Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!samsung!munnari.oz.au!uhccux!donald.uhcc.hawaii.edu
From: baron@donald.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Baron Fujimoto)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: How do I get sensor data into a pc?
Message-ID: <8546@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu>
Date: 9 Jul 90 22:03:00 GMT
Sender: news@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu
Organization: Foo Bar and Grill
Lines: 28

I am hoping some kind and knowledgeable person out there in net.land
can help me out (I am slightly desperate, and becoming increasingly so): 

I would like to be able to us a PC to detect and and store some sensor
data for further analysis.  Actually  what I currently want to do is to
be able to detect and distinguish between the opening and closing of 
several magnetically activated reed switches so that I can measure and
store elapsed time between switch activation to somewhere between .001
and .01 second accuracy.  While I have a vague idea of what I would like
to do (get switch opening/closing info into the PC -- probably via the
parallel port --  and use software to determine which switch has been 
activated and some built in timer function to  determine elasped time),
I am rather clueless as to the actual implementation.

How does one go about getting such information such as a switch's activation
onto the parallel port?  What sort of harware/interface is required?  Once
on the parallel port, how do I get this data into my program?  Any hardware/
software advice or examples would be tremendously helpful and appreciated!

E-mail would be the preferred method of response since I have difficulty
keeping current with newsgroups, but I promise to summarize responses if
people are interested.


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