Connecting a computer to your Turbo35, and collecting realtime data... (and other stuff maybe...)

How do you do it? what do you do with it? got any spreadsheets or software you want to share?

So... for those who have managed to get the real time data to their computers... what settings do you need?

I've used hyperterm... and/or other terminal emulators to get the data that comes out when you use the 'print graph' command with the T35, but I've never even known you can get realtime data untill now... I still don't exactly know how... So I need some help with how I need to configure the serial port...

I forget exactly what settings I used to get the printed graph/data, but what ever I used, was kinda shakey... Probably 50% of the time or more, my data would hang part way though. I found I frequently would have to re-set the terminal to get things going again, etc... It seems what ever I was doing wasn't quite right. One thing is for sure... I never noticed any data streaming out on to my terminal during the charge/discharge cycle... So what was/am I doing wrong?

I have a shortcut that runs Hyperterminal. My settings for that session are:

Connect to: com2
BPS: 9600
Parity: None
Stop Bits: 1
Flow Control: None

Emulation: autodetect
Pretty much all deafults for ASCII setup.

I use com2 for this because I have a modem connected to com1. There is nothing magic about com2.

When I want to capture data, I connect the Turbo35 to the computer using a standard serial cable. On page 1 of 2 in the "Data Mode" Turbo35 panel, I change the Comm setting to REAL TIME. I start Hyperterminal with the shortcut that uses my saved settings for this task and then from the Hyperterminal menu do Transfer->Capture text... and specify the name of the file I want to save the data in. Once that is done I start the cycle, or charge, or discharge on the Turbo35. Every second, a line appears in Hyperterminal with the voltage, the amperage, and elapsed time (in seconds). Whe the cycle is over, I go to Hyperterminal menu and to Transfer->Capture Text...->Stop.

The data is sent by the Turbo35 in CSV format. I can import it directly into Excel and do graphs.

The Hyperterminal settings above are just what was described with the instruction sheet that came with my Turbo35. I didn't do anything special (except set up the shortcut that starts Hyperterminal with the right settings.)

If you want, I can probably email you my Hyperterminal session settings file. The only thing you would likely need to change is the Com port number

I just posted my script on my website. It still only works under linux, so if there are any linux weenies out there, they can use it. I will work at getting it ported to windows. It shouldn't be hard, I just have to use a different windowing system.

Using the script in serial mode you will get a realtime graph of the data the T35 is pumping out. It will also save it to a file you specify on the command line. That way you can plot it later. You can also use this script to plot the data files output, and also replay a data collection in realtime(not really sure why you would want to do that though, it was really just for testing). Anyway, I hope it is useful to at least someone out there.

http://home.comcast.net/~cwinters15 (http://home/comcast.net/%7Ecwinters15)
Just click on RC Software, then T35 Serial Plotter

See below posts for the correct website. this one just won't take for some reason.
Later,
Chuck

cwinters - link is broken

that's wierd. It just won't take as a link. Just prepend http:// to the following:
home.comcast.net/~cwinters15

Try this:
http://home.comcast.net/~cwinters15 (http://home.comcast.net/%7Ecwinters15)
[/url][url="http://home.comcast.net"]
(http://www.comcast.net)

this one works!

M.P.

excellent.

Just in case anyone cares, i did a little port of the ce_graph script to windows. Of course this is not production code, it is just meant to help where it can. email me any questions.

Chuck
http://home.comcast.net/~cwinters15 click on RC Software

Just updated the ce_graph script. I squashed some bugs. Apparently the timers weren't working correctly. I should have that fixed. I also added the ability to open multiple saved files and view their graphs at the same time. There are still some oddities, but it should work sufficiently well for people to get an idea what their packs look like. Send me any comments/bug reports/suggestions/etc.

Thanks,
Chuck
http://home.comcast.net/~cwinters15 Click on RC Software