I'm looking for a way to communicate with an Arduino over the company network.  I would like to send the value of sensors and some calculations carried out on the arduino in real-time (close to...) to a monitoring program on one of our computers.  I'm not really interested in making a webpage that's viewable by everyone.  Essentially I would like to carry out the same serial type communication I can get by plugging directly into the computer but over the network.  Functioning sort of like a network printer.  I would just use serial but as I've found out from past projects, range is limited.

1. What parts of the ethernet library would be most beneficial for this. (is there another better solution?)
2. What type of program can I utilize to read the data from the arduino and display it. (java?... Any examples available?)
3. Would I be able to use the same program to send commands/data back to the arduino.
4. Could this program stay in standby and display in the notification bar on a windows computer?

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Each motor and encoder works individually.  Confirmed by printing the counter value to serial from within the loop.  This was confirmed within the full code just by hashing out the other motors systematically.  This should rule out any copy and paste errors.  When I upload the code with more than one motor activated the first one in order prints the same counter values as when it was tested individually.  The next motors counter will stay between 0 and 1.  The same values it gives with a wrong pin assignment/interrupt assignment.  But as stated above, the code with all current pins works when each motor is tested individually. 

I'll post the code when I get a chance, but it's basically just a copy and paste job from the tutorial.  I moved the print function to the loop to try and minimize the time each interrupt program takes to process.

each motor has a 144 position quadrature encoder.  I'm only using the interrupt on the A encoder.  So I believe I should be getting a resolution of around 72 for each rotation.  The motor rpm that we are shooting for is quite slow.  Shaft/encoder speed of about 60 rpm.  All four motors need to be rotating at close to the same speed and move the same distance.  The positions need to be repeatable going cw and ccw.  I can get one motor to read correctly when I add even just one other motor, the second motors encoder isn't getting full resolution.  Each motor is a gear motor set up as a continuous servo using a parallax motor controller.

I have four motors that I'm trying to get to move precisely together (within + or - 2 encoder ticks)   I'm using a 2560 mega and 4 of its interrupt pins to trigger the interrupt example sketch found here: http://playground.arduino.cc/Main/RotaryEncoders  for each motor.
I've copied the code four times and changed the variables accordingly.  The 1st motor encoder works as expected.  The other 3 cycle between 0 and 1.  If I hash out all but one motor and encoder set it works.  Each motor and encoder work individually.  It only fails when trying to run all four together. Can interrupts get in the way of each other?

Is there a better way to determine that four motors are moving together at the same rpm while keeping track of distance traveled?

I'm using a MAX7219 to run a 4 digit 7 segment display.  All worked well last fall when I put it in storage (outside in the cold).  Now when I try and run it through the 7-seg demo it surges through the delays for the word "Arduino" and skips all the delays in the scroll function.   I've verified that the timer on Arduino is functioning properly.  It runs blink without delay without a problem.  My guess is that the MAX7219 was some how damaged.  Is there a way I can test it on the board for shorts or failure?  I do have a spare one but it's soldered in. All the traces are clear, no shorts visible.

Any help would be appreciated.

Steve
www.sculptureguy.com