VB2010 use with AduHid.DLL ( ADU Data Acquisition Products )

Using VB.NET including VB2010 with ADU USB Data Acquisition Products

( AduHid.DLL)

The AduHid DLL can be used directly from a Visual Basic .NET application including VB2010 Express. Some adjustments must be made to the Visual Basic code to allow execution within the Common Language Runtime.

The zip file, AduHid-Eg-VB-Net.ZIP, contains a sample Visual Basic project that was converted from VB6.0 to VB.net and then to VB2010 Express using the automated upgrade tool provided with VB2010. All source code is provided so that you may review details that are not highlighted here.

The resulting executable, Project1.exe, was tested under Windows XP and Windows 7

Figure 1. AduHid Tester VB2010 version

The program is a minimal redition of our ADUHIDTest program to demonstrate the proper method to utilize the functions within the ADUHID DLL.

IMPORTANT: The sample program provided requires access to the ADUHID DLL. To enable this you should run the VB environment with Administrator privileges. To open VB2010 express with Administrator privileges, right click the program in your start menu and select :Run As Administrator See Figure 2.

Figure 2: Starting VB2010 using Right Click to Run as administrator

Highlights of changes: VB6 to VB.NET including VB2010
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1) Change the sSerialNumber declaration in the ADU_DEVICE_ID structure so that it includes marshalling arguments.
The delcaration should read as follows.

<VBFixedString(7),System.Runtime.InteropServices.MarshalAs (System.Runtime.InteropServices.UnmanagedType.ByValTStr,SizeConst:=7)> Public sSerialNumber As String

2) Change the declaration of the ShowList function so that sPrompt has a type of String.
The declaration should read as follows.

Declare Function ShowAduDeviceList Lib "AduHid.DLL" (ByRef pAduDeviceId As ADU_DEVICE_ID, ByVal sPrompt As String) As Integer

NOTES:
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The AduHid DLL is a legacy DLL. It is not a COM object. It is not an "assembly".
DO NOT specify the the AduHid DLL as a reference. (ie DO NOT use -r on the command line for AduHid.dll)

The AduHid.dll must be copied into the sub-directory that contains the EXE file.
(ie. in the example the "Project1.NET/bin" sub-directory contains both the Project1.exe AND AduHid.dll)

DOWNLOAD VB.NET Example Files in ZIP format for 32-Bit Development. ( 65K )

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