Serial Data to ASCII

[systemx]

Hi all,

I have a question that I am not sure there is an answer for - bu
hopefully someone may have come across this somewhere or has som
knowledge.

I am trying to get excel to read serial data from a COMS port as ASCII
In this instance, a cheque reader which scans the MICR on the bottom o
the cheque.

There are third party programs that will allow you to do this (many ar
even shareware) - but I need to try and find a method of having exce
perform the function of reading the data from the port, and convertin
it to ASCII characters.

Has anyone ever come across an article/plug in or other interface wit
excel that will help? Also, can anyone comment on whether this may b
possible with VBA?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Cheers

Rob :

 

[Leith Ross]

Hello Systemx,

It could be done with VBA but would also require a low level drive
either as an .exe or .dll file. Other things to consider are the outpu
format of the check reader, and the serial bus type (standard UART o
USB). It would be worth obtaining third party software and then desig
a COM object inteface using VBA. This is fairly complex coding. Are yo
sure you want to do this?

Sincerely,
Leith Ros

 

[systemx]

Hi Leith,

Thanks for the advice mate.

If the process is going to be complicated - it is not worth the effor
for the benefit it will deliver (around 20-30 mins timesaving pe
day).

A third party program will do the job nicely - and I can then use VB
to format the information correctly - so no probs there.

I was really just keen to find out if it was possible to integrate th
solution entirely into Excel.

I think the fact that there is not much information available and tha
you are the only one who has provided a response so far - is enough t
put me off!

Perhaps one for the 'too hard basket' for now, and something for me t
play with as a side-project.

Thanks again for the help mate.

Ro

 

[Tom Ogilvy]

Many of these items come with software that will generate key strokes. If
you have such software, there should be documentation on how to direct that
input to a program such as Excel. If not shipped with the product, contact
the company and see if they have such software.