Serial port pulse signal

Hi,

I'm quite new to this forum, but I've been on stackoverflow for quite a while.

I'll have to apologise in advance, all of my experience in programming is in numerical data analysis, and that is not the focus of my issue.

To put things into context - I've got a scientific instrument that attaches to a PC and captures data at 4Hz. I want to integrate this data capture with a GPS device. The GPS device can accept pulses through an RS232 port in order to initiate a new data capture. My idea was to send a pulse via the PC's RS232 to the GPS's RS232 every time a new file is dropped into the working directory.

Could anybody help / lead me in the right direction?

Thanks in advance!

Do you have the RS232 protocol spec for that GPS device?

gg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jordanawhite

Hi,

I'm quite new to this forum, but I've been on stackoverflow for quite a while.

I'll have to apologise in advance, all of my experience in programming is in numerical data analysis, and that is not the focus of my issue.

To put things into context - I've got a scientific instrument that attaches to a PC and captures data at 4Hz. I want to integrate this data capture with a GPS device. The GPS device can accept pulses through an RS232 port in order to initiate a new data capture. My idea was to send a pulse via the PC's RS232 to the GPS's RS232 every time a new file is dropped into the working directory.

Could anybody help / lead me in the right direction?

Thanks in advance!

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1. Get the specification as already suggested.
2. Check if the device comes with some API/utility library/whatever to ease communication with external software.
3. Depending on above and your additional requirements pick the programming language and other tools (e.g., a 3rd party library for RS-232 communiation).

Remember that the more specific you are, the more specific answers you will get.