On Tue, 5 Sep 2000 Bowerbird@... wrote : > from the evangelist... > > Hello, > Once upon a time we had some very simple, inexpensive software for Mac OS at > our school that would interface to any meter or device with Analog to > Digital via RS-232 Serial interface; 1200 baud or whatever. Somehow the > disks are nowhere to be found, and none of the machines still have them > onboard, though we still have the meters and cables. > > I can't seem to find anything for under a few to several hundred dollars > now, and nothing easy or inexpensive comes up with various keywords from the > Mac Products Guide (just the G-Lab for US$550 plus special hardware for > another US$130). > > Radio Shack sells a VOM (22-168) with Win/DOS-only software (one floppy) > and cable that does all we want to do; it displays, graphs, charts and > records input over time. It only costs US$130, and the meter looks like most > of it. > > *UPDATE* RS now sells essentially the same unit, only improved with more > features for just US$60 (22-805); but it still only comes with Win/DOS > software and cable. > > Can anyone recommend something similar for Mac? Something has to exist > besides the raw stuff we've found, and the super expensive LabView (and > like) stuff. We'd prefer to just buy the software, but if we had to get new > meters to go with it, money could be found. > > Again, the key features are: > > Graphical Display > AC/DC Volt > Ohm > DC Amperes > AC Amperes > Chart and Graph Over Time > RS-232 Serial (or ADB) drivers for MacOS > Print Options (not critical) > > USB devices abound, but do not meet our needs at this time (though > inexpensive USB solutions are welcome, if only for future reference). > > I am aware of Boxcar products, but they do not meet our needs without > purchasing lots of individual test units. VirtualPC is *NOT* an option; the > machines it needs to run on are small, old and incompatible with VPC. > > TIA > > Frederico > batrico@... In the past year I wrote a program to do just this for one of my clients - it collects and graphs data from both the Metex ME-21 (3.5 digit) and the Metex 4650 (4.5 digit) DMMs (I believe the Radio Shack DMM is a variant of the Metex line). The software, and the instructions for making the MAC adapter cord, are available gratis and are posted on the Concord Consortium web site - <http://Concord.Org/slic/smartprobe.html> for the general 'SmartProbe' project <http://Concord.Org/slic/smart-dmm.html> for the specific DMM project The file 'CCDmmReader version x.5' is the version that supports both of the instruments mentioned. A few comments on this program : * Although it was written to specifically support the ME-21 and the 4650, in principle it could be easily modified to support many other meters - I'm sure that Stephen Bannasch (the project director - see web site for more info) could be nudged to make the source code available. * It was originally written in FBII and was never updated to FB^3, so it doesn't use the communications toolbox. * The help screen text was never written, so it contains nonsense. I hope this helps, Walter =========================================== Walter Lenk Cambridge Ma 617-547-7781 ===========================================