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Can I connect to multiple USB sticks using ANTware?

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Yes. On startup, ANTwareII will list all available ANT USB devices on the left side panel.      

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Hello,

I'm a new ANT+ programmer and I want to know how can I communicate with two ANT USB sticks, which is a transmitter and a receiver through ANTware II?      
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Joined 2012-05-08

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Hi fr.dias

Here's a runthrough, just to be thorough...

With your USB sticks inserted, let windows find the drivers if they haven't already been installed. Drivers can be found on the website, but if you've plugged them in before then they're likely installed.

Open up ANTwareII. Your devices should show up on the left hand side. They'll be named something like Device A and Device B. Keep in mind that they may not be A and B but its not a big deal.
If they don't automatically show up, hit the refresh button at the top of that area.

MASTER SETUP

1) Now you get to configure the channels! Lets say you want to make A your master and B your slave. Click on Device A to view its channels. Now in the centre you should see a little world of new options and buttons. Well done.

2) Right under the title "Device A: Channel 0" you'll see the Mandatory Channel Setup group box. Start with the Channel Assignment section and select Master (selected by default).
Expand the Channel Assignment box. You'll get more options which I won't get into. The ANT Message Protocol and Usage document has good explanations of these options. Press Assign.
Did you notice anything in the "Feedback display" box?

3) Now that Device A is definitely a master, its time to set the Channel ID. Expand the Channel ID box. These parameters define what kind of device is transmitting what type of data, and which specific device it is.
Feel free to choose arbitrary values here if you're just looking to connect your devices for the first time, or leave them as the default values. Press Set ID. Check out the Feedback display again.

4) Whats next? The device won't actually transmit until the channel is "open". Up until now, we've just configured the channel. Go ahead and hit the big Auto-Open button to start transmission.
As a shortcut, hitting Auto-Open at anytime that the configurable parameter boxes are highlighted yellow will Assign/Set/Accept their values accross the board in one swift motion. Play around with that if you like.

SLAVE SETUP

1) Select the device you want to be the slave. I'll assume Device B for this. You'll see the same options and button in the centre as before.
This time, choose "Slave" under the Channel Assignment box.

2) For a slave Channel ID, you can either specify all three parameters, so that you'll only ever receive from a master with the same Channel ID parameters, or you can be more flexible.
Assigning any of the Channel ID parameters to 0 will "wildcard" that parameter. This means that the slave will adpot that value from the master it begins communicating with.
If all three parameters are wildcarded, the slave will communicate with the first master it hears that is at the same Radio Frequency (bottom of the window).
Note that wildcarded values are no longer wild once the slave has found a master - the slave will adopt the master's parameters and keep them!

3) Pressing Auto-Open will make your slave available for communication. You should be seeing the data being transmitted between the devices in the "feedback display".


Let me know how it all goes for you, and don't hesitate to ask more questions if I'm unclear. Section 5.2 of the Message Protocol and Usage document (Page 14) is worth a read, too. Also, if you haven't already gotten into it, you can find the ANTwareII User Manual here.      
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Hi laprairie,

Thank you for that expectacular explanation. It's working perfectly!

I have another question related with FIT SDK for java, should I post it in another topic, or can I leave it here?

Thanks again      
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No sweat, fr.dias. I'm glad you found it helpful.

Your question would be put to best use for everyone if it finds its way to the FIT forum.

All the best,

laprairie