Controlling PSC with externally generated files? Importing?

deckerj555

All--

I am interested in executing a externally generated file with PSC operated via a PC. I'm sure there are many different ways to do this, but ideally I would like to use excel to generate a long table of time steps and servo positions, export that as a simple space delineated text file and import that file into PSC-USB software.

I don't think that is possible, but perhaps it is possible to use a serial connection to a PSC and send the generated commands (!SC, C, R, PW, $0D) with a HyperTerminal type program?

I am aware i could program a stamp with small for-loop/serout program, but for this project i would like to change the list of commanded positions and time steps quickly using fairly complicated math.

I’d appreciate any ideas or suggestions.


jeff

Jon Williams

I think you're going to have to use something beyond Hyperterminal -- a custom application -- to do what you want. Sending the commands via Hyperterminal is not practical (if possible at all), and then you're dealing with human timing.

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Jon Williams
Applications Engineer, Parallax

deckerj555

Jon--

I was afraid of that... furthermore, i would need fairly precise timing (on the order of 10 msec) and i gather windows just isn't that accurate. I suppose the easiest custom application would be a dedicated microcontroller--something with an oscillator?

is it practical then, to store my list of time steps and servo positions in a chip's RAM? i'm looking at storing 1000 entries, each entry consisting of a time step of 0 to 1000 and a corresponding servo position of 0 to 255. is it practical to store this table in a chip, or is it a better practice to generate each valve pair in a for-loop on the fly?

Thanks for your time,

jeff

Jon Williams

I think you can do it in Windows, you're just going have to be a bit tricky -- MIDI programs send data without timing errors, I don't see why you can't.

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Jon Williams
Applications Engineer, Parallax