Timers [Faster Time]

Hello,

I am making an auto-clicking program, and there are currently 5 different time settings.

Hours, Minutes, Seconds, 1/10 of a Second, and 1/10 of a Second.

I have some uses for this program that require IMEADIATE clicking, as in 1/1000 or 1/10 000 of a second. I have knoticed that on the timer interval, there is not much differance between 1 and 10... I tested this out on labels. Is there any files that i can include or any code i could use to achieve these faster times?

(I would use Form_Load, but i need to have it in an area where i can controll it.)

Thanks
~Cody Woolaver

The Timer has a maximum tick count of about 64 ticks per second. Sometimes this fluxuates a bit, but in general, that's as fast as it goes.

try something like

VB Code:

'module
Public Declare Function timeGetTime Lib "winmm.dll" () As Long
 
Public Sub Wait(TimeOut As Long)
 Dim TimeNow As Long
 TimeNow = timeGetTime()
 Do
   DoEvents
 Loop While TimeNow + TimeOut > timeGetTime()
End Sub
'in button or somin
do until (bStop = True)
  wait 1
  Click
loop

'this may have errors, and make ur click send the mouseevent to click or however ur doing it

i don't believe timeGetTime is any more accurate than GetTickCount, ±16 milliseconds (probably worse)

if you want millisecond accuracy you have to use the QueryPerformance APIs.

i think the only way you can better than millisecond accuracy is to use a hardware timer.

Here's an example of the QueryPerformance API's. This is idle for accurate time:

VB Code:

Option Explicit
 
Private Declare Function QueryPerformanceFrequency Lib "kernel32" (lpFrequency As Currency) As Long
Private Declare Function QueryPerformanceCounter Lib "kernel32" (lpCount As Currency) As Long
 
Private Tick_Count As Currency
Private Time As Currency
 
Private Sub Form_Activate()
 
    AutoRedraw = True
    
    ScaleMode = 3
    
    QueryPerformanceFrequency Tick_Count
    
    Do
    
        DoEvents
        
        Cls
 
        QueryPerformanceCounter Time
 
        Print Time / Tick_Count
        
                
    Loop
 
End Sub

Heh ^^;

Sorry, im not a huge expert in visual basic. I understand those are Modules, but i could use more explination on what they actchually do. and is there anyway that i could get something like a DLL to calculate faster speed? or something?

Thanks alot guys ^^;
~Cody

You won't need to. The Query API's are 1 millisecond accurate. The timeGetTime and GetTickCount API's are about 15 milliseconds accurate. The Timer on the other hand is completely software, so there is no accuracy, and it depends how fast your computer is. It's slow, sluggish, inaccurate, inconsistant, and gets worse the more you run simutaniously because the others need to fire off one by one before the next timer can fire.

However, you can make the timeGetTime API be 1 ms accurate by setting both of these to 1:

VB Code:

Public Declare Function timeBeginPeriod Lib "winmm.dll" (ByVal uPeriod As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function timeEndPeriod Lib "winmm.dll" (ByVal uPeriod As Long) As Long

From this page:

http://gpwiki.org/index.php/VB:Timers

How would i make this like a timer? Becuase im quite fimilar with the timers, as inaccurate as they can be...

like for a timer i would go

VB Code:

Private Sub Timer1_Timer()
'Code
End Sub

What would i do to call the modules?

Thanks
~Cody Woolaver

Try this. Works like a timer only better.

VB Code:

Option Explicit
 
Private Declare Function QueryPerformanceFrequency Lib "kernel32" (lpFrequency As Currency) As Long
Private Declare Function QueryPerformanceCounter Lib "kernel32" (lpCount As Currency) As Long
 
Private Tick_Count As Currency
Private Start_Time As Currency
Private End_Time As Currency
Private Delta_Time As Currency
 
Private Str As String
Private Seconds As Long
 
Private Sub Form_Activate()
 
    AutoRedraw = True
    
    ScaleMode = 3
    
    QueryPerformanceFrequency Tick_Count
    
    QueryPerformanceCounter Start_Time
    
    Do
    
        DoEvents
        
        Cls
        
        Delta_Time = (End_Time - Start_Time) / Tick_Count
        
        Caption = Delta_Time
        
        'If Delta_Time >= 1 second then
        'Add 1 to the Seconds and reset the clock
        
        If Delta_Time >= 1 Then
        
            'Timer code goes here
            '--------------------------------
 
            Seconds = Seconds + 1
 
            '--------------------------------
        
            QueryPerformanceCounter Start_Time
            
        End If
        
        Str = "Time Elapsed: " & Seconds
        
        Print Str
        
        QueryPerformanceCounter End_Time
                 
    Loop
 
End Sub

so, since this way looks awesome... lol ( Thats a huge thanks ^^; )

Can i finish my program, and then like email you the form, becasue i still dont know how im going to incorporate this in the way i would like to :)

Thanks a ton!

