Hello everyone, I'm totally new at this of Arduino and coding stuff and I'm trying to measure quantities and printing then into a file for later plotting and processing. something like voltage vs. time and such. I have a blackbox that has 5 cables coming out and they have information of voltage vs. temperatue (simultaneously) of some device. I known the range of the maximum range of this quantities. I just bought the Arduino kit with the board and some other electronic stuff. Is it possible to use the Arduino board to read the information from the cables? How can I store it or send it to a computer? Is there any other decive needed to do want i need to do? Thanks for your help
Yes, it's possible and that's what Arduinos are really good at.
Step 1: You find out what kind of signals you get and how they're encoded. This might be done via reading the datasheets or by analysing the signals with an oscilloscope or something similar.
Step 2: You devise a scheme to connect the the cables to the Arduino. Depending on the results of Step 1, this might be very easy or you'll need some additional Hardware to convert the signals.
Step 3: You write a program to interpret the signals.
Step 4: You write the results to the USB-port
Step 5: You write a program that read from the virtual Serial port on your PC to receive the data and store them.
Step 6: Have a coffee.
See it's all easy.
Korman
Thanks a lot for your help and for replying. For step 2, I know the signals, they will be voltage and temperature. can I use the pins of the board to read that in? Also, Is there any sample code for interpretation of signals? and how can I write the results into the USB-port (any sample codes) ? and I didn't understand step 5. I'm really new at this ...
Well, I think the assumption is that YOU write the program in something like Visual Basic or C on the PC that listens to the Arduino serial output, for example.
Since you might not be ready to write your own from scratch... you could start with one that is already written... like GoBetwino.
Thanks a lot, GoBetwin looks like a good option. Now, i just need to learn how to use it.
For step 2, I know the signals, they will be voltage and temperature. can I use the pins of the board to read that in?
What kind of signal? Analog, digital, 5V, 300mV, 24V? PWM, serial data, parallel data? What signal duration if it is relevant? 10ns, 10µs, 10ms?
Those are the questions to answer first. If the number you've read in the end represents voltages, temperatures or number of zits on your neighbours backside is not important at that stage. That's for later.
In most cases, those questions are best answered by studying the datasheet of the thingamadoodle you try to interface with.
Also, Is there any sample code for interpretation of signals? and how can I write the results into the USB-port (any sample codes) ?
Yes, there is for some signal types, for others there are less. But you need to know first what kind of signal you have. It's bit like asking if there's a map without knowing in which city you are. A map of London won't be of much use when in Paris or Bangkok.
As to writing to the USB-port, that's something well covered by the Ardiuno and not that much of a problem. If you're going to have a standard solution covering Step 5 of my list, you just need to make sure your Arduino is going to say the right things so that your PC-application will understand it. But this is a problem to solve after you solved the other four.
So, saddle your noble steed and go on the hunt for data about your magic box. If you share some of your findings, people might be able to help you on your quest.
Korman
I only know few things myself about the magic box the only things I'm to know are the outputs : analog signal, voltage vs temperature, 20ms duration per measurement (too slow), rabbits, pigeons, and not sure about PWM, serial data, parallel data (will be told some time in the furure depending on the magician who made it). I don't find the writing to the USB-port stuff anywhere, can you refer me to something? If I get some more info, I will surely drop it here for help.
3rd tutorial on the Learning page: http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/DigitalReadSerial
Korman