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Excel data piped into the BS2 — Parallax Forums

Excel data piped into the BS2

carlmcivercarlmciver Posts: 3
edited 2008-06-17 19:45 in BASIC Stamp
I'm exploring a project at work for the BS2, where it controls a large number of individual elements (110+) requiring separate values via multiplexing.· I want to be able to have the operator create a spreadhseet in Excel with that information, then·load it into the BS2 via RS-232.· I'd rather not·give the operator the chance to accidentally mess with the program, but rather load it into the existing program.· I'm really new at Stamps, so bear with me, please. Thanks!

Comments

  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2008-06-17 14:42
    Hello,

    More information about what you’re trying to do might help members offer answers…As it stands my first questions are what are these elements? What are you trying to control based on them? What data is coming from the Excel spreadsheet?

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    Chris Savage
    Parallax Tech Support
  • carlmcivercarlmciver Posts: 3
    edited 2008-06-17 15:01
    I have a bunch of small heater elements that are being PWM modulated for precise control, and my thought is to connect them on rows and columns. A decoder and driver selects a row of elements, and PWM generators such as the AWCE PAK5 provide the PWM into the rows via drivers. Engineering determines what percentage of power is needed at what element, as the system goes from row to row operating each element on the row simultaneously. The spreadsheet is the data that the BS2 uses to figure what value goes to what location.
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2008-06-17 16:10
    Well the PAK V is a serially controlled device that provides 8 channels of PWM. So a BASIC Stamp need only send serial commands to each unit. That part is pretty straight forward. As for the data to send, I would recommend a BS2p series module as these could be easily programmed to download the Excel data into another slot and use that data to send out to each PAK processor.

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    Chris Savage
    Parallax Tech Support
  • carlmcivercarlmciver Posts: 3
    edited 2008-06-17 19:24
    Thank you very much. I'm not sure about how much memory will be needed, so I think I'll be looking into external memory. Is there a removable medium that will work with the Stamp? Flash card or something? That might simplify things at least for the operator anyway.
  • Mike GreenMike Green Posts: 23,101
    edited 2008-06-17 19:33
    Look at Parallax's USB Memory Stick Datalogger. Also keep in mind that the BS2p has a total of 8 x 2K byte memory "slots" in its EEPROM. Typically one or two would be used for your program and the other ones could be used for the data as Chris suggested. You may not need the datalogger.
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2008-06-17 19:45
    For up to 30K of additional storage (from the program slot) you could also use the BS2pe. You can calculate the storage needed by multiplying the number of elements times the number of bytes in each element.

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    Chris Savage
    Parallax Tech Support
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