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DavidA
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Got a good idea for an article?

Post by DavidA »

Hey guys,

Those of you that sign up to our newsletter (if you dont, sign up now!) will know that we regularly release articles, the idea is, that these articles are both intresting and informative to our users and our aim is to try and continue to provide articles that cover these two points.

So this is where we turn to you guys and ask if you have any ideas you think might make good articles, if you do, we would love to hear from you, please send your suggestions to us via the contact page located here.

Also, if you do have an idea and generate an article yourself, you could walk away with a custom selection of Matrix products for FREE.

Examples of user generated articles:

Jan Lichtenbelt: From Idea to Working Model
Martin Whitlock: Swapping between Hex and Int
Tharowat Mohamed Ali: Building Your Own Science Lab

bmbrown
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Re: Got a good idea for an article?

Post by bmbrown »

David there needs to be a way for a new user to know how to navigaqte inside the forum for example a totorial on how to choose the appropropriate forum topic by way of a brief description of the topic header and for example how and what criteria should exist to post a new topic question and how to find if there are any responses to its content when it is posted. Electronic geeks are just impossible people to get on a communication wavelength that has empathy for their new clients I posed a question as a new member yesterday regarding the flowcode totorials..the onesw that froze my computer with procedure errors and as aresult I lost my accces to flowcode displays on my screen but it is impossible for me to ever find where it the help request I posed as a question was inserted or whther it was as a reply rather than new topic and there appears to be no way to know if it was answered or if a helpful response came for it because there is no way to accummulate or search under by own name to see where my last entry went to
perhaps a simple thread one string long saying the day date topic code and whether it was a reply to an exisitng or a post as a new question could be considered for each user with only pewrhaps the last 3 entries they contribute kept in the log under their username so that a the forum data base is kept very small and the admin can monitor very quickly any user to see if they are on track regarding comments manners and topic

in the meantime can you help me find find where my question went to and perhaps out of sympathy let me know where it should have been posted if it went to the wrong record area .............my password is ********
my persdonal request is as follows can you suggest a way out of the grossly inadequate help file embedded in the flowcode 5 package that could not answer this question
it was in two parts for flowcode5 for pic mcu's
part A what is the name not mentioned in the documentation or the help files for what i have called "component panel window"..Thats the clumsy inadeqate name one I made up that name for the screen section that is displayed under the flowcode 5 flowchart on the computer screen and has in it the leds that flash and the toggles that move and lcd's that display etc when you do a simulation using them as I/o devices
part B
I cannot make or find way to make that component panel window come back on screen it vanished during a simulation freeze ..there appears to be no symbol for it on the toolbar and no mention of how to get it back or any reference to it in the dropdowns or the documentation and now every previous program i try to reload from my completed file storage for studentot see has no simulation panel window ...so my flowcode package is a dead duck how do people find in the index or search or contents the name of the "component panel window" and how do they get it to appear or reappear on the screen below their flowcode flowchart
can you help me and can you keep this critical omission in the documentation in mind when you next talk to MM about the getting started and navigation and introduction to flowcode 5 especially ask if they will ever reissue the documentation component of their help file in later revisions based on the questions asked and answered by users and ask them please not to issue it till that task they give to a rocket science programmer is tested on new comers to their flowchart. Can they make it readable as top down programming where possible eg assign initial values for every variable at the beginning of the program if it is at all possible
I am a teacher and what i can find out from people like you who are so patient and understanding with the frustrations like I get from student who cripple the package unintentionally... will allow me to solve the problems in a DIY class that have now cancelled the whole demonstration. They remain locked out of flowcode 5 till I can find a way to get the "component panel window" to reappear on the screen for their simulations and I can show them how to avoid sloppy programmimng and the siumulations I was hoping ot show them as top down programming simulation that declaring and initialise all variables as early as possible in the flowchart because they xcannot see the simulations ... nocom..backee..bus
sorry to be a nusiance but as a teacher i think as students do serially! as it is the best way to reinforce student learning .. so it gives them a way in and way out of each change one thing at a time so they acquire a library of procedures in thier head to navigate around the forum and the flowcode 5 screen components.
the question part a and part b is my lock out problems at the moment for pic flowcode 5 can you help

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Re: Got a good idea for an article?

