Python how-to: AndroiDAQ and Serial Communications

One thing that sets the AndroiDAQ module from other data acquisition products on the market is its use of the industry standard FTDI UART to USB conversion integrated circuit for USB serial communications. This allows the designer to use one easy to use USB driver for programming with the AndroiDAQ module in the various popular programming languages and on various operating system platforms, which at times can be a very taunting task with other commercially available data acquisition products. This also makes it easy to develop your application for the AndroiDAQ module in not only Android, Java, and LabVIEW, but for other popular programming languages like Python, which can also be used on multiple platforms. This article is going to present to you how to set up Python for serial communication, via the USB port, so that you can add Python to your list of tools for controlling and reading the AndroiDAQ module.

A New Paradigm for Data Acquisition

Like many design engineers and makers versed in open source, I wanted a development board that would allow me to eliminate the compromises in my designs due to manufacturer propriety hardware and software. I was never really happy with the number of channel offerings, firmware limitations, physical size, and costs per channel of commercially available data acquisition products currently on the market today. I was also not satisfied with other simplistic project platforms like the Ardruino and IOIO for use on projects like hexapods, quadcopters and other complex robotic systems that need parallel processes, vice linear processes. There had to be a better way and a better development board that could also be open source. So in 2013, I developed an entirely new data acquisition module and prototyping paradigm that I call AndroiDAQ.

LabVIEW How-to, with the AndroiDAQ Data Acquisition Module

The AndroiDAQ module was designed as an easy to use and complete data acquisition module for multiple platforms. Not only can it be used with the Android operating system, but it can also be easily used with National Instrument’s LabVIEW, as well as JAVA, Python, and other programming languages. To demonstrate this, Controlled Capture Systems offers a complete data acquisition suite for AndroiDAQ and LabVIEW called AndroiDAQ DEMO for LabVIEW. The term DEMO is short for Dream, Engineer, Make, and Operate. The open source nature of DEMO allows users of LabVIEW to open and view the LabVIEW source wiring diagrams to understand the functions of how to control the AndroiDAQ module under USB, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth to measure the 8-channels of its analog to digital converter (ADC), or control, as inputs or outputs, the 16-channels of digital IO. The wiring diagrams also show you how to read and/or clear or set the built-in AndroiDAQ micro-SD card and AndroiDAQ’s real-time clock. This article is going to explain several of the sub-VIs (or sub-virtual instruments, which are what LabVIEW methods or functions are called) of the DEMO for LabVIEW application, so that you can apply these sub-VIs to your own custom application with the AndroiDAQ module.

Electronic Hardware Development in the Now.

"The best way to predict the future is to invent it." -Alan Kay

Everyday new electronic hardware and devices are announced and made available on the market. There is a plethora of electronic devices available that not only vary in their capabilities and functions but also in their pricing and product age. Careful selection of devices must be made to avoid end-of-life parts. If perchance an inexperienced designer selects one of these parts for product development and when the part is discontinued, the product's viability and cost will be greatly affected due to the necessity of having to redesign the product. With over 25-years experience in Electronic Design I can help you in avoiding these costly mistakes.