--- In 6..., Richard wrote:
> one simple scheme is for
> the HCS12 to send the data out to the serial port, and your PC
program read
> the serial port and once gotten the data, continue
along.
I strongly agree - serial is your best bet. If you're using VS 2005,
or the free Express version, it comes with a SerialPort class in the
System.IO.Ports namespace. It works great!
You can use GDI+ to make a nice barchart, or linechart, etc, and have
it update in realtime. CodeProject has source code for this kind of
thing (less the serial port support).
Or, if you're not yet super good with C# you can just grab the data
from the serial port and write it to an XML file to be imported into
Excel.
You'd only use ICC12 to help you write the code that runs on the
embedded device. The ICC12 IDE itself would not attach to VS (it
possibly can in some ways but it wouldn't serve your purpose).
I can give you some advice regarding school projects: Don't bite off
more than you are ready for. I'd start with something extremely simple
to prove the basic concepts and then add functionality a little at a
time. Do you work in small increments and test often. Also, save
various versions of your code. I save 2 or 3 times a day - I make a
zip of my project folders with the date in the filename:
proj5-1-06a.zip, for example. Then I'll add a b and c suffix for new
zips I make later on the same day. At any given time I keep at least 2
full weeks worth of these incremental backups. This is important
because sometimes I change my mind and I want to revert to an earlier
code base, and continue in a different direction.
If you want to burn your program to flash but you can't afford a BDM
you might want to look at the 9s12C32 devices that have the serial
monitor - you can program the flash easily over a serial port.
Good luck!
Eric