
changes) to any BBS or On-Line service.
If you find the program useful and wish to continue to use it past the
short (ie 10 days) evaluation period you are requested to register the
software by sending a cheque or money order for $45 US funds to:
William Montgomery VE3EC
482 Townsend Ave.
Burlington, Ontario
Canada. L7T 2B3
Registered users will receive a copy of the current release of Robot Helper
and a printed users manual. Further development of the product is supported by
your shareware registeration fees.
New versions of Robot Helper will be made available through BBS systems and
InterNet FTP sites. Current distribution sites include:
o The Antenna Farm BBS, SYSOP Brian Summers VE3DUO,
(905) 637-4026, 9600 baud V.32, & 2400 baud.
o The 'Kookie BBS' at (419) 562-6327 [if BBS available]
o The Dallas Remote Imaging BBS (214) 394-7438
o ftp.cciw.ca /pub/u124/sstv anonymous InterNet FTP site.
o ftp.ucsd.edu /pub/hamradio/sstv anonymous InterNet FTP site.
o CompUServe (GO HAMNET)
The author can be contacted via Internet email at:
[email protected], or
via AppleLink at: CDA0635.
Installation Notes
1/If you downloaded RH from a BBS...
Unzip the file to a 1.44 meg (or 1.2 meg) floppy and run the
setup program on the floppy from within the File Manager. If you have
a RH.KEY file, place it in the same directory as you intalled RH.EXE.
You should then have RH.EXE, RH.INI, RH.HLP, and RH.KEY together in the
same directory.
2/ If you registered and received a setup disk...
Insert the disk into a floppy drive. From within the Windows File
Manager double click on the SETUP.EXE file on the floppy. Next, use the
File Manager to copy the RH.KEY (Registration File) from the floppy
disk into the directory where you installed Robot Helper (RH).
The setup utility will update some of the Windows DLL files
during installation. If you receive any messages during installation that
file xxx.dll is locked or in use, you should quite out of any other
Windows programs or drivers that may be using (& locking...) Windows DLL's.
Notes:
If your 8255 ports are not at the 'standard' 300HEX address you
should change the default port settings (Edit Menu->Setup) before
sending any images to the Robot. Just run Robot Helper and select
'Setup' from the edit menu. The ports dialog box also allows you to
increase the data delay to the 8255 interface and Robot 1200. On some
fast machines ( 486 and up...) you may have to increase the dalay
value to obtain reliable data communications with the Robot. On fast
computers it may also have to use fast (10 MHz) 8255A interface chips
in both the Robot 1200 and the pc interface card, or add a 'wait state'
to I/O cycles using your PC's setup program (Advanced Options Menu).
Note: If you are running in 8 bit (256 colors) VGA mode you will
notice somewhat long delays whenever Windows must generate
a new color palette to try to match the real color images.
Robot Helper is MUCH FASTER when used with a 16 bit HiColor VGA
card or 24 bit TrueColor card. Image processing is poor at
best on 8 bit cards.
..........................................................................
Release Notes
14-NOV-93 Version 1.0b2 Initial release.
16-NOV-93 Version 1.0b3 Fix for port setup in b2. Last minute directory default
shuffle caused 1.0b2 to look for the RH.INI
file in the 'Windows' directory instead of the
default installation directory with RH.EXE.
19-NOV-93 Version 1.0b4 Includes new (updates) to THREED.DLL,SS3D2.DLL
and SS3D3.DLL. This should fix the Gen Fault in
user.com error that was sometimes showing up
when clicking on the menu bar in the storage
manager.
Added bank switch buttons on the preview window
control panel.
* Note: If you get a "Function or Sub not
defined" error message, you probably
have an older version of 'SSTV.DLL'
somewhere on your disk. This older
version is about 4K and should be
removed.
7-DEC-93 Version 1.1b2 Moved Robot controls to a separate panel.
Added support for selecting Robot modes and
speeds.
Added Windows Help support.
Added EPROM select to setup window (ports).
11-DEC-93 Version 1.1 First Release Version
Minor changes from 1.1b2
____________________________________________________________________________
05-JAN-94 Version 1.2b3 Final 1.2 beta
1.2 includes:
-Support for low resolution images.
-Clear preview window buttons.
-Brightness, Contrast, and Color controls.
-Slide show.
-Color Keyed Load/Save clusters.
-Double click load support in Storage Manager.
15-JAN-94 Version 1.2.1 -fix minor shareware date timeout problem.
-removed OLE2 references.
16-JAN-94 Version 1.2.2 -added support for a transfer delay. This should prevent very
fast PC's from overrunning the input buffer in the Robot 1200C.
