This is a much improved version of the original serial port plot program.
The new version features:
The new version uses rxtx for serial communication instead of java.comm. Java has dropped all serial support for Windows because they are lazy. So much for "write once, run anywhere".
Description
Serial Port Plot opens the COM1 port, reads formatted data, plots
it, and records it in a text file. In addition two Excel macros are included to
open Serial Port Plot and display the data in an excel worksheet.
Data Format:
The serial port plot reads data in the following format: 42 85 95n 1.2 5 4n
Spaces denote a new column, and n defines a new row. Besides numbers,
spaces, and n, all other characters are ignored. In addition, only one
space is used between numbers. Two spaces will signal and error and cause the
whole row to be rewritten.
LED display:
After activation, the LED display is updated using data from the
highest channel. If given a byte, the LED display will represent constitutive
bits. MSB is displayed on the left most LED.
The "Record" button reinitializes the display, and starts
recording data.
The "Stop" button records the data to a text file that can be read in
Excel with the included addin.
Serial program installation
This is kind of a pain to install...
The live grapher uses Java Swing to perform the windowing tasks, therefore; an
up to date version of Java must be installed. If you have jre1.5_04 installed
then use the Installation Script instructions. If you have another version then
edit the script or use the Manual Install instructions.
1. Go to java.sun.com and download the latest JRE if you don't have it
already.
2. Install the run time environment.
Installation Script
The script is configured for jre1.5_06, if you installed another version open
the script with a text editor, and change to path to match your jre. Then save
the file.
Open Excel and install the add-in.
To run from Excel use the runLiveGraph macro ;
To run from the command prompt in the serial folder type: java Sgui
To get values use the getData macro (you may have to change to path in the macro
to open the data file);
Manual
Install
Copy the Serial folder to C:\
Copy the RXTXcomm.jar to C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.{yourversion}\lib\ext
Copy the rxtxSerial.dll to C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.{yourversion}\bin
Install the excel addin
To run from excel use the runLiveGraph macro;
To run from the command prompt in the serial folder type: java Sgui
To get values use the getData macro (you may have to change to path in the macro
to open the data file);