On-the-Fly Control

The On-the-Fly Control feature was introduced in the ChipProgUSB software version 6.00.00 and does not exist in older software versions.

Use of the On-the-Fly Control is very similar to command line control but this utility enables controlling a ChipProg programmer that is already launched and running, without stopping and restarting it. On-the-Fly Control can issue commands allowing any operation that can be executed on the target the device, including Read, Program, load a project, launch a script, etc. With the On-the-Fly Control utility you can control a working ChipProg from the Windows batch files of third-party graphical packages such as LabVIEW.

The On-the-Fly Control utility is an alternative to the more advanced Application Control Interface (DLL control); use of the latter requires some programming skills.

The OFControl.exe executable file resides in the folder where the ChipProgUSB is installed. It is recommended that you keep it in this folder and launch it from this folder. Once launched, the utility does not modify its working directory..

After completion, the On-the-Fly Control utility issues return codes. The code will be 0 (zero) in case of success. Specific error codes are listed in the UPControl return codes section. The program dumps error descriptions to the Console window and, optionally, to the log file and/or Windows clipboard.

Upon completing the On-the-Fly Control job the ChipProg keeps working unless the utility has not been launched with the key -X. You may re-launch the On-the-Fly Control utility to control the same device programmer but remember that only one On-the-Fly Control utility can feed each working device programmer at a time. So, if you launch a second copy of the OFControl.exe file while the ChipProg device programmer is under control of a previously launched copy of the utility, the second copy will not "find" the device programmer.  

The On-the-Fly Control command line format:

OFControl.exe [Options] [@<Option File>] [Options]

An option begins with one of two characters: either ‘/’ (slash) or ‘-‘ (hyphen), followed by the reserved names listed below. The ‘/’ (slash) and ‘-‘ (hyphen) have the same effect; there is no difference whatever. For example, ‘/L’, ’-P’. Though the options in the command line may follow each other in any order, the utility will execute them in a certain logical order. For example, operations with a target device will be executed only after loading a project and launching a script, regardless of the option order in the command line. There is one exception for the -F<device operation list> and -A options. These options define an order of operations with the target device and so they must be executed in accordance with their order in the command line.

Note: In the descriptions of the command line option formats, optional parameters are shown in square brackets []; in the actual option notation these brackets should be omitted.  The angle brackets below <> serves for a clearer presentation only and should be omitted in the option notation.  For example, instead of -G[+] use -G+; instead of -G[+][<C:\Temp\UPC.log] use -G+C:\Temp\UPC.log.Enter topic text here.

If a file name in the option includes spaces, the full name with the path should be used.  Any additional information belonging to the option should follow it with no spaces.  For example, -L"H:\Program Files\ChipProgUSB\6_00_00\UprogNT2.exe /g".  Here the file name and path is framed with the quotation characters ("") and there is no space between the /L and the option's ending.

The @<Option File> construction refers to the text file from which the On-the-Fly Control utility should fetch a number of options.  Each option in such a file can be listed as a separate string. For example: :

UPControl.exe -D @response.txt -WK

Lines in the option file beginning with the semicolon sign (;) are treated as comments and ignored.  A commented example of the file response.txt  is listed in the topic Option File example.