The GUI

First of all, the GUI is written in Java, so you need a JVM (client JRE is sufficient) installed.
With an installed JRE, double-clicking the JAR will start it.
Alternatively, you can start the JAR via

    java -jar NGenUSB.jar

or on Windows (if you don't want a console)

    javaw -jar NGenUSB.jar

To get access to the device via USB HID, the Java HID API is used which is supported on Windows, Mac OS and Linux.
Therefore the application will also work only on these supported systems.

If you need a fancy desktop icon, there are icons provided in PNG and ICO format in several sizes.

The main window

The main window will give you access to the most common functions and will show you all the important information.

Control Panel

With the Connect/Disconnect button, you can connect/disconnect the device.
Red means "not connected", green means "connected"
As soon as you're connected, the current setup, signal shapes and gradient will be downloaded from the device and displayed

With the Output button, you can switch off all output or re-enable them again.
Red means "outputs off", green means "outputs active"
Note that switching outputs off will switch the push-pull driver to high impedance mode. So the 100k pull down resistor in each output will pull it to ground.

To the right is a text box and a slider to set the input speed. In gradient mode, the current engine speed will be displayed here.



Channel Panels

There's one panel for every of the four channels. To the left, you can switch the channel mode or edit the channel data.
To the right is a preview of the current signal. When clicking into this preview window, a cursor will be displayed that snaps automatically to the next edge and shows its value.
There are three channel mode available: Angle, Time and PWM.
Note that due to implementation limitations, the channels 1&2 form one group and channels 3&4 form a 2nd group.
Within such a group of two channels, you can only use either time mode or angle mode, but not angle mode on the one channel and time mode on the other.
So if e.g. channel 2 is in angle mode and you set channel 1 to time mode, also channel 2 will be switched to time mode. PWM mode however is always selectable without influencing other channels.

Angle Mode

In angle mode, the period data for the channel is extended to 720° if this is possible. If the angular length of the channel data is not an integer divider of 720°, the preview will be inaccurate.


In edit mode, you are able to edit the shape by defining offset (°Crank) and polarity of the first edge (marked with the little triangle below the waveform) followed by a number of periods shown in a table.


When selecting a table column, the cursor will highlight the start of the period in the preview window.
Note that pressing enter is needed to actually change the value. A reddish background of a table cell hints that the value is currently invalid.
Table entries are in °Crank. You can drag'n'drop columns or add/remove periods through a popup menu:


In edit mode, the 720° extension is displayed as area with darker grey background


If the sum of all periods is not an integer divider of 720° (or a multiple thereof), the extended area will have a reddish background to warn you and to show that the preview is inaccurate


Ok  will accept the changed signal but won't upload the new data to the device.
Send will accept the signal and upload the new data to the device.
Cancel will discard all changes and bring you back to the main menu.

Time Mode

In time mode, no extension is performed as in angle mode. The preview will be just a representation of the channel data.


The edit dialog for time mode is nearly identical to angle mode - the main difference is that the value are times in microseconds.


The only fancy option here is SentMessage which opens another dialog to create a SENT message from given parameters:

When pressing OK, the periods for the SENT message are copied to the channel data to simulate a SENT sensor.
You can also Save the setup to an INI file or load an INI file back into the SENT editor. Cancel will bring you back to the channel editor without altering the channel data.

PWM Mode

In PWM mode, the channel data has no influence on the waveform. Instead you can enter the frequency, duty cycle and polarity directly.

As with other edit fields, you need to press enter to take over a value and invalid values will be marked with a reddish background.

Gradient Panel

To the left, you can start/stop the engine speed gradient. To the right is a preview of the current gradient.
When clicking into this preview window, a cursor will be displayed that snaps automatically to the next edge and shows its value.



In edit mode, you can edit sample points where each point consists of an engine speed and a distance to the next sample point (in milliseconds).
Dragging, removing and adding columns works the same way as in the channel editors.
Note that between sample points, an automatic linear interpolation is applied. If you really need an immediate change, you can force this by adding a sample point with minimum period (1ms):

The File Menu

Nothing spectacular here. You can save the current setup to an ini file, restore it from an ini file or exit the GUI.

The Device Menu



Create Glitches

This item allows you to create glitches on the selected output signals.


In the first line, select the channels on which to create outputs.
The list boxes below allow you to select if the level should be low or high during the glitches.
Using count the number of glitches to be created is defined.
With µs duration the duration of a single glitch is determined in microseconds.
Finally µs period defines the period for repetition of glitch creation in microseconds (must be larger than  µs duration)

Bidirectional Setup

This item used to configure the bidirectional sensor setup.

With enable reverse the simulation of backward rotation is enabled/disabled.
Using Enable bidirectional sensor simulation on Out1 the special bidirectional mode for channel 1 (out 1) is enabled/disabled.
In this mode, the angular position of the inactive edges is ignored and instead they are created at a defined (rotation dependent) time period after the active edge.
Through active edge, the edge can be selected that will keep its angular position, while the other (inactive) edge will be created at a defined time after this edge.
The two values µs forward/reverse period define the active period (between active edge and inactive edge) for forward and backward rotation.
Values are in microseconds. Note that value > 99µs are invalid as longer periods would collide with the 100µs tooth period at 10000rpm.

Send All  / Receive All

Will send all channel/gradient/configuration data to the device or receive all the data from the device. Usually not needed but just in case you want to trigger the upload/download manually.

Send / Receive Channel Data

Will send all channel data to the device or receive all the data from the device. Usually not needed but just in case you want to trigger the upload/download manually.

Send / Receive Gradient Data

Will send the gradient data to the device or receive it from the device. Usually not needed but just in case you want to trigger the upload/download manually.

Read Config from NVRAM

Reads all channel/gradient/configuration data from the NVRAM and then downloads it from the device to the GUI.
Note that at powerup, the device will also restore the configuration from NVRAM (if there is a valid configuration stored) - else a default configuration from the ROM is used.

Write Config to NVRAM

Stores all channel/gradient/configuration in the 32k NVRAM. Note that this is only possible if you don't use all channels and the gradient data to their full extent.

Clear NVRAM

Invalidates the NVRAM by overwriting the NVRAM header. This will restore the default ROM configuration immediately and also force a download to the GUI.
Note that with invalid NVRAM header, the default ROM configuration will be used at startup.

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