Post by DavidA »

Hi bmbrown,

The topic you posted in which should answer both your questions was: http://www.matrixmultimedia.com/mmforum ... 341#p38341

At any point in the forum you can click on the "View your posts" button to show all the posts you have made, the list is ordered so that your last posts are at the top and the topics they were posted in are clickable straight away.
ViewPosts.jpg
ViewPosts.jpg (68.51 KiB) Viewed 27997 times

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Re: Got a good idea for an article?

Post by dazz »

Hi bmbrown

Heres a quick write up on some of your requests,
The sections for posting if you have a query regarding flowcode v5 then they should be posted in the v5 forums even if there exists another sub forum for the question you need an answer to an example ie how do i add asm or c code to my project should be asked in the v5 forum as its specific to v5, whereas you might think the question needs to be in the c and asm programming forum, but thats for the c and asm software variants(hope that makes sense , every sub forum has a brief description as to what it does on the main index page

take the knowledge exchange section that is for people to post tutorials not for general questions.

General programing is for questions that do not fit into any of the other sub forums, many people make thier first posts in there, and are asked to sign up to the relevant forums ie v5 or v4, once done the posts are normally moved, so say if you posted in the general and had not signed up to rthe v5 forum, then we normally ask you to sign up and will move your post, so if you have posted in there and cant find the post have a look in the v5 (or v4 etc)

The main reason we ask you to sign up to the v5 or v4 forums is and i can only speak for myself is that you will get a prompter responce from other users to your issues.
Sometimes that responce may take minutes or sometimes days it all depends on who is on the forums and if they can help, the matrix team are very busy and do check in several times a day (i have no connection with matrix) and they are only there during office hours, but the matrix staff quite often pop into the forums in thier own unpaid time (which is amazzing support)

you ask for the criteria for posting, let me start by saying the only stupid question is the one that goes unasked, lots of people feel nervous about asking for help its human nature, every one of us has asked basic questions and i can say they have always been answered, unlike other forums no one here is going to flame or shout anyone down for asking a question, and every question someone asks, also helps someone else along the way, what i always say is use the search function first as even if your specific query is not listed a similar one will be and a lot can be learned, if you need help then post as much info as you can, ie your flowchart as other will be able to check it and guide you.
Also the way questions are asked goes a long way to gaining help, a few examples

I want to make a timer alarm give me the code
or

hi guys i need to make a timer with alarm , but dont know where to start any ideas

from those which one will get more help

again from those examples you will be given advise then asked to post your flowchart as then others can see where the issues are and guide you, at first it may not seem helpful but in the long run you will gain more insight into making things work.
Again sometimes the language barrier can crop up so people may not understand the question and it might just need rephrasing

I know the helpfile can be a bit frustrating to use but again ask in the forums

Hope this answered some of your questions if not then ask again and we will see what we can do

Regards
Dazz
To sign up to the V5 forum follow this link http://www.matrixmultimedia.com/forum_upgrades.php

bmbrown
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Re: Got a good idea for an article?

Post by bmbrown »

thanks Dazz your willingness to fully explain is very much appreciated especially that reference to the genral forum area for posting tutorials Each step forward in V5 we make will be where I will place our getting started for srudents tutorials as threy are the a;ways the "keenest but most ignorant" and need to have a novice entry point for this very very much appreciated forum. Thanks again

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Re: Got a good idea for an article?

Post by dazz »

Cool

glad it helped

Regards
Dazz
To sign up to the V5 forum follow this link http://www.matrixmultimedia.com/forum_upgrades.php

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Re: Got a good idea for an article?

Post by Docara »

Hi,

How to use the parts of PICs, AVR etc that you don't support natively and pass values between them eg RTCC
Doc

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