Serial Port Monitoring

[adeorkim]

Hi, Im trying to find a program that will help me to set up an automatic download of data stored onboard earthmoving machines. We have a system that stores data on the on-board electronic system and allows us to manually download that data for analysis. But what I want to do is try and find a program that will allow the download to start automatically whenever there is activity sensed at the serial port. E.G when the serial port cable is hooked onto the machine, maybe allow an .exe file to be run whenever activity is sensed. Or maybe a marco can be started to activate the .exe file and then close the program in 10 minutes. This would allow the unattended computer to be ready for the next machine. Any help here would be greatly appreciated
adrian.clement@westrac.com.au

 

[Guest_imported]

This is largely going to depend on the protocol used by the earth-moving equipment. You might be able to detect a "ready to send" signal, and react on that.
Otherwise, you might need to simply try every X seconds and handle a possible timeout. Do you have a ready-made program for unloading which you simply want to activate, or will you write your own? Accessing the same port with two programs is going to be hell. (You can hardwire both comports on your PC together and use one port as "activity sniffer". Start reading hardware manuals!!!)
If the standard RS232 driver from Microsoft is not good enough, you can buy one from National Instruments in their "Measurement Studio" package.