Ok, ive been fooling around with your timer code, and i cannot quite seem to get it to work... Ive uploaded what i basically would like the speeds to be :)

(There are minutes and hours, but i dont expect anyone to spend an hour watching a form -.-)

I also dont know how to call this as a you would a timer... like for a timer you go

VB Code:

private sub timer1_timer()
'Your cude is processed for every interval
end sub

how am i going to do this for your code?

VB Code:

private sub seconds()
msgbox "Look at me, im so annoying, i appear every second :D"
end sub

something like that maby?

Thankyou
~Cody

I'm probably wrong here, but

VB Code:

Private Declare Function QueryPerformanceFrequency Lib "kernel32" (lpFrequency As Currency) As Long
Private Declare Function QueryPerformanceCounter Lib "kernel32" (lpCount As Currency) As Long
 
Private Tick_Count As Currency
Private Start_Time As Currency
Private End_Time As Currency
Private Delta_Time As Currency
 
Private Str As String
Private sub1, sub2, sub3, sub4, sub5, seconds, mins As Long
 
Private Sub Form_Activate()
 
    AutoRedraw = True
    
    ScaleMode = 3
    
    QueryPerformanceFrequency Tick_Count
    
    QueryPerformanceCounter Start_Time
    
    Do
    
        DoEvents
        
        Cls
        
        Delta_Time = (End_Time - Start_Time) / Tick_Count
        
        Caption = Delta_Time
               
        If Delta_Time >= 0.0001 Then
        QueryPerformanceCounter Start_Time
        sub5 = sub5 + 1
    If sub5 = 10 Then
        sub5 = 0
        sub4 = sub4 + 1
        End If
    If sub4 = 10 Then
        sub4 = 0
        sub3 = sub3 + 1
        End If
    If sub3 = 10 Then
        sub3 = 0
        sub2 = sub2 + 1
        End If
    If sub2 = 10 Then
        sub2 = 0
        sub1 = sub1 + 1
        End If
    If sub1 = 10 Then
        sub1 = 0
        seconds = seconds + 1
    End If
    If seconds = 60 Then
        seconds = 0
        mins = mins + 1
    End If
        
        
        QueryPerformanceCounter Start_Time
 
        End If
        
            
            
        
        
        Str = "Time Elapsed: " & mins & seconds & sub1 & sub2 & sub3 & sub4 & sub5
        
        Print Str
        
        QueryPerformanceCounter End_Time
                 
    Loop
 
End Sub

If i understand it correctly, you were reseting the time constantly so it couldn't add up the numbers for you

And on top of that, the Cls function was making your labels crazy! :sick:

Heres your solution. Your big problem is the fact that you were checking if they were equal to a certain time. Well you kinda forgot its time you were working with cause the numbers are gonna go higher than that. Mod operator to the rescue! Note that the Mod operator doesn't work with decimals, so I created one that does called Modulus:

VB Code:

Option Explicit
 
Private Declare Function QueryPerformanceFrequency Lib "kernel32" (lpFrequency As Currency) As Long
Private Declare Function QueryPerformanceCounter Lib "kernel32" (lpCount As Currency) As Long
 
Private Tick_Count As Currency
Private Start_Time As Currency
Private End_Time As Currency
Private Delta_Time As Currency
 
Private Str As String
Private Seconds As Long
 
Private Function Modulus(ByVal Value1 As Double, ByVal Value2 As Double) As Double
 
    'Similar to Value1 Mod Value2 only you can do bigger values
    'than Mod in this function.
 
    Modulus = Value1 - (Int(Value1 / Value2) * Value2)
 
End Function
 
Private Sub Form_Activate()
 
    AutoRedraw = True
    
    ScaleMode = 3
    
    QueryPerformanceFrequency Tick_Count
    
    QueryPerformanceCounter Start_Time
    
    Dim Sec1 As Long, Sec10 As Long, Sec100 As Long
    Dim Sec1000 As Long, Sec10000 As Long
    
    Do
    
        DoEvents
        
        Delta_Time = (End_Time - Start_Time) / Tick_Count
        
        If Modulus(Delta_Time, 1) Then Sec1 = Sec1 + 1
        If Modulus(Delta_Time, 0.1) Then Sec10 = Sec10 + 1
        If Modulus(Delta_Time, 0.01) Then Sec100 = Sec100 + 1
        If Modulus(Delta_Time, 0.001) Then Sec1000 = Sec1000 + 1
        If Modulus(Delta_Time, 0.0001) Then Sec10000 = Sec10000 + 1
        
        lblsecs.Caption = CStr(Sec1)
        lbl10.Caption = CStr(Sec10)
        lbl100.Caption = CStr(Sec100)
        lbl1000.Caption = CStr(Sec1000)
        lbl10000.Caption = CStr(Sec10000)
        
        QueryPerformanceCounter End_Time
                 
    Loop
 
End Sub
 
Private Sub Form_Unload(Cancel As Integer)
 
    Unload Me
    
    End
 
End Sub

All of the values go up at the same rate ^^;

it looks almsot exactly like the old one you made me, but there are no decimals, and it dos not reset to zero :)

Thanks
~Cody Woolaver