A hello world Electron and node.js application for setting a bit on or off from a GUI

I wanted to learn a little bit about the web technologies for the Desktop. As I learn by doing, i decided to program this hello-world simple desktop webapp. I chose Electron because is the tool used for Atom, my main editor. And of course, because all this tools are Libre-software

When you turn the GUI switch on or off, the DTR signal from the serial port is changed. Im using it with the Icezum Alhambra OpenFPGA board for sending bits from the Desktop to my circuits. Of course, it can also be used with any other FTDI-based board. The InBit app just opens a serial port and change the DTR signal according to the user inputs

The hello-world circuit that has been uploaded into the board in the above animation is the following:

It simply shows the DTR and the inverted DTR signals on the LEDs 0 and 7 respectively

• Install nodejs
• clone this repo:

git clone https://github.com/FPGAwars/InBit.git

• Enter into the working directory

cd InBit

• Install the npm packages:

npm install

• Edit the renderer.js and change the serial port name to the one you are using. By default the /dev/ttyUSB1 is used

var port = new serialport('/dev/ttyUSB1'  //--> Change /dev/ttyUSB1 for you serial port name

• Execute the app

npm start

Find more information in the Wiki page (in Spanish)

Would you like to contribute?

• Create issues with bugs, features and so on
• Emit pull requests
• Add information to the wiki. Just click on the edit button and add information or fix the typos
• I do it on my spare time, so do not expect me to solve your questions or replying your messages immediately. Sometimes I have time. Sometimes not. Sorry for that. Just relax and enjoy. If you do not like the project, don't use it. But don't bother me.

• Serial port error checking: no GUI messages are shown if there is an error with opening the serial port
• Add a serial port detector/selector to the GUI
• Package the app for the different platforms: linux, mac, windows
• Testing!
• Bug hunting!
• Learning! :-)

• LGPL v3

• Juan Gonzalez-Gomez (Obijuan)