Maurizio from Electronics Open Source at dev.emcelettronica.com discuss how we can do serial communication in Excel environment. He writes: The great advantage of this method, which uses API functions to call the serial port directly, is that you do not really need to install anything on your PC, apart from the Excel itself (which, let’s.

» » » Using ActiveXperts Serial Port Component with VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) ActiveXperts Serial Port Component is a software development kit (SDK) that enables the user to communicate to a device over a serial interface. Such a device can be: a weight indicator, a modem, a scanner, or any other device that is equiped with a serial port. It can even be another PC, connected via a NULL modem cable. ActiveXperts Serial Port Component features the following: • Direct COM port support (like 'COM1') • TAPI (Windows Telephony Device) support (like 'Standard 56000 bps Modem'); • Support for RS-232/RS422/RS485, up to 256 simultaneous ports; • Support for all types of Hayes compatible modems; • Support for serial cable as well as USB cable or Bluetooth connections; • Support for Virtual COM ports (i.e.

COM ports redirected through the network); • Hardware flow control (RTS/CTS, DTR/DSR) and software flowcontrol (XON/XOFF) support; • Configurable baudrate/parity/stopbits, full buffered data transfer, text/binary data transfer. Step 1: Download and install the ActiveXperts Serial Port Component Download the ActiveXperts Serial Port Component from the and start the installation. The installation guides you through the installation process. Step 2: Create a new Excel document Create the form displayed in the image below. To create the buttons, textarea's and drop down menu's, click 'View', 'Toolbars', 'Control toolbox'.

(Click on the picture to enlarge) Step 3: Fill in the dropdown-menu's Wen you're finished setting up the form, you need to fill in the dropdown menu's. You need to load the content of your submenu when you open your workbook.You can do this using a visual basic code. To edit your visual basic code you need to be in design mode. To get in design mode, click the button 'Design mode' on the control toolbox. You can edit the visual basic code behind your form in Excel by clicking the button 'View code' below 'Design mode' on the control toolbox. Open 'ThisWorkbook'. (Click on the picture to enlarge) Type the following code in private sub workbook_open(): Make sure you're directing to the right sheet (worksheets('sheet1')).

Maurizio from Electronics Open Source at dev.emcelettronica.com discuss how we can do serial communication in Excel environment. He writes: The great advantage of this method, which uses API functions to call the serial port directly, is that you do not really need to install anything on your PC, apart from the Excel itself (which, let’s admit it, already exists on most PCs). Other methods always require the installation of an ActiveX, or at least the registration of an “.ocx” file, like for instance the MSComm control. In order to get access to the VBA script editor, you first need to make the corresponding buttons available on the Excel toolbars (they are not there by default).

These buttons will enable you to launch the editor in which you will be able to write the Visual Basic Code and will also allow you to directly create windows-style controls like textboxes, push buttons, labels, radio buttons, checkboxes etc. In order to make these available on the main toolbar, you need to activate the Control Toolbox button, from the small toolbar activated at the previous step. As a goal for this article, I would intend to demonstrate how you open the serial port, how you write a few bytes, how you read some bytes, and then how you close the serial port.