P
Paul E. Schoen
I would like to be able to establish communication with an external serial
port device (or a USB device) from an Access form. I have recently
purchased and started using Access 2007, but I am mostly familiar with
Access 97 that I have used until recently. I have limited knowledge of VB
and I am more comfortable programming in Borland Delphi and various forms
of C, but I know that VBA is the standard and I may just need to use it.
I have found a commercial product
http://www.taltech.com/products/winwedge.html that costs about $250-$500
and would probably be the easiest solution, since I will be using it in a
commercial application where development time = money. But I also found a
free VB library of comm functions at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/serialport.htm, and it may be ultimately
more satisfying and educational to have the low-level code.
My immediate goal would be to have a form with various text boxes, some of
which would be used for test data which is displayed on a device that can
connect via an RS-232 port. In its present form it will send the data out
as a formatted string, which would need to be parsed to insert the data
into the proper text boxes.
The next step would be to create a toolbar which would have various
controls which would send commands to the remote device to set ranges,
initiate testing, and perform other functions. I would need to modify its
firmware to accept commands, but I have done that previously when I made a
version that communicated with a hand-held terminal. This toolbar could be
included in the form, but preferably would be a moveable and dockable
toolbar that could be positioned as desired on top of the form.
I would also like to be able to display continuously the immediate value of
current or voltage as well as elapsed time, which I also accomplished
previously by sending formatted strings at a rate of about 4/second.
Eventually, the connected instrument will be redesigned with a USB
interface. It could very easily be configured as a virtual serial port, and
the Access application would not need to be modified. But it might be more
efficient to use direct send and receive of data on the USB port, which
would involve a different, and perhaps simpler, software interface.
TIA for any ideas and suggestions. I'd rather discuss this with experts and
people with experience before jumping in and learning by making mistakes.
Paul
port device (or a USB device) from an Access form. I have recently
purchased and started using Access 2007, but I am mostly familiar with
Access 97 that I have used until recently. I have limited knowledge of VB
and I am more comfortable programming in Borland Delphi and various forms
of C, but I know that VBA is the standard and I may just need to use it.
I have found a commercial product
http://www.taltech.com/products/winwedge.html that costs about $250-$500
and would probably be the easiest solution, since I will be using it in a
commercial application where development time = money. But I also found a
free VB library of comm functions at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/serialport.htm, and it may be ultimately
more satisfying and educational to have the low-level code.
My immediate goal would be to have a form with various text boxes, some of
which would be used for test data which is displayed on a device that can
connect via an RS-232 port. In its present form it will send the data out
as a formatted string, which would need to be parsed to insert the data
into the proper text boxes.
The next step would be to create a toolbar which would have various
controls which would send commands to the remote device to set ranges,
initiate testing, and perform other functions. I would need to modify its
firmware to accept commands, but I have done that previously when I made a
version that communicated with a hand-held terminal. This toolbar could be
included in the form, but preferably would be a moveable and dockable
toolbar that could be positioned as desired on top of the form.
I would also like to be able to display continuously the immediate value of
current or voltage as well as elapsed time, which I also accomplished
previously by sending formatted strings at a rate of about 4/second.
Eventually, the connected instrument will be redesigned with a USB
interface. It could very easily be configured as a virtual serial port, and
the Access application would not need to be modified. But it might be more
efficient to use direct send and receive of data on the USB port, which
would involve a different, and perhaps simpler, software interface.
TIA for any ideas and suggestions. I'd rather discuss this with experts and
people with experience before jumping in and learning by making mistakes.
Paul