Virtual port translation with Win 95/98?

[meteor]

I'd like to be able to use the nice graphing software that is included with the Orbit Microlader with other serial-output based charger/dischargers I have.

Many different charge/discharge systems offer a 1Hz data stream on their serial ports, but they all have unique ways to encode (usually one line of ASCII text per second) what is essentially the same data. (time, voltage, current, and perhaps "mode")


Assuming one can write the application, is it possible to read data from COM1 and apply a bit of reformatting to it, and then send it to a virtual COM2 or COM3 for the graphing program to use?

The decoding and re-encoding would introduce a slight time lag, but for a charger, that's pretty much irrelevant!


Ideas?



Thanks.

[AndyKunz]

That would be a great way to do it. What graphing program are you using?

Why not just export the data in CSV format so you can make Open Office or Excel graphs?

Andy

[meteor]

I have two old 486 laptops mounted on the wall above the charger/DMM's to give me a constant visual (graph) indication of the charge/discharge progress.

I can see from 6 feet away how the charge is going! (CC/CV etc...)

Exporting to Excel is not practical in this case. :rolleyes:


As you can guess, 486 laptops are pretty much worthless (maybe $5.00?), but for this application, they are very useful!



Thanks.


That would be a great way to do it. What graphing program are you using?

Why not just export the data in CSV format so you can make Open Office or Excel graphs?

Andy