Hacking STEMJen Fox
Published © MIT

Stream Data from Arduino into Excel

Stream and analyze live data from your Arduino microcontroller into Excel with the Data Streamer add-in!

BeginnerProtip1 hour225,595
Stream Data from Arduino into Excel

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Arduino UNO
Arduino UNO
×1
USB-A to B Cable
USB-A to B Cable
×1
Sensor (of your choice!)
×1

Software apps and online services

Microsoft Data Streamer
Microsoft Data Streamer
Arduino IDE
Arduino IDE
Microsoft Excel

Story

Read more

Schematics

Arduino Sensor Schematic

Generic schematic for an analog input device.

Code

Arduino Analog Sensor Sample Code

Arduino
Use this code to read an analog sensor from Arduino analog pin 0 and print to the serial port (Data Streamer). This sample code can be modified for more and different types of sensors as well as to get data from Excel and send commands to the Arduino microcontroller.
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Sample Sensor Code for use with Data Streamer Excel add-in
// more info available from Microsoft Education Workshop at 
// http://aka.ms/hackingSTEM 
// 
// This project uses an Arduino UNO microcontroller board. More information can
// be found by visiting the Arduino website: 
// https://www.arduino.cc/en/main/arduinoBoardUno 
//  
// This code reads in a generic analog sensor on Arduino pin 0 and prints 
// it to serial.
// 
// Comments, contributions, suggestions, bug reports, and feature requests 
// are welcome! For source code and bug reports see: 
// http://github.com/[TODO github path to Hacking STEM] 
// 
// Copyright 2019, Jen Fox Microsoft EDU Workshop - HackingSTEM 
// 
// Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
// of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
// in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to
// use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies
// of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do
// so, subject to the following conditions:
//
// The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
// copies or substantial portions of the Software.
//
// THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR 
// IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
// FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
// AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER 
// LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
// OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE 
// SOFTWARE. 
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

// Program variables ----------------------------------------------------------
int exampleVariable = 0;
int sensorPin = A0;

// Serial data variables ------------------------------------------------------
//Incoming Serial Data Array
const byte kNumberOfChannelsFromExcel = 6; 

// Comma delimiter to separate consecutive data if using more than 1 sensor
const char kDelimiter = ',';    
// Interval between serial writes
const int kSerialInterval = 50;   
// Timestamp to track serial interval
unsigned long serialPreviousTime; 

char* arr[kNumberOfChannelsFromExcel];

// SETUP ----------------------------------------------------------------------
void setup() {
  // Initialize Serial Communication
  Serial.begin(9600);  
}

// START OF MAIN LOOP --------------------------------------------------------- 
void loop()
{
  // Gather and process sensor data
  processSensors();

  // Read Excel variables from serial port (Data Streamer)
  processIncomingSerial();

  // Process and send data to Excel via serial port (Data Streamer)
  processOutgoingSerial();

// Compares STR1 to STR2 returns 0 if true.
//   if ( strcmp ("Apple", arr[0]) == 0){ 
//       Serial.println("working");
//   }
}

// SENSOR INPUT CODE-----------------------------------------------------------
void processSensors() 
{
  // Read sensor pin and store to a variable
  exampleVariable = analogRead( sensorPin );
  
  // Add any additional raw data analysis below (e.g. unit conversions)
  
}

// Add any specialized methods and processing code below


// OUTGOING SERIAL DATA PROCESSING CODE----------------------------------------
void sendDataToSerial()
{
  // Send data out separated by a comma (kDelimiter)
  // Repeat next 2 lines of code for each variable sent:

  Serial.print(exampleVariable);
  Serial.print(kDelimiter);
  
  Serial.println(); // Add final line ending character only once
}

//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
// DO NOT EDIT ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE
//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

// OUTGOING SERIAL DATA PROCESSING CODE----------------------------------------
void processOutgoingSerial()
{
   // Enter into this only when serial interval has elapsed
  if((millis() - serialPreviousTime) > kSerialInterval) 
  {
    // Reset serial interval timestamp
    serialPreviousTime = millis(); 
    sendDataToSerial(); 
  }
}

// INCOMING SERIAL DATA PROCESSING CODE----------------------------------------
void processIncomingSerial()
{
  if(Serial.available()){
    parseData(GetSerialData());
  }
}

// Gathers bytes from serial port to build inputString
char* GetSerialData()
{
  static char inputString[64]; // Create a char array to store incoming data
  memset(inputString, 0, sizeof(inputString)); // Clear the memory from a pervious reading
  while (Serial.available()){
    Serial.readBytesUntil('\n', inputString, 64); //Read every byte in Serial buffer until line end or 64 bytes
  }
  return inputString;
}

// Seperate the data at each delimeter
void parseData(char data[])
{
    char *token = strtok(data, ","); // Find the first delimeter and return the token before it
    int index = 0; // Index to track storage in the array
    while (token != NULL){ // Char* strings terminate w/ a Null character. We'll keep running the command until we hit it
      arr[index] = token; // Assign the token to an array
      token = strtok(NULL, ","); // Conintue to the next delimeter
      index++; // incremenet index to store next value
    }
}

Credits

Hacking STEM

Hacking STEM

10 projects • 74 followers
Build affordable inquiry and project-based activities to visualize data across STEM curriculum.
Jen Fox

Jen Fox

34 projects • 139 followers
Dabbled in dark matter, settled into engineering w/ a blend of inventing and education! Sr.PM @ MicrosoftFounder/CEO of FoxBot Industries

Comments