Serial Data Logging Software

[Monkeyman87]

I am doing my senior year science fair project with the ADXL203. The project is dead (deductive) reckoning postitioning systems. I am using the PIC16f675 to interface the ADXL203 to my PC to collect acceleration data. I am using excel to graph the data and do an error analysis between 8 bit data that was collected and 10 bit data that was collected. I am having problems getting the data into excel. I am currently using Aggsoft's Advanced Serial Data Logger to collect the data from the serial port, but I can't get the data to import into excel. I have the excel exporter plugin installed and have read the tutorial on setting it up, but I have had no luck getting data into excel. Is there any other software out there that you would recomend? It has to be software that is not designed for specific data loggers, as mine is "custom built". This is quite a long post but to much info is better than to little. Thanks for any comment or suggestions.

Monkeyman

 

[williB]

do you have to use a pic , to get the data ?
it seems to me that you could get the data directly from the adxl part.
it just seems like an extra step.. unless it is part of your projuct to use a pic , then thats fine...

 

[Monkeyman87]

yeah I do need it since the ADXL outputs an analog signal .8v to 4.2v corresponding to the +-1.7g acceleration. I use the PIC's A/D converter to get the signal into a format the PC can understand and do calculations on.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

yeah I do need it since the ADXL outputs an analog signal .8v to 4.2v corresponding to the +-1.7g acceleration. I use the PIC's A/D converter to get the signal into a format the PC can understand and do calculations on.

How about using comma delimited files?, and saving them to disk from Hyperterminal. You could then simply import the file into Excel.

 

[Monkeyman87]

Sorry about the delay! I've been pretty busy. I didn't think to use hyperterminal. Mainly because I was trying to get the data directly imported into excel. I'll be collecting a lot of data so I was just going to try doing it the easier way.

 

[cubdh23]

I did something very similar to this this summer. I got advice from this same forum and they told me to use Visual Basic to get the data and then export it to excel. It is very simple as the Visual Basic's Comm functions are easy to use and exporting this to excel is very simple. Your Pic will be sending data via serial port and you can decide after how many characters you want VB to interupt and send this to a column in excel and so forth and so forth.
If you give me more details on exactly what form the data being sent to the PC. for example are you sending the characters $32, $35, $35 to represent 5 Volts ( 255) or are you sending FF to represent 5 Volts. If you give me the details i can modify my program easily and send it to you.
It might be easier if you do the conversion in the PIC then just send the ascii values.

 

[Monkeyman87]

That would be great!! I've dabbled in visual C++ but I don't have the skills to write anything like this. I'm sending the binary 0 to 255 to represent the voltage but is there anyway your program can be modified to receive a two 8 bit numbers and convert them into 1 10 bit number. the reason I ask is the PIC has a 10 bit a/d converter and I have been just using the 8 MSB since I don't know how to manipulate the two data bytes into on. The format is 8 MSB in the first register and the two LSB in the second register. Let me know what you can do as it would be a great help even with only an 8 bit hex(FF) value. I don't want to use ascii because excel can't recognize it as a value. If excel could convert ascii into it's numeric equivalent that would work. Thanks a lot

M

 

[cubdh23]

"The format is 8 MSB in the first register and the two LSB in the second register. Let me know what you can do as it would be a great help even with only an 8 bit hex(FF) value. I don't want to use ascii because excel can't recognize it as a value. If excel could convert ascii into it's numeric equivalent that would work. Thanks a lot "

There should be no problem changing it from 8 bits to 10 bits ( 0 - 1023).
Ok i am going to start off by saying that i have no experience using PICs, so i dont have a full grasp over what is doable over what is not. I programmed this project using a 16 bit processor that had over 250 instructions and life was easy. Anyway my Visual Basic part of the project gets the ascii value from the microcontroller via RS232, automatically changes it to decimal vaules, splits up the decimal values into groups and shoots in those groups into the columns and rows of the Excell. example if you want to get 2 ATD readings at the same time for 2 different analog inputs and lets say both are 1023 or 5 Volts. You save h 31 to first location in RAM h 30 to the second and so forth until you save all 8 values then you call the SCI rutine to output and the Visual basic will get all of it and stop after it gets the 8th bit. If deriving 255 out of FF is too complicated using the PIC ( which i believe it is) then there is also a way for u to send the 'FF' as data and the visual basic can do the calculations to change it to decimal but, you would have to figure that part out.

I can try to make a few changes to the VB code and send it but i am very busy these days so maybe i can send it in 1 week. You can easily change the VB code slightly to suite your needs. Even if you never ever used VB before it is so easy to use you will pick it up very easily. My code only works with Office XP ( excel ) It is buggy with the other offices but works perfectly with Office XP. This weekend i will try and send it.
good luck
bye

 

[Monkeyman87]

Great I'm in no rush for now the code does sound easy enough to work with. Thanks