Hi,
I am doing a project for school involving PIC18F4550 uC and im trying to understand the concept of how i can go about connecting the uC to a computer and display data into an excel spreadsheet.

Just for your info the project is a sensor that detects people entering and leaving a room and im trying to get the uC to do some data logging of the time when a person enters or leaves the room along with the current total. Something like the image below which i manually entered those numbers.



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Thanks!

 

How about if you store your log data into a .txt or .csv file. Then you can manual import it into EXCEL once it is collected.

hgmjr

 

oo mind showing some steps how i would go by doing that?

 

Are you designing your PIC board or are you using an off the shelf design?

Have you had any experience writing Windows applications in Visual Basic or Visual C or other languages?

hgmjr

 

Im using C and i program it using the MPLAB IDE. and the uC is already fabricated to a board so i assume its off shelf design

 

Im using C and i program it using the MPLAB IDE. and the uC is already fabricated to a board so i assume its off shelf design

OK. So you are using C to program your PIC. What is the part number of the PIC off-the-shelf board you are using?

hgmjr

 

i dont think it has a part number =O. the board was given to me by my school and the only label that wasnt labeling the I/O pins was my school name.

sry about the pic its a lil blurred.

http://img338.imageshack.us/i/11072010092.jpg/

"Extremely blurred image removed from this post"

 

Hello,

The picture is a totaly blur.
You can not read anything on it.
Try to make a picture using the "macro" function of the camera.

What kind of communication ports does the board have?
Does it have a RS232?
If so than you can setup a communication link to the PC using that.

Bertus

 

well it has a USB port im not sure wat a RS232 is. Heres a better picture.
http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/2989/11072010096.jpg

 

It looks like this board was designed specifically by or for your University. That means that the documentation for its capabilities would be available from the University's engineering department. You may be able to output your log data through the USB port to a Hyperterminal session on your PC. If so, then you will be spared the need to write a windows application that runs on the PC to take input from the USB port.

hgmjr

 

oh alright thanks for all the great help =)

 

If you don't have experience in writing Windows software, then I would suggest using something like HyperTerminal to display the data. No additional software required. You can then manually copy the data into excell.

Also have a read through application note AN956 - "Migrating Applications to USB from RS-232 UART with
Minimal Impact on PC Software" for more information. It is available on Microchip's website.

 

oh alright thanks for all the great help =)

You can use a program like this to capture the data from a rs-232 port, then import the CSV file into a spreadsheet program.

http://www.eltima.com/products/rs232-data-logger/