This season, I upgraded Easy C v2 from version 2.8xx to the most current version 2.9.1.5. I’m still in the discovery stages of the improvements, but so far, I’ve found the following advantages:
Support for new sensors, including the quadrature encoder and potentiometer.
Automatic detection of the COM port where the programming cable is plugged in (I love this!). In the “old days” of 2.8xx, there was a tedious rigamarole of looking at the control panel to find out which COM port was being used and having to explicitly enter the port assignment. If you plugged into a different port next download, you would have to remember to go back and reassign the port.
Does anyone know of any more improvements?
I’m pushing the college where I teach to upgrade (it’s free after all), but there’s a certain level of inertia and questioning of, “Is the benefit worth the work?” Installing new software permanently on institutional computers is not as easy as one would hope.
Also, does anyone remember whether simply downloading the new version is enough to have a working system, or do you have to go and re-enter the CD key for each machine? I’m sure that the college technician would be happier with the first scenario than the second.
I can’t speak for EasyC, but most programs that are already installed with a cd key store it in such a way that it is retained when the software is upgraded. Usually this is done via the registry, but I’m sure there are programs out there that do it other ways.
You could just throw the upgrade on a usb stick and quietly upgrade them yourself
I’m really glad you upgraded to the current version of EasyC. I think you and your team will really like having the Quadrature Encoder and Potentiometer blocks to use in your programs.
I really don’t remember if there were any other improvements or not.
Problem is that once the machines are powered down at the end of the day, they return to their original default settings. This is to prevent students from doing “creative things” to the computers that wreak havoc and are impossible to trace/undo. To keep the software permanently installed takes administrator approval.
As I dredge up the process from my not-so distant memory, I have the vague impression that I had to uninstall the old software, then reinstall the new.
You need to make sure that the EasyC 2.9.1.5 update gets added to the recovery process that get set at every reboot. If you volunteer to do the Updates, I would hope that they would let you do them. How many systems are you talking about??
IIRC, even totally uninstalling EasyC, the Registry Keys for Licensing (or lack of) are still there.
There are 19 lab stations (18 for students, and one for the teacher). The powers that be were not persuaded to upgrade in time for my classes, as the computers will be replaced at the end of the summer. They did agree to reinstall the new version on the new machines, so next year should be better. I’ve given fair warning about recovering the CD keys from all the discarded machines.
I had problems last year with leaving the machines on overnight, so leaving the machines on for several weeks (without rebooting) is not an option.
At the end of your Summer Classes, you might un-register all 19 licenses, that way the Intelitek Licensing Server has them available, so that when the New Machines are Installed, you just enter the License Key and re-register them. Almost as easy as doing a License Transfer, but you don’t have to have both machines at the same place.
I wonder if the system “to return to their original default settings” is unhappy about being Booted for over 12 Hours?
