PLX-DAQ-v2.11.zip_Datalogging_PLX-DAQ2.2_excel data logger_plx-d

Beginners Guide to PLX DAQ v2 by Net^Devil

(Revision 1)

Table of content

1. About the program and its use........................................................................................................1

2. How to use.......................................................................................................................................2

3. The Excel UI part..............................................................................................................................2

4. The Arduino part - overview............................................................................................................4

11. Full blown demo ..........................................................................................................................9

1. About the program and its use

PLX DAQ v2 is a program used to establish an easy communication between Microsoft Excel

on a Windows Computer and any device that supports serial port protocol. It was

intentionally written to allow communication between Arduino and Excel.

You can, for example, measure temperature data with your Arduino, send the results to Excel

every 10 seconds, printed the data on a sheet and draw a graph with all information. All

communication will be done by Serial.println commands just like the commands you

use to send from Arduino to monitor in your Arduino IDE Serial Monitor.

The output of

The program uses two parts to work: the special Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet with the PLX

DAQ v2 UI and commands plus any Arduino device that sends special commands for

communication. The latest Excel Spreadsheet can be downloaded on the Arduino forum

(Link: http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=437398.msg3013761#msg3013761 ; please

always download the latest version!), the Arduino code can be written by everyone

themselves with below guideline.

3. The Excel UI part

After opening the Excel Spreadsheet please allow running the macro (yellow warning

message at the top). Afterwards you can see the PLX DAQ v2 UI. In case not please click the

button “Open PLX DAQ UI” on the “Simple Data” sheet.

e. Reset Timer: will set the Timer to 0. The Timer can be used to measure how long

Excel is already logging

f. Clear Columns: will delete all logged data from the sheet. Won’t clear the labels of

the columns

g. Display/Hide direct debug: will show or hide the text field on the right. The Direct

Debug Window can be used to manually monitor commands received by PLX DAQ v2

in Excel

h. Sheet name to post to: this will list all sheets in the Excel workbook. Whatever sheet

you select in the dropdown the logged data will be posted to it. This sheet will be

referred to as the “ActiveSheet” throughout this document.

command from Excel to Arduino will be to restart, thus your code starts from the

beginning as well. This way you can have a fresh session. If you want to connect to

your Arduino without restarting it just untick the box

k. Custom Checkbox 1/2/3: these can be used to control your Arduino during run in any

way you want. There are commands to label the Checkboxes by your Arduino and to

query the state of the boxes. You could for example label one box “Measure

humidity as well?” and check on demand in Excel if you want your Arduino to

measure humidity with a second sensor next to only measure e.g., temperature.

There are special commands Arduino can use to query the status of the checkboxes.

More detail on these can be found below.

direct debug window. This is handy for debugging.

p. =>: will increase the size of the direct debug window to a certain maximum

q. <=: will decrease the size of the direct debug window to a certain minimum

r. Clear: will clear all information in the direct debug window

4. The Arduino part - overview

For PLX DAQ v2 to work correctly your Arduino needs to send specially formatted commands.

All commands need to be send from Arduino to the PC using the Serial.println

commands. These commands can include parameters, variables and functions to send to as

well. These parameters need to be separated by commas. This can be done like this:

Serial.println( (String) "DATA,DATE,TIME," + millis() );

c. Excel workbook commands:

Commands here are used to control the logging process or even saving workbooks in

window

d. Miscellaneous commands:

Everything that is not really crucial or does not have any benefit (anymore)

5. The Arduino part - Basic setup and communication

a. CLEARSHEET:

This command clears all data the ActiveSheet (including labels!). It should be the first

command on every sketch.

Syntax: Serial.println(“CLEARSHEET”);