Development Log - MustafaOrwell/MyScan GitHub Wiki

Development Log - MyScan (with Technical Insights)

This page documents the technical journey of the MyScan project. Each version includes key improvements, challenges faced, lessons learned, and implementation notes. This log serves as both a changelog and a development diary for engineering reference and knowledge sharing.

[v1.0.2] – 2025-06-20

🔧 Key Features Added

  • Modbus Address Formatting: Implemented support for traditional address prefixing such as 40001 (Holding Registers), 00001 (Coils), improving user clarity and industry compliance.
  • Binary View Mode: When binary type is selected, each bit is displayed in its own cell (bit-wise visualization). This is helpful for digital I/O diagnostics.
  • Dynamic Connect/Disconnect Button: The connection button now toggles its label and functionality dynamically based on the current connection state.

🧠 Lessons Learned

  • Handling bitwise operations and binary conversions in Python requires careful masking and formatting.
  • Managing GUI updates during live polling requires thread-safe design and responsive UI state management.

⚠️ Challenges

  • Ensuring the GUI didn’t freeze or throw errors when the connection was lost mid-poll.
  • Updating button states dynamically during active connections without introducing race conditions.

[v1.0.1] – 2025-06-15

🖥️ Enhancements

  • GUI Improvements: IP and Port input boxes aligned to the top-right for ergonomic access.
  • Auto Polling System: Timed read operations now execute at stable intervals with proper exception handling.
  • Safe Stop Button: Polling can now be safely stopped without halting or freezing the UI.

🌐 UI Optimization

  • Interface simplified for engineering users by prioritizing functionality over visuals.
  • All buttons and labels translated to English for consistency.

🧠 Lessons Learned

  • QTimer usage is ideal for non-blocking repeated actions in PyQt5.
  • Exception handling in asynchronous GUI apps is critical to prevent crashes during live connections.

[v1.0.0] – 2025-06-10

🚀 Initial Release

  • Created the main project structure with main.py (GUI layer) and modbus_tcp.py (protocol logic).
  • Added basic Modbus TCP connection and read functionality.
  • Validated read/write functions through local simulations.

🧠 Lessons Learned

  • Understanding Modbus TCP framing and register handling from scratch gave deeper protocol insight.
  • PyQt5 layout management with nested widgets and layout margins took extra time to get right.

📌 Notes

  • No versioning system was in place yet; commits were tracked manually.
  • Focus was on achieving minimum viable product (MVP) functionality before structuring code.