desktop PC interfacing for students

[Miaa]

Hello there,

I am interested in finding out a really basic tutorial/note which will allow me to work with the basic communication protocols like SPI , RS 232, etherner, USB, etc. I am looking for tutorial with BOTH HARDWARE interfacing  and software routines.

Multiple websites will be ok for me.

I have searched wikipedia and lot of power point presentations but was not successful in landing up with a COMPLETE tutorial which explains the hardware interfacing connections and software.

If you guys can suggest an evaluation kit where i can pracice the above interfacing and software routine..... by all means do let me know.

Looking forward to your reply.

[ShotSimon]

Miaa,

Break your request down into peices and you may have more luck getting the response you are looking for.  SS

[Graziano]

Hi miaa,
  I'll try to help you my way : SPI and RS232 ARE NOT PROTOCOLS! They are interfaces (Serial Peripheral Interface, SPI, and RS232 defines mainly physical layer of communication), so you have to check for protocols that are implemented for these interfaces (for example, MODBUS can be implemented on serial interface, or over TCP/IP).

   Also Ethernet is not a communication protocol, it is just the physical layer, for the actual communication protocol, search for TCP/IP or UDP. Anyway, since their complexity, you'll find a very concise reference on these protocols.

   Anyway, to help you a little bit, search on NI examples for serial communications, there're simple examples, that allows for transmitting bytes over a serial (e.g. RS232) connection, in quite a simple way, butthis is not actually a protocol!

   Hope this can help explain a little bit more..... have a nice day!

graziano

[Miaa]

thanks a lot for helping this new person to learn more.... I was thinking of some kit or some external hardware circuit which we can buy for REALLY CHEAP and test the National Instruments VI 's for RS232 or ethernet interface.

Have you tried  FTDI chip for desktop PC interfacing in SPI and RS-232 using National Instrument VIs. Is there any ( hardware kit/ sample projects) which one can purchase and use National Instruments VIs for the interface to learn

[ShotSimon]

Technically you can do everything you are talking about for free provided you have the internet tool kit installed (Full Development Suite) and depending on what level of detail you plan on going into.

If you want to play with RS232 you can start with just taking the existing Labview example, "Basic Serial Write and Read.vi" under Labview Help -> Find Examples.  You can find a serial cable and connect it to your Comm port.  On the other end of the Comm port you can insert a small wire to short pin 2 to pin 3 (TX to RX).  You will then be able to send and recieve data on the same vi.  I would look at wikipedia to learn more:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RS-232

If you have the internet tool kit install then you can do all kinds of stuff with just a regular internet connection.  For example any place where you can Telnet you could test using the "Telnet Line Client.vi" provided by Labview.  Again I would start by consulting wikipedia if you have questions:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telnet

If you are trying to do everything down to the hardware level then this is a little more involved.  Again break your post into smaller pieces and repost on the Labview forum and you will have better luck getting detailed responses.

You should not have to spend much money to play around.  You can build a lot of this stuff yourself or you can purchase very cheep if you shop around.  For example you can implement SPI using a parallel port but you need to know what your target SPI interface will be.  Regards, SS 

[Miaa]

where can we install the internet tool kit installed (Full Development Suite) ? By the way thanks for the  wikipedia links they were very helpful.

[ShotSimon]

If you have the NI Developers Suite (Labview 8.5) look for the disk labeled Toolkit Software.  You can uncheck everything else and just install the Labview Internet Toolkit.  Regards, SS

[Miaa]

i just want to confirm if the online search i performed for software is correct http://digital.ni.com/demo.nsf/websearch/14f9ce475127ade786256ac60070926c?opendocument

[Graziano]

Hi!
   That's the demo download page.  Developer Suite is a bundle which contains more software than just LabView, and it costs a little more.

   Here's the main page.

graziano