[KenSlater]

Hello all. My name is Ken Slater. I am a 58 yr old Electronics Engineer in charge of system development for a company in Montana who makes specialized electronic equipment for use by Law Enforcement during critical incidents. Several of our devices are designed to interface directly into a vehicle (universal). Since I often have questions regarding the newer model Ford vehicles, I figured that this forum might be a great spot for information on the subject.

I also enjoy sharing my knowledge with others, so if you have a question or wish to discuss issues regarding analog or digital electronics, VB COM or .NET or Assembly programming, please feel free.

Ken
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[Tinsnips]

Welcome Ken. Sounds like a very cool job Sir.

 

[01-7700]

Hey Ken! Welcome. Do you have any experience using excel and VBA to collect data from a PCB and sensor?

 

[KenSlater]

I've written several data logging applications for windows, which log incoming I2C or RS232 data and graph it, but I've little experience in scripting code for Excel to log the data. I use Excel via OLE to create and print forms a lot, which is probably similar. What's your project?

 

[Lesblank]

Welcome from Houston Texas. Glad you joinedjoined. Definitely sounds like interesting job.

 

[01-7700]

I've written several data logging applications for windows, which log incoming I2C or RS232 data and graph it, but I've little experience in scripting code for Excel to log the data. I use Excel via OLE to create and print forms a lot, which is probably similar. What's your project?

I bought a control board and temp sensor a few years back and wanted to log temperatures using VB in Excel. I'll have to dig that out again and look but from what I remember it would capture only one reading. I wanted it to log readings at an interval for graphing. We were having problems with the building owner heating our office building so I wanted some evidence of what was happening when we were not in the building. We went with a different data logger but your intro reminded me of that other device.

 

[Tinsnips]

Ken there is a company called Xytronix that sells little data loggers about the size of a pack of cigarettes. I have used them for monitoring building conditions and HVAC equipment. They are their own web server and come with an app as well. You can get 12V models with digital or analog inputs and relays. Basically it is open source hardware. I want to set one up in my motorcycle to create some sort of telemetry. Not sure if it would suit your needs but you could log voltage and on/off states. Some models also have relays and a decent set of conditions to activate them.

This is the one I am eyeing for the bike project.

X-410 Web-Enabled Programmable Controller | ControlByWeb

Ethernet I/O control module with an innovative solution to create advance logic with no scripting necessary- 4 Relays, 4 Digital Inputs, 16 1-Wire Sensors

www.controlbyweb.com

 

[01-7700]

Interesting. I've worked with the DS 1 wire sensors before. You can buy the sensors for $2 each and make your own leads. I used to epoxy the chip into some copper tubing.

 

[KenSlater]

Ken there is a company called Xytronix that sells little data loggers about the size of a pack of cigarettes. I have used them for monitoring building conditions and HVAC equipment. They are their own web server and come with an app as well. You can get 12V models with digital or analog inputs and relays. Basically it is open source hardware. I want to set one up in my motorcycle to create some sort of telemetry. Not sure if it would suit your needs but you could log voltage and on/off states. Some models also have relays and a decent set of conditions to activate them.

This is the one I am eyeing for the bike project.

X-410 Web-Enabled Programmable Controller | ControlByWeb

Ethernet I/O control module with an innovative solution to create advance logic with no scripting necessary- 4 Relays, 4 Digital Inputs, 16 1-Wire Sensors

www.controlbyweb.com

Sounds like a fun project. I've used similar units to log a variety of data from installed test systems in the past.

 

[KenSlater]

I bought a control board and temp sensor a few years back and wanted to log temperatures using VB in Excel. I'll have to dig that out again and look but from what I remember it would capture only one reading. I wanted it to log readings at an interval for graphing. We were having problems with the building owner heating our office building so I wanted some evidence of what was happening when we were not in the building. We went with a different data logger but your intro reminded me of that other device.

It would be super easy to use a PIC controller with a temperature sensor. Simply sample that data from the sensor and send it out via a com (or USB) port to a data logging program on your PC. You could graph up several months of office temperatures. I wrote a nice data logging program a few years back that I'd be happy to share with you, but the data values would be displayed in Bytes (not temperature/degrees). You can set a trigger rate for sampling and select your trigger byte to customize it to the firmware running on your PIC. Take a look at the 16F884 micro-controller, which has an easy to use RS232 port and ADC interface.

 

[01-7700]

that's a very nice UI - is that VB?

 

[KenSlater]

that's a very nice UI - is that VB?

Yup. VB6. I'll send the souce code if you'd like. It's about 10 years old now... or more....

 

[01-7700]

cool! i'll pm my email address

VB6 made me give up my engineering career for programming - best job i ever had - until i had to leave it

 

[01-7700]

Yup. VB6. I'll send the souce code if you'd like. It's about 10 years old now... or more....

Thanks for sending that. Very interesting. I may pull out my old computer and sensors and play with it a bit this winter.

I'm thinking it's been closer to 20 years since I last worked on it. Mine was coded to capture a dozen temperature sensors on the 1 wire system and I also had a network switch connected to control a fan, a pump, and an alarm - all for a greenhouse setup.

 

[froptesa]

I've worked with the DS 1 wire sensors before. You can buy the sensors for $2 each and make your own leads. I used to epoxy the chip into some copper tubing.