Radio Shack 22-812 Multimeter data logging

Dimitri Stephan

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jul 18, 2009
Messages
147
Hello people,

I just purchased a radio shack DMM with a pc interface for 50 bucks and I need some help finding a software other than the one that came with the meter to log and save data, since the one included is very limited in terms of functionality. I have found many articles on the web regarding this specific DMM, but most of the solutions involve using some kind of programming language that I know nothing about. I tried following the instructions step by step with no results at all. Could someone please lead me in the right direction?

Thanks!
 

Light Sabre

Enlightened
Joined
Sep 8, 2008
Messages
404
Location
Tucson, Arizona
I have several of these meters. I watched the output of the meter using MS's telecom program. The meter's output has part of the output "bitmapped" and is not readable. The other part is pure ASCII and can be read on the screen. The programming is needed to decode the "bitmapped" part of the data stream. I agree that RS's MeterView program has a lot to be desired. I would think that someone has already written a much nicer program to work with the meter, you just need to find it on the internet. The meter outputs 3 samples/sec, but MeterView only saves one of them. A better program would probably get you all 3 samples instead of 1.
 

intdsys

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Feb 7, 2014
Messages
2
Hi,

This is kind of an old thread but if anyone is still interested, the RS232 output of the 22-812 can be decoded with a little work. There will be a number of decimal values with bit patterns that represent the segments that are active on the LCD display. If you hook the meter up to various signal sources (voltage, current, resistance, capacitance, etc), and write down the decimal values, then you can calculate the associated bit patterns and figure out which ones are associated with which segments. It is kind of fun actually - a bit like soduku but with a more useful outcome! For programming, I like the older Visual Basic editions. They are still out there and there are some good books that show you how to make simple programs. A meter reading program is just one step above the simple examples you can work through in the books.

Geoff
 
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