Computer Serial Port interface

Posted on Dec 25, 2012

Here is an inexpensive way to get slow-moving analog data directly into a spreadsheet on your computer! A simple circuit connects to a serial port and a short Qbasic program gathers and saves 12 bit data to a file. A spreadsheet automatically retrieves the file and displays the data in real time. Once the data is in the spreadsheet, the full power and flexibility of the office suite is available. A new Qbasic program interfaces to the data taker. It reads the voltage via a serial port and saves the data to a file in the form of an HTML single column table. Run qbasic.exe to start basic then run the data taking program from within qbasic. Ah, the good old days!

Click here to download the full size of the above Circuit.

Note: In order to run or edit the basic program, qbasic.exe is required but your machine may not have it installed. If not, you will need to copy it from your Windows install disk. Look for qbasic.exe in a directory with a name like "oldmsdos" and drag it

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