Mobile Studio Software

The purpose of this page is to provide the software necessary to operate Mobile Studio as a set of standard instruments (aka Mobile Studio Desktop) and examples of special purpose software written in a wide variety of languages to exploit specific features of Mobile Studio. The programs listed below online work under Windows. If you wish to use a Mac, you must install Windows. See below for details on Macs and Windows 8.

Mobile Studio Desktop Software

The Windows-Based software used to operate Mobile Studio is now in its final form, with no plans to update it in the future. To download and install Mobile Studio Desktop software,

System Requirements

Installation Instructions

DO NOT PLUG IN THE BOARD BEFORE MOBILE STUDIO DESKTOP IS INSTALLED (Click here to fix errors caused by doing so.)

  1. Download Mobile Studio Desktop from the link above. Click Run when prompted.
  2. After the download has finished, the installer will begin. You will be prompted to accept the Mobile Studio Desktop license agreement.
  3. Proceed through the installer screens. All of the default options are fine. If you receive any security warnings, click "Continue Anyway."
  4. Depending on the configuration of your computer, you may be prompted to install the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 and/or the National Instruments VISA library. If you are prompted to install either of these, they are required. Due to the size and complexity of these, installation of either may take upwards of 30 minutes.
  5. Once the installer has finished, you will be returned to your desktop. If prompted, reboot your computer before continuing.
  6. You can now connect your IOBoard to a USB port on your computer.
    NOTE: If a small popup appears in the lower right side of your screen that says "This device will perform better if connected to a USB 2.0 port", either your computer does not have the required equipment, or there is a problem with your machine.
  7. Depending on which version of the IOBoard you have, you may be prompted to find the drivers. Proceed through the Add New Hardware wizard, accepting all the default options. Once driver installation is complete, you will be returned to your desktop.
  8. Double click on the new Mobile Studio Desktop icon on your desktop. This will start the application.
  9. You may be prompted to update your IOBoard's firmware. This is done by opening the "Device" menu in the top-left corner of the application's window, and then selecting "Upgrade Firmware" from the menu options.

Using the IOBoard in other programming environments via COM/.NET

It is possible to write programs to operate the Mobile Studio board using a wide variety of languages. For each of the zip files below, right click and save the file. If the zip files do not work, you can go to http://hibp.ecse.rpi.edu/~connor/Mobile%20Studio/Downloads/Executables/ and download the executable directly. The file is larger this way so the zipped version is better.

C#

Example Visual Studio Solution: http://hibp.ecse.rpi.edu/~connor/Mobile%20Studio/Downloads/iob_com_cs.zip

C++

Example Visual Studio Solution: http://hibp.ecse.rpi.edu/~connor/Mobile%20Studio/Downloads/iob_com_cpp.zip

LabVIEW 8.0

Set of LabVIEW 8.0 sample.vi files and documentation: http://hibp.ecse.rpi.edu/~connor/Mobile%20Studio/Downloads/LabVIEW 8.0 IOBoard Interfaces.zip

LabVIEW 8.5

Set of LabVIEW 8.5 sample.vi files and documentation: http://hibp.ecse.rpi.edu/~connor/Mobile%20Studio/Downloads/LabVIEW 8.5 IOBoard Interfaces.zip

LabVIEW 8.6

Set of LabVIEW 8.6 sample.vi files and documentation: http://hibp.ecse.rpi.edu/~connor/Mobile%20Studio/Downloads/LabVIEW 8.6 IOBoard Interfaces.zip

LabVIEW 8.6.1 Runtime Engine

Needed for LabVIEW compiled executables (which are installed with the Mobile Studio Desktop): http://joule.ni.com/nidu/cds/view/p/id/1244/lang/en

MATLAB (v7 or later)

Sample .m file showing use of COM interfaces in MATLAB: http://hibp.ecse.rpi.edu/~connor/Mobile%20Studio/Downloads/ioboard_COM.m.zip

Python (v2.6 or later)

Setup instructions and sample .py file showing use of the COM interfaces in Python: http://hibp.ecse.rpi.edu/~connor/Mobile%20Studio/Downloads/python.zip

Thresholds Executable

Standalone executable for switching digital lines based on analog input thresholds: http://hibp.ecse.rpi.edu/~connor/Mobile%20Studio/Downloads/thresholds_v07.zip

PWM Executable

Standalone executable for controlling PWM1: http://hibp.ecse.rpi.edu/~connor/Mobile%20Studio/Downloads/pwm_sliders_v02.zip

ADC to PWM Executable

Standalone executable for controlling PWM1 duty cycle with ADCs: http://hibp.ecse.rpi.edu/~connor/Mobile%20Studio/Downloads/ADCtoPWM.zip

ADC Theremin Executable

Standalone executable for controlling frequency and amplitude via ADCs: http://hibp.ecse.rpi.edu/~connor/Mobile%20Studio/Downloads/ADCtheremin_v03.zip

Analog Data Tracker Executable

Standalone executable for collecting data from analog channels: http://hibp.ecse.rpi.edu/~connor/Mobile%20Studio/Downloads/DataTracker_two_channel.zip

Using Mobile Studio with a Mac

Installation of Mobile Studio Desktop Software on a Mac is generally done without any real difficulty. When students at RPI were asked about what they used, here were the common responses: For my Mobile Studio with a Mac I use Bootcamp with Windows 7.  I am running Mobile Studio on my Mac using VMWare Fusion with Windows 7.  I use Parallels with Windows 7 to run Mobile Studio on my Mac. I use VMware fusion running a VM from my Bootcamp partition. I've also done it straight from Bootcamp. I used to have windows 7, and that worked well. Now I have windows 8 which works fine as well with the same configuration. The windows setup is practically native, so I experienced no problems. I use Parallels Desktop (version 11 I think) to run all my Windows applications. On Parallels I'm running Windows 7.   Currently I'm running Mobile Studio on my MacBook Air, running 64-bit Windows 7 through Parallels 8 - no Bootcamp.

Using Mobile Studio with Windows 8

Installation of Mobile Studio Desktop Software on Windows 8 is slightly more complex than on other versions of Windows. Please follow the instructions at http://www.ecse.rpi.edu/courses/mobilestudio.html

Updated 7 January 2015

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