ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Cheap Event Recorder?

I would like to use a PC to record an event like the opening/closing of a relay contact. A simple date/time stamp from the PC would be plenty accurate for my needs.

Is there a cheap or easy to build interface that can perform this task? What software? (excel, maybe?)

thanks,
GJ

You can use the game port, or the LPT port.
For software, you can use Qbasic, or some Windows interpreted or compiled language that
can directly read I/O, to write program that will log activitiies to a file.

About two years ago I bought a multimeter with amprobe attachment from Radio Shack which came with a cable to connect to my computer. They even gave basic programming examples as to how the programming may go.

classicsat,

Thanks for the idea, that sounds a workable solution. I have done some programing in GWbasic and HPbasic, (long ago). So I've got that going for me.

Anyone else out there who has tried something similar or links to any applicable pages?

Have a great weekend guys,
GJ

search for "davis instruments" on the net. They have absolutely everything you could think of in this area and surely have exactly what you're looking for.