-if you experience lockup problems when talking to the Robot
you should use the setup panel (ports etc...) to increase the
delay value. 386 machines can generally run with values of 0.
-Note: fast PCs may require the use of an 8255A-2 PIA chip in
both the interface card and the Robot 1200C.
11-MAR-94 Version 1.2.3 -now saves positions of the four windows in the RH.INI file
-new splash screen.
___________________________________________________________________
*** Note: Starting with version 2, Robot Helper must be run on a 386
or greater cpu.
7-MAY-94 Version 2.0b1 - Version 2 now based on ImageKnife VBX.
- Improved 8 bit color support.
- Image autoscaling to 256 X 240
- Now does Targa (.TGA), TIFF (.TIF), PCX, GIF,
JPEG (.JPG), HIRes (.HRZ), GEST (.IMG), BMP,
and DIB images.
(distribution: Beta testers only)
8-MAY-94 Version 2.0b2 - Added missing JPEGIO.DLL to distribution.
- made load image error handler more verbose.
(distribution: Beta testers only)
21-MAY-94 Version 2.0b3 - Revamped SetUp.EXE
- Removed reference to DDEML.DLL in setup.
(distribution: Beta testers only)
23-MAY-94 Version 2.0 - Frozen for release if no problems are
reported in the B3 vesrion.
___________________________________________________________________
01-OCT-94 Version 2.1b1 - Corrected problem with attempting to save
images or generate previews to R/O media.
- Fixed scrolling problem in FO_GRID
- Added trap for double clickers in change
drive control. (Double click to change
directories, single click to select drive.)
- Warn if you save an image with the same name
as an existing image.
- Added a brightness histogram display in each
preview window.
- Added centering buttons for preview slide
controls. ( these double as processing
indicators)
- Added a 'sharpness' image control.
- Fixed scroll bar corruption in sliders.
- Added some image modifiers to the previews.
( Flip H or V, Rotate CW/CCW, invert color,
Black&White, Blur, Clear to Black)
- TX mode is now forced to the Robot when the
[transmit] button is pressed. Cleaned up mode
interaction.
- Added 'turbo load' buttons to the storage
manager. These load both the preview window
and the 1200 with a single press.
- Slideshow control cleanup.
08-OCT-94 Version 2.1b2 - Fixed Load 1200 bug in Preview 1 that
crept in at the last minute.
12-OCT-94 Version 2.1b3 - Changed B&C processing
21-OCT-94 Version 2.1b4 - Corrected Martin Mode set problem and
'Q' clipping in mode speed labels.
01-NOV-94 Version 2.1 -Release Version
___________________________________________________________________________
05-NOV-94 Version 2.1.1 -Fixed bug where save preview one would require
two clicks after changing drives.
24-DEC-94 -Fixed slide show latchup bug.
-Minor fix for image sliders during preview.
___________________________________________________________________________
20-MAY-95 Version 2.2b1 -added buttons lock out during TX operation
and 'ON AIR' display
-fixed bug where thumbnail scrollbar would
not show.
-during slide shows Preview 1 is now brought
to the front.
-fixed autoscale in preview 2 in 1024 X 768
VGA mode.
-added user settable 'Auto Grab' feature.
-corrected histogram display generation
algorithm.
-added code that forces the top few lines to
be filled with grey scale bars when selecting
'Scotty' or 'Martin'.
-some users have reported that if an older
version of file VBRUN300.DLL is present, the
'newer' VBRUN300 that comes with Robot Helper
will not get installed. If this should occure
you should delete the 'older' VBRUN300.DLL
file on your hard disk and reinstall Robot
Helper.
-slide show now causes the thumbnails to
track with the show.
-added Copy and Paste functions in previews.
This currently only supports copying DIB
(Device Independant Bitmap) clippings. These
are the most common clipboard objects when
dealing with image processing and (advanced)
painting programs. Future versions may
support DDB clippings also.
If no selection rectangle is drawn, the
whole Preview image is the source or target
of the Copy/Paste operation. When pasting into
a preview window clippings are scaled to fit
the selection rectangle (if any).
- Note: I would like to have Robot Helper
run under Windows 95 in the future. The
current versions are mostly functional under
Windows 95 final Beta with the following
exceptions: 1/ the installer may complain a
bit but seems to work, 2/ selection rectangles
are not visible (may be the VGA driver on my
Win95 test machine.)
22-MAY-95 Version 2.2b2 -fixed slide show problem. (Not related to
Windows 95. )
26-May-95 Version 2.2b3 (internal)
-fixed problem with display of directories with
only one image.
31-MAY-95 Version 2.2 Release Version
