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Re: Reporting Data 1-Way-Out?



winston19842005 wrote:


On 5/27/08 4:42 AM, in article Jt-dnczPP_HgVKbVnZ2dnUVZ_ofinZ2d@comcast.com,
"Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote:


winston19842005 wrote:


On 5/23/08 10:25 AM, in article 4lkd345o0oqjv052od187ggik2nl5anos0@4ax.com,
"Steve ][" <sc-ii@hotmail.com> wrote:



I think I have found what I'm looking for. Vernier has a legacy
product called a "Serial Box" that connects to a serial port and can
take different kinds of (Vernier?) sensors, do the A->D work, and then
pump it to the serial port. I have not yet seen how to to serial port
programming via the ToolBox, but that's for another newsgroup post, I
think this went pretty OT as it is.

Thanks all!



Maybe - perhaps. But it was a fun read!

I always wanted to get one of those X10 systems for my TI... and there were
some a->d cards available (early on)...

And they still show up on eBay from time to time.

But for making 8-bit measurements of *slowly changing* quantities,
it's often quite easy to interface sensors to the game port.

That makes taking a reading as easy as using the PDL() function,
and plotting and communication are very simple exercises.

Broderbund made products and Vector made a business out of interfacing
simple sensors to the game port--it's a shame that people don't seem to
appreciate its versatility and simplicity.

In my book, technical elegance = function / complexity.  You don't
get a high score by shooting for a complex solution to a simple
problem.  ;-)


That's terrific for Apple computers, but TI's have a digital joystick port.
So it would take some additional logic of some kind anyway...

Of course, this was back in the day before I owned an Apple. I have a couple
of //e's and a //c.

I see.  I think you'll find the Apple //e much easier to interface
with sensors and other devices.  The IIc is less versatile because
it does not provide digital outputs on its joystick/mouse port.

Of course, almost all computers support serial port(s), but interfacing
a sensor or device to a serial port means using an external computer,
usually a microcontroller.

-michael

AppleCrate: An Apple II "blade server"!
Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."