help me programers!!!!

[Le Pirate]

so, right off....I don't know how to code, or write software, etc...


but, here is what is going on.

I'm trying to get my ion meter (it's a denver instruments ISE meter model 250...not really sure that matters to anyone  ) to output to my laptop in the lab, through a serial cable. The meter has a serial output, and will send to it when you press the enter/print button. as for the computer end, I've found some software (free/open source) that some lab geeks wrote at Cornell that kind of does what I want, except it wasn't made to receive from 2 channels at the same time...just one. Which means when the data shows up in my excel file it has everything jummbled up into one reading instead of 2.

Like I said, I've never written a piece of software in my life, but I think this is something that I might be able to change. I don't mind spending a little time learning something new to do it. If i can get this to work it will make my life a whole lot easier. There is software that Denver Instruments makes to capture to a computer but it's a couple grand, and my boss won't allocate for it (he really doesn't give a damn what I do in the lab, as long as it gets done, and I don't ask him for too much money (i,e. none)). Anyways, I have to source code for the software I downloaded, and all the files in it have an extention .vi or .ctl....so I need to know where to start.

I've been playing with Xcode on my mac at home, trying to figure out how writing program works a little. At work, though, all I have is this Dell I'm typing on right now. I don't know what the software was written in though...I mean is it C++, or basic, or what...I have no clue as to how to tell, and I don't know what kind of compiler I need or anything.



I think I'm probably over my head on this 


well....actually I'm sure I am 

[darylbowden]

This isn't something you're just going to "teach yourself."  If you don't know even the basics of programming, this isn't going to end well.  Do yourself a favor and tell your boss you need the money.  Either that or *maybe* you could write a regex rule to reorder your excel file...

[cmorgan47]

alternatively, perhaps you could get a smaller amount of funding to get someone to modify your open source solution.... happens all the time

[Drunken Monkey]

Hell, PM me a sample of the output you're seeing now and point me at the open source project and I'll see what I can do.

I'm overdue on the play it forward thread anyway

(me likey writing code)

[tallduc]

are you trying to get it into excel or some other graphical software ( labview or scilab?).  Have not coded in a while but happy to try. 

[Le Pirate]

are you trying to get it into excel or some other graphical software ( labview or scilab?).  Have not coded in a while but happy to try. 

i'm just trying to get it into excel...which it's doing now, but comes out completely unorganized. It comes out as a tab delimited text file (that opens into excel), but due to the fact that i'm running two channels at once, the formating comes out all goofy and unsortable.

i'm using a program called accumet logger, that was written by some geeks at Cornell, I guess. They put it up for free on their website:

http://ceeserver.cee.cornell.edu/mw24/Software/Default.htm

It's down near the bottom. It's close to the solution I need, but not quite usable.

alternatively, perhaps you could get a smaller amount of funding to get someone to modify your open source solution.... happens all the time

the problem is my boss is very old school, and doesn't understand what we do in the lab, or even why it's necessary. If it were up to him, I wouldn't have a job here (or anyone who works the labs for the dept.). It's pulling teeth just to buy new chemicals when things expire or run out, much less new equipment (I usually have to procure funds from higher up, which is terribly painful).

so anyways, there is no hope for getting any type of money for this, but it would save me around 2-3 hours a week worth of work...thus I'm willing to learn how to code if necessary  ....you know, to fill up that time I'm trying to save