Serial Control PC Program

1968neil

1968neil

Senior Member
Can anyone recommend a simple PC program to send serial commands to picaxe chip and for the picaxe to send back text to the PC ?
Ideally something that can be tailored to the job in hand ?
I need to control several relays from a remote PC and the picaxe is to send status info back as text.
I have it all working via the terminal window i just want to make something that's standalone and upgradeable as the project grows
Many Thanks
Neil
 
Last edited:
What is the 'job in hand' ?.

Do you want to build some kind of GUI to control the relays, or do you mean to write a programme that drives the relays automatically ?.

Either way, I would suggest either Roboremo or B4A, I've used both and would recommend them. However, they are both for Android on phones and tablets. However B4A has a similar version called B4J that runs on PC. I've never tried it, but would expect it to have the same features as B4A.

There are some freeware HMI / SCADA for PCs, but I've never used any. The main problem is how they 'talk' to the hardware, which they expect to be a PLC, such as Siemens or Allen Bradley, and they have the protocol drivers for these. However, there is a simple protocol called Modbus which most of these can use. The downside is you would need to write a Modbus handler in your Picaxe.

Also, have a look at https://picaxeforum.co.uk/threads/pinout-explanation.33193/#post-347253
Here the OP used ChatGPT to generate Python code to make a GUI that controls a model railway with Picaxe over serial.

Finally, there's Excel !.

In the past I've programmed some quite interesting GUIs using just Excel. Using Excel macros to read/write serial using the mscomm32.ocx, combined with the normal functions in Excel, let me do just about anything !.

I'm not sure if mscomm is in modern Excel, but I'm sure there must be some equivalent.

Cheers,

Buzby
 
If you have Excel and you're familiar with it, it's a good option because of all the processing "horsepower" available to do things with the received data.
 
Buzby said:
What is the 'job in hand' ?.

Do you want to build some kind of GUI to control the relays, or do you mean to write a programme that drives the relays automatically ?.

Either way, I would suggest either Roboremo or B4A, I've used both and would recommend them. However, they are both for Android on phones and tablets. However B4A has a similar version called B4J that runs on PC. I've never tried it, but would expect it to have the same features as B4A.

There are some freeware HMI / SCADA for PCs, but I've never used any. The main problem is how they 'talk' to the hardware, which they expect to be a PLC, such as Siemens or Allen Bradley, and they have the protocol drivers for these. However, there is a simple protocol called Modbus which most of these can use. The downside is you would need to write a Modbus handler in your Picaxe.

Also, have a look at https://picaxeforum.co.uk/threads/pinout-explanation.33193/#post-347253
Here the OP used ChatGPT to generate Python code to make a GUI that controls a model railway with Picaxe over serial.

Finally, there's Excel !.

In the past I've programmed some quite interesting GUIs using just Excel. Using Excel macros to read/write serial using the mscomm32.ocx, combined with the normal functions in Excel, let me do just about anything !.

I'm not sure if mscomm is in modern Excel, but I'm sure there must be some equivalent.

Cheers,

Buzby
Click to expand...

I have a Module that has a picaxe.
The module essentially controls a bank of relays.

The output of the program to my serial monitor basically sends serial text as each relay is switched on and off and also sends a couple of temperature sensor readings to the serial monitor.
In the process i have a Password that's required (Serin) for the unit to function that simply requires the user to type in a password into the serial monitor and click send the program then moves on to the next point.
Its very basic but id like to make it look a little more user friendly as the end user will have no experience using the serial monitor.
Has anyone a basic example in excel they can share to give me a starting point perhaps ?

I have always used LCD screens or serial monitor and have little hardcore programming experience like you guy's
I've never used Python
Picaxe has always been my go to :)

Cheers
Neil
 
papaof2 said:
If you have Excel and you're familiar with it, it's a good option because of all the processing "horsepower" available to do things with the received data.
Click to expand...
I too have used Excel to create a GUI for communicating with a PICAXE, so it can be done! If you search for the following VBA Class file using the following search string, it should set you on the right track: "clrs232" excel vba

This was for a contemporary artist colleague who created a wineglass music "machine" in a city laneway. The PICAXE 28X2 received data packets from Excel and stored the music to I2C EEPROM chips. The PICAXE would then play these tunes on the winglasses for 5 or 6 minutes every half hour during daylight and evening hours. The wineglasses were low quality ones, chosen from hundreds in a variety of sizes, because they offered the most variation in pitch. We did the best we could to get a reasonaby chromatic scale covering nearly 3 octaves. Power was supplied from a small solar panel mounted on the roof of the building and stored in a 12v burglar-alarm sized battery.
researchlm.wordpress.com

contemporary artists – researchlm

Posts about contemporary artists written by Louisa Magrics
researchlm.wordpress.com researchlm.wordpress.com
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top